We love taking landscape and wildlife photographs, so having and keeping Australia's pristine environment is an issue that is very close to our photographer's heart!

We have all often heard the saying "it's just a little thing, but if we ALL did it..." and at Mondo Images, we decided it was time to share our small steps on our Mondo Eco journey.

The thought was that lots of little steps in the right direction are better than no steps at all.

There is no one magic rule for everyone. Depending on where we live and how we live, we can do different things to reduce our environmental or eco footprint. Having a green business this day is a very popular topic and what is very important is that every change we make to the way we consume resources and reduce waste helps. Here are the green things we do as part of Mondo Images' business practice or as we like to refer as MondoEco.

Please feel free to share with us any suggestions or green ideas you've used and put in place in your business.

Fuel Miles
Travelling to work is very easy at Mondo Images, as you probably may know. We have no travel time... no fuel miles... and no peak hour traffic to contend with. We understand that not everyone, nor every business, can opt to working from or close to home but there are plenty of things we can all do.

Recycling - Look at what your business consumes and find ways to recycle, reduce and reuse.

At Mondo Images, we have limited our use of paper extremely. We generally only print invoices and we print them on recycled paper that is 100% Australian owned and also use 100% recycled paper envelopes to post them in.

Recycle used paper
Paper is perhaps the number one supply used in a typical office, which explains why people are saving time, money, and environmental resources by converting printed items into electronic, paperless documents.

We purchase recycled paper and environmentally preferable supplies. We use recycled paper - 80% recycled A4 paper and 100% recycled Envelopes. Buying paper made from a high percentage of post-consumer waste helps reduce the number of trees needed to make paper "from scratch." It also saves energy and keeps used paper out of the rubbish.

Reduce the amount of paper you use
We have used email and other electronic systems to proof graphic design and photographic jobs, instead of printing hard copies. We keep electronic documents and files, instead of hard copies and email is used for both internal and external modes of communications, such as letters, memos, and updates.

Mondo Eco - alternatives to sending and receiving letter mail

- We use email and voice mail whenever possible.

- We pay bills via e-billing so that you reduce the amount of waste generated.

- We use recycle paper.

- We have a recycling program so that our used paper, cardboard and newspapers are put in a recycling bin not just the normal trash.

- Right from the beginning, Mondo Images has been utilising e-proofing and online proofing systems, thus reducing paper use. A very natural process in graphic design is that each job has quite a few changes before it is approved, so lots of proofs may be sent to a client and unfortunately there are some businesses out there that are still using paper proofs.

Choose recycled products
Several pencil and pen manufacturers now make their products from recycled plastic, newspapers, and fabrics (even old money). Read the label on the package before you buy. When available, we use refillable toner/ink cartridges in our printers to prevent waste.

Buy in bulk
We try to buy pens, pencils, and markers in multi-packs rather than single packages to save on the resources used for packaging.

Office Equipment & Furniture
We use LCD monitors, which use half the power of traditional models. Before you buy new furniture, consider the possibility of recovering or refinishing your current stock. We recycle or refurbish our old furniture when we can, that is, we've just repainted our shelves, desks to fit in with our new branding. Wood can be restained or repainted, and cushions can be recovered. Sofa covers can be dyed to suit your new branding and we certainly did this when we updated our Mondo Images' colours.

Using a digital camera
This is one of the simplest things - choose a digital camera and save your photos to hard drives to reduce waste. Also, we send photos via e-mail or slide-shows to clients, friends and family without printing.

Using Re-chargeable Batteries
Choose less toxic or rechargeable batteries and dispose of spent batteries properly. Buy rechargeable batteries - it's now easier than ever! Some manufacturers are redesigning their products to reduce or eliminate the use of toxins. Read the label before you buy. Dispose of spent batteries properly to reduce the potential threat to human health and the environment when improperly disposed of. Unplug battery chargers when the batteries are fully charged or the chargers are not in use.

