SODO DOJO / GREEN DESIGN

SODO Creative has “walked the walk” since our inception…but now we’re “talking the talk,” too. On September 18, 2008 we presented our talk “PUSH and PULL: Finding your way through a forest of facts” to members of AIGA Seattle. The event was held at Rocky Salskov’s photography studio in Belltown. The organizers did a fantastic job pulling things together and were quick to respond to some major technical hurdles (thanks all!) Jeff opened up the presentation and introduced us to the group of about 30 designers present. I continued, providing some information comparing green printers to regular printers (weighing cost and impact on the environment), adding a few more green design facts before introducing Eric Benson, founder of Re-nourish–our business liaison,tele-presenting all the way from Urbana, IL (thanks to the wonder that is Skype!) The presentation went great and we had a lot of great feedback. Thanks to everyone for being there and thanks to AIGA Seattle Green Salon for the invitation…it was a great experience and we hope to get out there a bit more to talk about the wonderful things ahead for green design in communications. Stay tuned for more info on Gamut soon to come…

The Seattle Green Festival pretty much ruled. I’ve been to lots of conferences and trade shows but I have to say that this was very well organized and the booths and people we spoke to were just…awesome. As we prepared to enter the exhibitor area, we were dominated by a giant cow:

That was pretty cool. When we got there, it was still relatively quiet…had a lot of space and fresh legs to walk and chat with everyone. We had a great time checking out all the different products and green companies out there. (Still need to chat more with the guys from Organic Fred!) After visiting somewhere around 30 booths, we spotted the organic beer samples and grabbed a few tokens:

We tried the Fish Tail and Wolaver’s…good stuff! Shortly after organic beer tasters, we checked out the food booths but we were unimpressed on the price of the food (says Jeff, “Eight dollars for a burrito? That’s not green!”) A good laugh was had at the expense of our stomachs. Lots of really great teas and food samples though. We had a good time and made some great contacts…definitely looking forward to the next Green Festival!

We’ve registered and will be heading over to the Green Festival right here in our hometown (Seattle, WA) to connect with like-minded folk on renewable, sustainable options for businesses. The conference starts at 10AM Saturday, April 10 and ends at 6PM Sunday, April 11.

A little about the festival from the greenfestivals.org Web site:

Take in more than 350 exhibits:

• Shop for everything from natural home and health products to solar panels and Fair Trade gifts and crafts.
• Explore developments in green education, social investing and independent media.
• Enjoy organic dining and sample local beers & wines.
• Learn about City resources for energy conservation, green power, climate action and more at the City of Seattle Pavilion.

Anyway, hope to see you there, and for those who don’t make it, expect us to report back with the cooler details (we’ll be provide special reporting on the latter two above).

…and we’re back. Hope you all were able to participate! We shut down everything except for 1 energy-efficient bulb in the entire place. And now for something about us “going green” in a much different light…

Today I picked up these shoes from DC Shoes…they were meant for SODO Creative use so I couldn’t resist:

Tonight from 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM (PST) SODO Creative is shuttin’ down the shop (computers, equipment, lights, and all) for Earth Hour. We’re psyched to be donating to energy off-setting programs like Native Energy, but everything we can do to help reduce the amount of energy spent daily is massively important. Something to keep in mind is that even if your equipment is turned off, it’s still sucking energy out of that there wall device. Unplug that thing! All the cool kids are doing it.

It’s going to be tough to step away from our little devices, but maybe in the meantime we’ll put the “vice” back in device (Guinness makes you strong!) and celebrate the fact that all over the world people are combining efforts that very moment.

Since this blog is in its early stages (who are we kidding, right?) it might make sense to talk a little more about what green Web design really is…

First off, we love to read TreeHugger. (Any fans out there?) The folks at TreeHugger have a great section on How to Green Your Work which is a great read. So today, I’d like to present “Oops, we greened ourselves!” and look at just a few of the things we’re doing here at SODO Creative to make sure we’re keeping it real (green) based on the Top 10 tips from TreeHugger:

More work, less energy. We in the Web design and development industry work a lot. It’s no secret. Nights turn into mornings very fast around here. But even though we might thrive in the night, we’re not energy vampires…we leverage offsetting programs and 100% solar powered Web hosting to significantly reduce the amount of energy used. Energy reduction and the migration to renewable energy resources is extremely important to us…and there’s no bad garlic aftertaste.

Digitize. To say the least! We’re strong advocates of online over all other forms of marketing…it’s not only better for the trees, it’s an easier way to track conversions!

Don’t be a paper pusher. We try to use the least amount of paper around here as possible…but flying cars aren’t coming off the line quite yet and the need for paper hasn’t completely diminished. We have contracts, proposals, and marketing materials we have to create to for our customers and in our business…but everything we print is printed on recycled materials and shipped with the least amount of distance as possible.

Greening the commute. How can I put this…basically, we have no commute! SODO Creative encourages the “work from home” mission. It works for us, our clients, and our attention-starved pets.

How green is your business? Did you know that we offer green business consulting? We can help you not only organize and prioritize around making your business more earth-conscious, we can also set you up on the right path with the right tools and resources. Contact us to find out more!