design inspiration

A conversation with Lena Hyde of Design Aglow.

GP: How green is your business - what green business practices do you embrace?

DA: We are completely green...I mean, we are BRIGHT GREEN. We work from all around the world on virtual products and use shared computers from other businesses (such as Lena Hyde Photography!). We communicate with our writers and designers via email and operate our accounting 100% online via shared Quickbooks reports with our team and our business manager. Our contributors come from near and far, but none are in my immediate part of the wold, so a lot of my work is done via iChat...which is super fun and feels like you are really together. My favorite green part of the business? We have no physical products and no warehouse!

GP: How green are your products - what green products/components do you offer?

DA: When we launched DesignAglow in March 2007, we knew we wanted it to be an environmentally responsible company. Printing a physical product uses more resources and energy than we desire, and creating something with no waste or environmental impact feels right for us.
Our quarterly magazine is not even printed...it is viewed as a pdf, so much more than recycled paper....it doesn't even "really" exist. We sell thousands of copies of our magazine each year, and our last issue was over 300 pages....so imagine the savings in paper and energy!


GP: Why did you choose to offer green products and implement green business practices?

DA: We love having no physical inventory, boxes, or shipping supplies, and operating a super clean business, while keeping life simple! Everyone at DesignAglow shares a common love of travel, and of taking extended visits to different parts of the world. By working in this mobile fashion, with flexible days and hours, we can throw a laptop in a bag and have our whole company right at our fingertips...whether we are in Italy or Alaska. (Right now, I am sitting out by the pool in Palm Beach....it is 75 degrees in December.) With our lifestyles, being "green" just fits.


GP: How has offering green products and implementing green business practices affected your company?

DA: Since we set up our business this way, making modifications and changes with our basic philosophies comes easy. When we hire someone or contract a designer or a writer, we dictate the way the process flows and 100% of the time it works seamlessly! One thing that *was* hard? My CPA could not get his brain around what the heck DesignAglow was, he could not understand why people were spending money and what exactly they were getting. We really had to educate him about this new type of business. Now, he is our biggest fan!

I don't like to have a lot of extra "stuff" in my life or in my business. I love to clean out closets and keep my world neat and clean. I think my whole DesignAglow physical stash of samples and paperwork could fit in the trunk of my car. I do recycle all the samples though...most of them end up in my photo studio as products available to my clients.


GP: What are your hopes for a greener photographic industry?

DA: I feel the digital age has helped eliminate so much waste in our business. I remember back in the darkroom days...the chemicals, the paper, the film and supplies...I love not dealing with all of that anymore. Today, most of us proof via web or slideshow and only print a small percent of the images we shoot (the ones clients' order), which eliminates tons of waste. Who remembers dropping off film canisters after a wedding and getting back a thousand paper proofs, only to throw half away? It was not that long ago. WIth digital, we can print only what we absolutely need...and the rest goes in the virtual trash can.


GP: What is your favorite eco website or eco-product that we may not have heard of?

DA: recycline.com, ploverorganic.com, www.sundancechannel.com/thegreen

Many thanks to Lena Hyde and Design Aglow for taking the time to respond to our questions! If you have an idea for a Spotlight feature or interview, let us know!