A Consuming Experience: environmental

Showing posts with label environmental. Show all posts

Saturday, 30 January 2010

Use Powerpoint not PDF, for greener printing of presentations

If you want to help other people save ink and paper (and therefore save money) when they're printing your presentation slides, please consider:

distributing or uploading your presentation slides as Powerpoint PPT files instead of Adobe Acrobat PDF files, and
pointing recipients of the slides to this blog post, if they don't already know about the far greater flexibility that they have with PPT files to set the layout and contrast as they wish (whereas with PDF they're stuck with what they're given).

Why do I say this? I'm not trying to to do the Microsoft fan thing, honest (although I do prefer Windows to Mac).
First, people can open Powerpoint PPT slides using the open source office suite OpenOffice, which is available free for Mac and Linux as well as Windows, even if they don't have Microsoft Office. So using PPT doesn't exclude anyone.
Powerpoint has 2 big advantages over PDF for attendees or students who need to print out presentation slides:

If the slides happen to have a dark background e.g. for aesthetic reasons, printing them as is just wastes a ton of ink; but it's possible (when the slides are in PPT format, but not when they're in PDF) to change the print settings so that they print out "Black and white", with the dark background miraculously transformed into a white background.

Powerpoint allows recipients to arrange the slides as they wish, in the size they wish (which is an accessibility issue too), when printing - i.e. they can print the file as slides, handouts (with whatever number of slides per page the user sets), notes or in outline form. It should be up to the attendee to decide how many slides per page and how much space for writing they want, and to be able to print out slides that suit their needs.

OpenOffice Impress - menu File > Print, it's the Content dropdown list to pick Slides, Handouts, Notes or Outline, then if it's Handouts select the Slides per page and their order on the page (left to right or up to down)
Powerpoint 2003 (Powerpoint 2007 is similar) - menu File > Print, it's the "Print what" dropdown, and again for Handouts select number of Slides per page and order.

In case you wonder, yes this post was triggered by my being presented on too many occasions with PDF slides that were set in stone.
Often I'm given PDF files with 3 slides a page and "space for notes" on the right (that's the - to me - dreaded "Handouts, 3 slides per page" setting), where text or diagrams on the slides are just too small for me to see properly because they've put in too many bullet points, whereas I'd much rather have bigger slides I can read without any "space for writing" on the right which I may well not use.
Conversely, at other times I've been stuck with 1 slide (maybe with just a couple of bullet points on it) per page in PDF format, when I'd rather save paper and print 3 or 4 slides per page.
And yes, I've also been given PDF slides with dark backgrounds too! (In that case I usually copy and paste all the text into a Word document and print that, to save printer ink. Unless they've turned off the ability to copy from the PDF, of course.)
With Powerpoint, I have a choice. With PDF, I don't.
So my plea to all speakers and presenters is this: please ditch PDF, let the user decide for themselves how many slides per page and how much writing space they need, and let users print without ink-wasting dark backgrounds, by providing them with slides in PPT format. And you'll boost your ecologically sound and environmentally friendly cred to boot!

Friday, 29 January 2010

Print slides without dark background in OpenOffice

Some speakers provide Powerpoint .PPT slides with a dark background, which wastes a lot of ink when you print them off. Or slides with yellow text on a white background, which are near impossible to read.

Previously I blogged about how to print Powerpoint slides without the dark background and similarly how to solve the too-light text issue, when you print them in Microsoft Powerpoint.

Here's another tip: you can do the same thing using the free open source office suite OpenOffice too - Impress being the component of OpenOffice that you use for preparing and viewing presentation slides. Impress can open Powerpoint .PPT slides. (Download OpenOffice.)

To print out PPT slides minus the dark background in Impress:

Open the slides
Menu File >Print
Click the Options button:
Under Quality, pick Black and White, then OK.

In case you worry, it shouldn't print out the dark background as black, the background will be converted to a white background, with the text in black. Much more easy to read, and more environmentally (and pocket) friendly.

Friday, 30 October 2009

Climate change: map of 4°temperature rise

Here's a superb Flash map produced by the UK Met Office (see more info and the full size interactive view) which shows the likely results for different regions if the world's average temperature rises by just 4° C.

The map was presented to OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría by Dominic Martin, British Ambassador to the OECD, ahead of UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December.

Source: OECD press release 22 October 2009, which has some frightening figures:

"OECD analysis suggests that unless action is taken, global greenhouse gas emissions will rise by about 70% between now and 2050, and by 2100 there could be 4-6 C global mean increase in temperatures above pre-industrial levels.
The map shows that, for instance, as the Himalayan glaciers melt, 23% of the population of China could be deprived of the vital dry season glacial melt water by 2050.
It explains too that an estimated mean sea-level rise of 53 cm by 2075 would result in floods affecting an additional 150 million people, with Asia being particularly badly hit."

