It’s Time to Celebrate!

Come join us for an Open House
on Thursday, October 7, 2010 between 1:00–5:30 p.m.
at our new office: 921 SW Washington, Suite 264, Portland, OR 97205

Canvas Dreams and Oregon Translation have settled into our new collaborative office, and we’d love to show you around. Please stop by for a relaxed visit on Thursday afternoon to meet our teams and celebrate an exciting new chapter for our businesses. Friends and family are always welcome in our sustainable community. Pizza, salad, and soda will be served courtesy of our great customer, Hot Lips Pizza.

Get to know our business partners:

Canvas Dreams, LLC (http://www.canvasdreams.com): sustainably operated Web hosting plus e-commerce development from a certified member of B Corporation and Green America. Canvas Dreams offers shared and reseller hosting, PCI-compliant e-commerce, virtual private and dedicated servers, and hardware colocation. Our customers include progressive radio shows, green businesses, and sustainability organizations. Our sustainability partner, Peraska (http://www.peraska.com), has joined us to offer Open Framework Sustainability (OFS) consulting and education. Companies of all sizes and industries can benefit from enacting sustainable practices to grow their businesses. Learn how: http://www.canvasdreams.com/ofs/

Oregon Translation, LLC (http://www.oregontranslation.com) helps you bridge communication gaps in all your business relationships. Oregon Translation emphasizes professional quality, customizable language and localization services to make your business succeed in the international marketplace. Your language is our language.

Background: In 1998, Canvas Dreams was founded with the dream of building a Web development and localization company. In 2006, we separated into two distinct brands: Web hosting and development continued as Canvas Dreams, while the language services became Oregon Translation. The two growing companies continue to collaborate so closely that now, in 2010, we have come full circle and placed our collective staff under the same roof. We are already starting to benefit from the excitement and dynamic synergies between our teams and hope to carry this enthusiasm over to all our business relationships.

Please RSVP if you plan on coming, by sending a quick email to sales@canvasdreams.com.

 

The following blog is a personal one. There’s no way to say it nicely, no conciliatory words to lessen the blow. No nicities to hide the fact I am emotionally dead-set against the activity I am now forced to do.

I. Detest. Commuting.

It’s been years since I had to go into our office on a daily basis, including mass-transit. I can’t even remember the last time I rode the MAX (the local lightrail service) to commute to work. Oh sure, I ride it often for personal use, like evening outings, trips to the zoo, etc. But for business, when I wasn’t telecommuting, I had for many years settled into a habit of carpooling with others and parking in one of the Smart Park lots in the downtown Portland core. It just made too much sense. It saved time, and the cost of a day-long parking pass was about equal to the cost of 2 people taking the MAX into and out of town.

Riding the MAX out of Portland this past week.

As I live in southwest Beaverton, a quiet and hilly corner of the Portland Metro area miles from the nearest MAX stop, it added to the difficulties should I choose to drive halfway into town to park at a MAX station, then pay to ride the final few miles in on train. As with any sustainable business model, there are bound to be trade-offs. Efficiency in the name of energy use versus efficiency in the name of time saved, etc.

So instead, for many years I telecommuted to my job as much as I could. It made far more sense. Not only would I have almost two extra hours during the day to be productive, but the energy and hassle savings were inumerable. And so, for this reason, I tried very hard not to go into our downtown office unless I absolutely had to. Having developed a very successful distributed office model, and proven not only its efficiency but also its common sense value for many years, telecommuting had become for many people at Canvas Dreams a de facto way of life.

Riding the WES to the stop closest to my house.

This worked for several years, about 2005 to 2008, while we were still establishing the buildout of our data facility. So much of what we do is on the customer service front, and that is something that literally can be done from anywhere on the globe. Why should Support staff get into a car when it matters not to the end user whether they are sitting behind a downtown office desk, or in the comfort of their home (where they are more relaxed and much more able to spend as much time as they need with a customer)?

We made a really good go of it, you know. When we had to drive in, we tried in vain to do it in numbers. Carpooling as much as we could. One person drove, the rest could be wired in and doing whatever they had to do: email, terminal commands, support ticket updates, you get the picture.

Beaverton traffic as we ride WES towards our stop.

Like all good things though, change happens. The new office we opened at the start of the month has taken great shape. It still has a ways to go, but one thing is certain: the new location is bringing people to our door, and they’re walking in, in some cases, unannounced. We have a very welcoming setting. No front-desk receptionist. There is a door and it’s unlocked during business hours. Walk in and say, “hello!” We’ll walk out of our office rooms and greet you.

