Using A Green Design Agency – What Does It Entail?

If your business is looking to quantify its environmental as well as financial bottom line, you would do well to look at working with a green design agency. London has many web design companies, and a little hunting around will show you there are plenty that think outside the box in this regard. As a green business, you will have naturally thought a lot about how your own practices and energy consumption need adjusting. But what about the activities of those you interact with?

Supply Footprint

Improving your business’s green credentials isn’t just a matter of reducing your electricity usage, finding green power tariffs and cutting down travel. You also have to look at the carbon footprints and environmental impacts of the services you employ. A green design agency will take this into account and ensure that your use of them is as easy on the planet as it can be. For example, their offices and web hosting will consume a lot of power on your behalf – there’s no way around that. Using renewable sources of energy cuts down the impact of that.

The Green Web?

Although it won’t have been your first intention, moving your business onto the web has intrinsic environmental benefits that can be further improved by a green design agency. London is an energy-hungry city, packed with cars and other vehicles, and with lights burning and offices running 24/7. An online business – or a company that conducts a significant proportion of its business online – cuts down on its carbon footprint by encouraging people to shop online rather than to travel and shop in person. Some extremely successful businesses, like Amazon, work entirely online, with clear green benefits.

Choose Carbon Neutral Servers

But, as with physical footfall, there’s a problem here. Even using the web takes its own toll on the planet, and the more traffic your site receives, the more you contribute to that. Google has suggested that every single (one-hit) web search by users produces around 0.2 grams of CO2. A recent news article claimed that using the search engine for several minutes to find what you are looking for might produce the same amount of CO2 as boiling a kettle. A green design agency can help you track your traffic and quantify the impact it has on the planet, so that you can offset this in other ways. Hosting your email on carbon-neutral servers will also reduce your footprint.

The Lower Cost Of Higher Price

You will probably end up paying a bit more for a green design agency. London is an excellent place to be based though, with a wide range of possibilities. One advantage of searching for a design agency in the capital is their physical proximity. Realistically, there’s no substitute for face-to-face meetings with clients or colleagues. You can do a lot by phone, email and Skype, but when you’re thrashing out important deals then it ideally needs to be in person. Working with people based in the same city as you cuts down your transport costs and their impact on the environment – a vital strand of your overall strategy. It helps that London offers so much public transport, too.

The Take Home

All in all, there are a lot of different factors to consider in hiring a green design agency. An agency that claims to be environmentally friendly requires a degree of scrutiny to ensure that it really does put its money where its mouth is, since it’s very easy to make a few token gestures that look good but don’t make a real difference. Ask about their energy usage, especially for the web and email hosting you will use, their paper and recycling policies, and some of the other companies they have done work for.

This article was supplied by full service creative, digital, and CGI Design Agency based in London, Dhub.com.