Monday, 2 June 2008

How green are you? - environmentally friendly & energy efficient, or not?

Got tagged for this "environmental" meme by Melinda a couple weeks ago, but as usual I'm behind...

You're supposed to write about the ways in which you're consciously "green", and also the things you know you should do in a more ecologically friendly way but don't. Climate change is a serious issue and it's good to get a prod to think about how each person can make a difference as an individual - it does all add up. So here goes.

Ways I'm green

Paper

At home and work both, I print 2 or even 4 pages to one side of a sheet and I also delete superfluous pages (you know, the ones with only one line of copyright info etc on them) before printing, using Fineprint. Good for the environment, sometimes less good for my eyesight! It's fine if I have bright enough lighting, see below...

If the printer allows it, I print doublesided (I recently swapped my home printer for one which prints duplex). I also try to print in economy/draft quality where possible.

Those single sheets of paper at work that just say who printed that job? I print on the other side, or use them for notes.

And of course I recycle paper that can't be reused, both at work and at home.

(I know someone whose father, as a child, would open out used envelopes for paper to draw on, now that's what I call clever conservation!)

Food

I buy locally produced organic food as much as I can, and I often cook, so I know where my food and cooking oil etc have come from (I have to assume shops and suppliers haven't been lying on their labels and greenwashing their products). I'd reuse my cooking oil for my car if I could! (see below).

I'd have an allotment if my council would only stop avoiding their obligation to provide them, like too many UK local authorities are doing.

Waste and recycling

I try to make sure I eat all the food I buy (unlike some friends who freeze it or leave it in the fridge and then forget it till after the "eat by" or, as I think of it, the "die by", date, then chuck it out.) I sometimes eat it even after the die by date, and I'm still here. And if I can't finish what's on my plate, most of the time I'll save it and eat it the next day rather than throw it away and waste it.

I recycle as much as I can, and my little garden patch is just big enough for a compost heap and water butt (even some herbs in pots).

I'm hoping I'll be able to recycle used batteries properly once the UK brings in the Battery Recycling Directive.

I reuse plastic carrier bags (then recycle them when I must), and have several large strong shopping bags.

Computer and peripherals

At work I power down my PC when leaving; I know many people just leave theirs switched on constantly!

I also try to use other energy saving measures for my home computer (see e.g. the short list of computer energy efficiency tips on the Googleblog and a more comprehensive list of power saving & energy reduction ideas) .

I'm keeping an eye on the Climate Savers Computing Initiative started by Google in 2007, and would like to buy a power efficient, Energy Star qualified computer for my next main PC.

My switch to a new home printer, see below, should mean that I'll now leave it switched off most of the time.

Home, and other appliances

I've insulated my loft and put aluminium foil behind my radiators, and have a curtain inside my front door to keep the heat in. I'm good at closing curtains and internal doors to keep the heat in, and turning off lights - sometimes when other people are still in the room or on the stairs, but I don't think anyone's fallen over yet.

I buy adapters (Maplin sometimes have them on sale) which have individual switches for each socket, so that I can turn individual appliances off at the mains when I don't need to use them.

I have a Freeplay windup radio.

I use a Psion, which is much more energy efficient than a laptop or notebook - battery life of 20 hours on a pair of AAs, how can you beat that?

Travel

I normally use public transport or walk. I once had a road-legal electric scooter (Citybug) for local travel, till the tyre went.

I'm a homebody and not much for air travel or indeed any travel unless absolutely necessary. So I make very few flights.

I'd run my car on vegetable oil or used chip fat if I could - and if I wouldn't get done for not paying fuel tax on cooking oil! (Don't believe me? Believe the BBC.)

Blog

I do blog about green issues e.g. Greenpeace's info on electronics manufacturers' green credentials, and my review of the supposedly eco-friendly Acorn House Restaurant.

Miscellaneous

I'm seriously considering being freeze dried to become a soil enriching power when I die, it seems a lot more environmentally friendly than cremation or burial.

Ways I'm not green

I admit I'm not as environmentally friendly as I could be.

Computer and peripherals

Too much of my computer gear is permanently plugged in to the mains. Sometimes I put my PC on standby for a few hours instead of powering off because it takes so long to boot, but that's definitely better than leaving it on, not on standby.

