Community Courtyard Potted Herb Garden

Lovely Danika Jones helped me to plant a gorgeous Community Courtyard Potted Herb Garden for all News Staff members to utilise! Here are some snaps of the journey.


Danika Jones and lovely Bunnings Staff member who helped us with composting advice.

Hello Greenie carrying potting mix to the car.

Danika Jones' amazing plant donations!

After planting the community courtyard herb garden Danika Jones shows Alexandra Gordon.

Eco office

Some snaps of some eco changes around the office.

Recycled Paper Notepads - for one more use before recycling!

Environmentally friendly dishwashing liquid in the kitchen.

Kitchen Compost.

Environmental spray cleaner.

REuse REcycle

The REuse your unwanted print-outs before recycling challenge is going well! Have a look at our collection trays (which are filling up!)! Thank you everyone!


Inside Out Magazine's Grace Lee getting involved in recycling unwanted print-outs. Thank you Grace~!

Inside Out's recycle paper collection area.

Inside Out Magazine's unwanted print-out area.


First Floor unwanted print-outs and CD recycle area.

Our CD and CD case recycle bin.

Replacing our dishwashing liquid with an eco-friendly alternative. For some more ('after') pics please stay posted.

Love Love

Hello Greenie.

Recycling Labels

Leah Twomey has found a company that will recycle our CD's and CD cases. So Aimee Marshall and I have started a collection bin in our Editorial area to start collecting unwanted discs and cases. Keep an eye out for these signs marking the CD bin and the PAPER RECYCLE bin.

Thank you everyone!

How To Grow Your Own Fresh Air

Click here to watch a great clip on how to grow your own fresh air.

The three best plants are:

1. Areca Palm


2. Mother-in-law's Tongue



3. Money Plant



Wouldn't it be great to get some for our office!

David's Coffee Mug

David Clark's One Degree of Difference Mug


Our Editor, David Clark, got involved in the 'Ban disposable cups and refill your mug challenge' today! In fact, David's coffee mug made it's way home from Cupcakes and Wheels cafe with a little encouragement message from the lovely cafe staff!

Thank you David!

Chippendale Urban Farming

Watch an inspiring local urban farming story in Chippendale here. Find out more here and here.

More team members join in the 'Ban the disposable coffee cup and refill your mug' challenge!

Leah Twomey, Conor Burke, Hello Greenie and Richard Waller.

Cupcakes and Wheels cafe

Leah and Conor were next to join in the 'Ban the disposable coffee cup and refill your mug' challenge. Thank you Leah and Conor! The environment loves you for it!

And don't forget you get a large coffee for the price of a small coffee when refilling your mug!

Let's all join in!

xxx

Liane Rossler Eco-Inspection

(Liane Rossler and David Clark - Note David's 'One Degree of Difference' Mug!)


Danika Jones, Liane Rossler, David Clark and Leah Twomey

Liane Rossler and Leah Twomey

On Friday we were lucky enough to have a lovely visit from Al Gore Spokesman Liane Rossler. After a team morning tea, Liane and I walked around the office area with (recycled) notepad in hand taking notes on where we could make eco changes for the better within our team. Liane will be emailing us a to-do list shortly! But in the time being Liane showed us how to set our computers to Energy Saving mode by allowing the screen to go to 'sleep' after 3 minutes of no activity. Lodge your call with IT Helpdesk (x 2323) today to get your computer set to Energy Saving Mode.

Thank you Liane!

Black Google

Our Art Department Intern Conor suggested we all switch to Black Google to save energy. An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. You can find out more information here, here and here.

Liane Rossler - Al Gore Climate Ambassador Eco-inspection

Today at 11am we have a special visit from Dinosaur Design's Liane who is an Al Gore Climate Ambassador. Liane will be inspecting our office offering us tips on how to make our team more eco-friendly.
Thank you lovely Liane! We are so lucky to have your help and guidance!


Here is an article about Liane spotted on news.com.au:

AS awareness of global warming grows, consumers are becoming eager to support businesses making an effort to be environmentally responsible.

Dinosaur Designs, the Sydney-based jewellery and homewares company, found that being good to the earth had also been good for business.

The company engages in a range of environmentally sustainable initiatives such as offsetting all its carbon emissions, using green electricity and recycling water.

Liane Rossler, one of the designers and co-founders of Dinosaur Designs, said there had been “the most incredible response” from customers to their environmental efforts.