Other MondoEco saving tips
Office equipment - Activate "sleep" features on computers, copiers, and other machines that power down when the equipment is on but not in use for a while, and turn off equipment during long periods of non-use to cut energy costs and improve longevity. Screen savers do NOT save energy. Turning off machines when they are not in use can result in enormous energy savings. Common misconceptions sometimes account for the failure to turn off equipment. Many people believe that equipment lasts longer if it is never turned off. This incorrect perception carries over from the days of older mainframe computers.

Window & Doors
Why waste your heating and air conditioning dollars? Plug those home office energy "leaks" by weather-stripping between moving parts (doors and their frames) and caulking between non-moving parts (window frames and walls).

Light up your office efficiently
With lights on much of the day, electricity use invariably increases. To make matters worse in warm weather, inefficient lighting can overheat your office, increasing cooling costs. Save money by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and task lighting in your home office. Even the classic fluro lights are more energy efficient than old style light bulbs. CFLs burn cooler and use up to 75 percent less energy than either halogen or incandescent bulbs. Old Tungsten Bulbs are expensive to operate and burn so hot they can also cause fires.

Let the sunshine in
In colder months, allow the sun to help heat your home office by keeping blinds or drapes on sun-exposed windows open in the daytime. Retain the heat overnight by closing the blinds after dark. In the summer, reduce cooling costs by drawing shades or blinds on sun-exposed windows and glass doors.

Solar Powered Outdoor lighting
Installing solar lighting around your office, home and garden is quick and easy with an added bonus - no wires or electricity costs! In the dark cold winter months, when the sun goes down in the early afternoon hours, our solar power lights make it easier for clients to find their way to their parked car. Mondo Images is considering going Solar and powering their whole office via solar power - stay tuned and we'll keep you posted on this one!

Rainforest Alliance Coffee
We use coffee that supports the environment and much more... This A-grade single origin specialty coffee has been certified as a 'fair trade' product by Rainforest Alliance. Along with its delightful flavour, purchasing this coffee also ensure the coffee farmers are paid a full premium for their product. Rainforest Alliance Certified coffee is grown on farms where forests are protected, rivers, soils and wildlife conserved; workers are treated with respect, paid decent wages, properly equipped and given access to education and medical care. The Rainforest Alliance seal ensures that experienced inspectors have verified that the farms meet demanding social and environmental standards, and are on a path toward true sustainability.

Lunchtime & Coffee time
Using real cups, cutlery for crockery (not disposables) for coffee and water cups also helps save on recycle, reduce and reuse.

Workplace Toilet
No matter how green you think you are, there's probably one hallowed place where concern for the environment doesn't even enter your mind: the toilet. Unfortunately, only five percent of the toilet paper we flush away in Australia is made from recycled paper. The rest is virgin fibre from plantation or native-forest trees.

Mondo Images' has taken the plunge and changed to using recycled toilet paper (made from recycled office paper). A lot has changed in the quality of recycled toilet paper and it's an easy step in the right direction. We buy recycled toilet paper - it conserves the most resources from an environmental point of view. A 2005 NSW government study found that for every tonne of paper that's recycled, 400kg of greenhouse emissions are saved. This is because virgin fibre requires significant energy (and water) for harvesting raw materials, pulping and processing.

If you can't find recycled toilet paper, go for a brand endorsed by an environmental group. The two most widely recognised ecolabels for paper in Australia are:

- Good Environmental Choice Australia (GECA):
This has standards for both recycled and plantation
fibre products, but there's currently only a
limited number of products with this logo.

- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC):
This logo indicates that any virgin fibre in the paper is derived from sustainably managed forests.

According to the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)
every tonne of paper recycled saves 13 trees, 2.5 barrels of oil,
4100 kilowatts of electricity, four cubic metres of landfill and 31,380 litres of water.

What we find even better, when we purchase this Australian recycled brand of the toilet paper, the money goes towards saving the Daintree rainforests fund.

We didn't need any more convincing. These are some photos of places in Australia that are affected. You can see more of our images on our capture page.

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