I tended to leave my HP inkjet printer on all the time because it insisted on printing a colour test sheet, wasting ink and paper, every single time I switched it on. Their support people were hopeless. I'd rather pay my utility company for extra electricity than pay HP for extra ink, given that HP are the culprit, so I just keep it switched on though I'd rather not. It's also maddening that I can't save my preferred printing defaults - economy, black ink etc - but have to select them afresh each time I print. Again, boo to HP who used to have excellent support, but not anymore, I'm never buying Hewlett-Packard printers again, sorry Nic! Notice the past tense? I've got so fed up I switched printers - NOT HP - so I'll be getting marks on the "turn the printer off" front again, now.

Appliances

I leave my TV on standby too often because I forget to turn it off or sometimes am too lazy to, if I'm going to be watching TV again later the same day.

I mean to go through my Toppy's timers to ensure that repeats don't get recorded only to be deleted, but I haven't yet.

Low energy bulbs

I've not used low energy bulbs much in the past because they take too long to turn on and aren't bright enough for my eyes. They switch on faster now, but I still don't use them in my main rooms.

Anyone know where to get a globe bulb that's equivalent to a 200W old style bulb? There's a market for them I promise you!

I should use solar chargers but they take too long...

Power sources - micro-generation

I haven't installed micro-generation equipment in my home yet, though I'd really like to.

I'd like a solar panel on the back roof, maybe a wind turbine, and certainly secondary double glazing (clear glass panels that that are invisible from the street), but the government have made it too much hassle, time and cost for those living in Conservation Areas and/or in listed buildings, even though my building is only a Grade II (not even a Grade II starred).

Fer goodness' sake, on the back wall or back roof of the house it's only going to be a couple of neighbours who'd see them, why should I have to ask for permission and pay for the privilege of applying? Since 6 April 2008 it's been easier for people in England to green their buildings under the thrillingly named Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (Amendment) (England) Order 2008 (more digestible press releases). This lets people install certain domestic microgeneration equipment, including solar PV and solar thermal equipment, heat pumps and biomass generators, in their dwellings without having to get planning permission provided certain criteria are met. But it's not so easy if you're in a listed building or conservation area.

It's completely mad by the way that repair or maintenance work to listed buildings gets charged VAT when work which alters listed buildings (albeit with consent, who knows how well informed, from the local authority) will escape VAT. Way to encourage preservation of historic buildings, not! I know it's good to preserve the appearance of historic buildings but never mind history and my neighbours having an outlook onto a (totally removable) solar panel, we won't have a future if governments don't properly encourage people to be greener.

The Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) offers grants to encourage the installation both energy-efficiency and microgeneration technologies in buildings, available until June 2010 or till the money runs out. I haven't applied yet as I don't think I've got in place all the prerequisites to be eligible - notably I don't have a room thermostat and haven't swapped all my bulbs to low energy yet, see above. But those who can certainly should (there's some good info on what the grant covers and the application process).

I've not called the UK's free Act on CO2 Advice Line yet to get advice from the Energy Saving Trust, but I will, I will...

Travel

I have a car and scooter. I don't use them much, they're for security and peace of mind "just in case", but I still have them. And they're not electric or hybrid.

I did consider a G-Whiz but without my own garage or lots of public electricity recharging points it's just not realistic. (I saw one the other day, cute, awwww, even if a bit ugly.)

I took Google UK's Carbon Footprint test which works out your carbon footprint but I've not got around to implementing all their suggested carbon-reducing actions... (either way though, while I think their Carbon Footprint project is laudable, I absolutely refuse to mark the location of my home on their Carbon Footprint map - I value my privacy plus I don't want to be targeted for my just confessed eco-sins by any eco-terrorists who choose to use "green" as an excuse for violence!). The UK government also have a carbon footprint calculator.

You're it!

And now I tag Steve Lamb (Steve I know you're interested in all this, so details c'mon!), Broadstuff, Open Objects and Frivolous Fragments. (It will be particularly interesting to hear Broadstuff set the scene with "How do you measure greenness anyway?", we had a good chat about that recently.)

Sunday, 23 March 2008

Electronics manufacturers' green credentials

Here's the latest (7th version) Greenpeace "Guide to Greener Electronics" league table (full PDF scorecard report), which "ranks the 18 top manufacturers of personal computers, mobile phones, TV's and games consoles according to their policies on toxic chemicals and recycling."

As you can see, Toshiba and Samsung are leading the pack towards the green; the next group is Nokia, Sony, Lenovo and Dell, with the next being Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics, Apple, FSC and HP. Motorola are just about in the red, while companies like Acer, Sharp, Microsoft, Panasonic and Philips are in the definite red, and Nintendo is at the bottom. See the Greenpeace page for summaries of who they think has improved or got worse on the environmental / eco-friendly front, and why.

Via Heise Security.