It had also made the business a more attractive employer.

“We just interviewed for a position in the company and every single applicant said how impressed they were with our environmental initiatives and said they wanted to be part of our company because of that,” Ms Rossler said.


Easy being green

Since forming in 1985 Dinosaur Designs had always been sensitive to the environment, she said. They recycled paper and plastic for years and their premises were designed to encourage natural airflow and remove the need for air conditioning.

But after becoming more aware of global warming last year, Ms Rossler and her colleagues made it a priority to reduce their company’s environmental footprint.

They comissioned an energy audit by a private company to identify how much energy they were using and where they were wasting it.


They switched to green energy from Origin Energy, which produces electricity from wind, solar and hydro power.

Offsetting emissions

To offset their carbon emissions they tallied up how much CO2 the business generated through national and international freight (they have stores in New York, Sydney and Melbourne), plane travel and car use.

For every tonne of CO2 generated, Dinosaur Designs invested money in Australian company Climate Friendly to use in wind and solar farms.

The business also offset their car travel by investing in Green Fleet, a company which plants trees to help absorb the amount of CO2 you produce.

Other initiatives included using recycled paper in packaging and marketing materials and soy based ink and waterless printing in their catalogues.

In the office they recycled all water used in the production process, re-used printing cartridges and installed low-energy tri-phosphor light globes.

The price is right

It might sound like a lot of effort and money, but Ms Rossler said it wasn't. It simply required a different way of thinking and that staff embraced the changes enthusiastically.

As for cost, the company will probably end up saving money, she said.

”It does cost a little bit more to use green energy because there’s less demand for it. But we’ve become more conscious about cutting our usage – turning off the computers, turning the dishwasher and microwave off so they're not on standby,” she said.

“Whatever we paid extra I’m sure we’ve now saved because we’re using less of it.”

Businesses had no choice but to start doing things differently to save the environment, she said.

“In business we all want to grow and go forward, but we can’t go on doing business the same way. It’s really important we look at another way of doing things.”

Seal of approval

Environmental expert Paul Klymenko, research director at Planet Ark, was impressed by the lengths Dinosaur Designs had gone to.

“They’re pretty much doing as much as they can, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

He commended the business for offsetting carbon emissions from both personal travel as well as freight. However when it came down to offsets, Planet Ark preferred investing in solar and wind farms as opposed to planting trees, which could take decades to mature and wouldn't necessarily last a long time, Mr Klymenko said.

"The only other thing I can think of is in their jewellery production, some metals can be quite highly polluting in their extraction,” he said.

"That’s beyond their control, but if they haven't already they could look at the downstream impact of some of their raw materials.”

The 'Ban the disposable coffee cup and refill your mug' challenge!

Hello Greenie and Richard Waller



Yesterday was Day One of the 'Ban the disposable coffee cup and refill your mug' challenge. We had Richard on the case from the start, and Leah joined in today so lets all ban disposable coffee cups and take our own mugs to Astoris and Wheels and Dolls Baby.

Greenie Special!
Cupcakes and Wheels Cafe (aka Wheels and Dolls baby) will give you a large coffee for the price of a small coffee if you bring your own mug! Thank you Wheels!

Click here for some more eco office tips!


Stay tuned for some more Eco-Challenges!

Love Love
Hello Greenie
xxx

The 'Reuse unwanted print-outs before recycling' Paper Challenge!

Zoe Doyle

Country Style's Designer Zoe Doyle was first to take part in the 'Reuse unwanted print-outs before recycling' Paper Challenge today. Thank you Zoe!

Printed out the grid at the wrong size? Printed black and white instead of colour? Why don't you place your unwanted print-outs in the tray provided (above the vending machine near the colour printer) and I will turn into eco notepads for one more use before they are recycled.

This is part of the REuse REduce REcycle idea. To find out more please click here.

Hello!

Hello Greenie!

Welcome to our new One Degree of Difference blog! Where we can find and share eco information and track our progress through the staff 'How eco would you go' One Degree of Difference competition!

Click here to find out more about what our company is doing through One Degree of Difference.

You will find our first letter above - click on them to enlarge. And below you can find some signs for your bins - the landfill one is a gentle reminder of where our rubbish will end up :(



Together we can make a difference!

Think. Green. Do.

Love Love

Hello Greenie.

xxx