Bushland at Macedon Ranges. Photograph by Emma Byrnes
In 2020 I want to make my business more responsible and accountable by taking small, critical steps to help tip environmental, economic and social factors in more positive directions. With the overwhelming summer we are experiencing here in Australia and the resulting collective grief over the devastation, I want to ensure the decisions I make in my professional capacity contribute towards a positive future.
Over my working life I have always tried to reduce my footprint; being mindful of the impact my work has both personally and for the greater community; and by collaborating with clients who also contribute and take these matters seriously.
BUT there is always room for improvement as Maya Angelou so wisely expresses:
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
I’ve reviewed my business practices and these are the key areas where I will make improvements in 2020:
Transfer my business to a bank that does not support fossil fuels
I have chosen to open an account with Bank of Australia whose stated purpose is to create mutual prosperity for their customers in the form of positive economic, personal, social, environmental and cultural impact.Reduce my website carbon emissions
The global information & communication technology (ICT) ecosystem has a huge environmental impact. So large in fact, that its carbon footprint is on a par with the entire aviation industry’s emissions from fuel.
I have three websites. This year I will do an audit and move towards making them more efficient by doing an assessment of file sizes (ie how much data gets transferred when the web page opens) and reassessing my relationships with web providers and hosts to ensure they are hosted in data centres that uses fossil fuel electricity, or renewables. At the moment my Green Web rating is poor.
How does your website fare?Reduce file storage
I capture my photography files in RAW format to give me the greatest control in post-production - an important part of ensuring a high quality product to my clients. BUT the downside is they tend to be very heavy data files.
Up until now I have always kept and stored the original files in case my client experiences some sort of technical malfunction and lose access to the files I have delivered + processed for them.
But I have reached the point where file storage has become a bugbear for my business and I have since researched the exponentially increasing environmental impact of data storage. Data centres in particular consume a gigantic amount of electricity — 80% of which currently comes from fossil fuel power stations.
As a result I am offering a two month reprieve to any of my clients who wish to gain access to any past files. After April 1st 2020 I cannot guarantee that I will have your files on hand as I plan to delete big swathes of material to free up my burden on the servers, my psyche and ultimately our planet :-)Photographic images behind a paywall
In order to operate a more efficient and generous small business I will be putting my photographic images behind a paywall as of April 1st 2020. This means that my invoicing terms will change whereby my clients pay their invoice before they can access and download images. I am open to discuss alternative approaches on a “per needs basis” but this will otherwise be my default payment system.
The purpose of this change is to allow my one-woman-show a chance to focus time and attention on more positive aspects of my business (like reducing my carbon footprint and working on pro bono jobs) rather than chasing invoices.
BTW - If you have a pro bono request or suggestion please get in touch with me.
No doubt as the year progresses I will be enlightened as to how I can make even more improvements (this recent article on cutting carbon emissions revealed to me how much further I can potentially cut down) - yikes there is definitely some serious work to be done.
And of course I would love any feedback or suggestions you might have.