Friday, 6 July 2007

Acorn House Restaurant review: eco-friendly - but worth it?

Acorn House Restaurant is a restaurant which bills itself as eco-friendly, i.e. it tries to follow ecologically sound principles. Their self-description: "Acorn House is an exciting new restaurant venture offering exceptional quality food with a fresh, seasonally evolving menu. Every aspect from design through to delivery aims to be environmentally conscious and sustainable" - "With fresh seasonal menus, a dedication to healthy eating, environmental responsibility and a premium, glamorous appeal".

It offers training to 10 young adults each year in the eco friendly restaurant trade too, having been set up as a training restaurant for the local community by The Shoreditch Trust, Terrence Higgins Trust and Bliss Restaurant Consultancy: "Respect for all the elements involved and awareness of the resources used in the provision of food is central to our training ethos."

Seasonal organic food, healthy home-grown produce with a smaller carbon footprint and the like, at a reasonable price, from a restaurant which aims to be ecologically conscious and community-focussed? Sounds a very good idea, and they've had excellent reviews from food critics e.g. at the Times. So, I thought I'd try it out and do my bit to save Planet Earth, and went there for dinner on a Friday night.

Food

The food was fine, decent quality organic meat etc, but - but - the portions were far too big. It would be a lot more eco (and cheaper for all concerned) to serve smaller portions, and I wouldn't have felt quite so stuffed. Is it partly because my family have succeeded in conditioning me into being permanently guilt-tripped about wasting food? ("If it's on my plate then I have to eat it all or else it'll be thrown away and think of all those people who had to eat sawdust and insects during the war and like it!"). In a word, nope. The portions were just plain too big. My companion, who is somewhat larger than me (well most people are), and can certainly eat a lot more, thought so too.

The latte gave me the runs, but that could have just been my reaction to the purity of the milk. Or something.

Presentation and ambience

The presentation was dire. The food looked rather as though it had just been flung on the plate. Which was a shame, as the flavours were actually pretty good.

The one long room was large and airy with a modern minimalist feel, and the location was quite convenient, just five minutes' walk from King's Cross tube / train station. But the table was tiny. There was barely enough room for the plates never mind glasses. To add to the cramped ambience, the spacing between tables was ridiculously tight. It wasn't that full when I went, they could afford to space things out more, and surely they could afford bigger tables.

You were virtually rubbing elbows with the people on the next table, and if you have a penchant for eavesdropping on total strangers' conversations, well this is certainly the restaurant for you. I did learn from that circumstance that the restaurant is frequented by 20-something meejah types. Whether that's a plus or a minus is up to you.

At the end they gave you books with little seeds (which otherwise looked like those books of matches) you can plant - a very nice touch.

Pricing

The price was reasonable. It wasn't cheap but then you'd expect to pay a little more to pander to your conscience (and, to be less facetious about it, organic food is of course going to cost more). It wasn't unaffordably expensive though.

Service

As for the service, the wait staff and maitre d' were polite and friendly enough if you spoke to them, but not all were equally knowledgeable about the origins of the food and what went into particular dishes etc, which given the nature of the restaurant and its key selling point was unfortunate. Many diners who make the effort to go to Acorn House would be interested to know. The staff should have been trained to have the answers, or at least to go and ask if they didn't.

Also, they mostly addressed my companion, not me, e.g. asking what she thought of the meal at the end, but not me. Hellooo? I was eating there too, I am a live person (well, some may question that at times, but I was definitely moving my mouth, I think they might have noticed). There wasn't even the "excuse" of habitually addressing just "the man", as I went with a female friend.

Verdict

The idea of an environmentally sustainable restaurant is very laudable (the Times called it "the most important restaurant to open in London in the past 200 years" for that reason). Given the increasing concerns about global warming and other environmental issues, I'd love to see more restaurants based on the same principles, and I'd eagerly try them out too.

Don't get me wrong, the food tasted very good. But I'm afraid there are limits to how much I can put up with just to be more ecologically sound: I go to a restaurant for a good night out, not just the food. If I simply wanted a decent organic meal, I could stay at home and make it myself. Without wishing to sound arrogant, my home-cooked dinners are much better than mediocre or average restaurants', and much cheaper than the top ones'. I mostly cook rather than eat out or have takeout, and believe it or not actually I'm usually not a danger in the kitchen. I buy organic and seasonal food as much as I can, and food labelling these days is much better than it was, so I can tell where my food came from and pick and choose on that basis. I don't need to go to an "environmentally aware restaurant" to be eco, as my meals are already reasonably friendly to the environment.

Still, I'll probably give Acorn House Restaurant just once more chance sometime to see if they've improved.