Having settled into the carpooling routine for many years, it was almost shocking to me, therefore, when I found myself actually jumping on the MAX and then the WES (West-Side lightrail for Beaverton-area commuters) to ride back to the West Side (as we call Beaverton or any area on the other side of the West Hills of Portland) after a long day at the office. Ken Hiatt, a close colleague and who has a desk in our office, lives not far from me, so I rode out with him to his stop (a MAX -> WES connection, and my first ride on the WES), before he drove me home.

Inside WES: lots of space and free wi-fi, too.

There are two primary purposes behind this post:

1. On a personal level, I was shocked it had been at least three years, maybe longer, since I had taken the MAX for commuting reasons. Carpooling and telecommuting had always been there as the most efficient means. But riding the MAX out of Portland was like traveling through time to when I used to ride it daily as part of a job working for someone else. Times have changed, but some of the common solutions to the same problems are ever-present. I was instantly reminded of how relaxing it was compared to fighting rush-hour traffic on the highway.

2. On a professional level, I was reminded that no matter how one accomplishes their task, what matters most is how it affects the quality and level of service delivered to the end customer. There’s no question in my mind that the most efficient physical design for an office is one that takes advantage of space and time and distributes it out to its employees’ and contractors’ homes insofar as it benefits those staff members and their ability to achieve their tasks. It opens up so much time, it lowers stress for would-be commuters, and it even enables parents to parent while working. But as with everything, in-person team interaction is invaluable. So much can be gleamed from the direct, interpersonal communication and relating (which in its own way can benefit the customer) that one has to wonder what, in a distributed office model, may in fact be lost in the name of efficiency?

There are many lessons to be learned from the changing work environment. It is certainly more dynamic and energized than ever. With the new office has come much inspiration, and even a service line devoted to bringing greater efficiency to any company that wants to learn how. I look forward to again riding on the MAX and WES. As the new office continues taking shape and daily schedules become routine, I hope to ride it more and more.

Best regards,

David Anderson

Since we first began our sustainability program several years ago, we have continuously learned and grown as we journeyed down the path to sustainability. From our own experiences we have learned a lot about what it means to operate sustainably and how knowledge plays a major role in helping a business achieve its goals.

Now in our new office, we’re almost ready to roll out a new, ground-breaking service line: we’re calling it Open Source Sustainability (OSS), and we think it could help every business. Drawing on the business principles we have established with our Three C’s approach to sustainable business (Conversation, Community, and Commerce), Open Source Sustainability offers a business of any size, shape, or industry numerous entry points through which to adopt, enact, and benefit from sustainable practices.

It ties Web-based marketing such as search engine optimization and social media with pure (real-life) networking; It bridges the gap between high-concept CSR (corporate social responsibility) and in-your-face community benefit services, like local tree planting. It facilitates growth and learning between the business, its clients, and its vendors, by establishing a supportive Web of Trust to benefit all levels of the company’s supply chain. It offers the opportunity to create real-world, meaningful metrics, drawing in part from an improved IT and back-office infrastructure tied to careful reporting, so a company can gauge its progress down its path to sustainability. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

All of this is facilitated by getting to know the business from the inside out: performing a detailed sustainability analysis to not only put into numbers where the company currently stands, but also to understand the DNA, if you will, of what makes the business run: its culture and personality, its strength and weaknesses, and its as-of-yet undefined potential. With that understood, the path forward becomes much more clear.

The program we’re designing can be broken down into six distinct tracks, each track consisting of a minimum of six monthly consulting/review/analysis checkpoints. The exact approach is designed based on each company’s existing structure, current needs, and future goals. A business can choose one track, or all six tracks simultaneously. Pricing will be set on a per-track basis, and though we recommend a company consider all six, the design of the program is such that only those tracks directly appropriate to the business can be followed in order to achieve the desired goal. So if all you need is down-to-Earth SEO, for example, we can work with you. But if you want to learn how to make the most of SEO while improving how your business operates, and how to leverage that via social media, then we have a great two- or three-track program in mind for you.

None of this would be possible without the alliance and partnership we have fostered with Ken Hiatt of Peraska.com. Ken’s unique insight into sustainability is one that he has practiced all his life. His insight is the driving inspiration behind this program. We’re extremely excited to move forward with this program and are already taking signups.

If you’d like to learn more about our plans for Open Source Sustainability, or would like to inquire about signing up for the program, please contact us and we’ll be delighted to speak further. As excited as we all are, what I’ve written here is just a glimpse of what this could become and what it could mean for your business.

I hope this message finds you well and we look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you,

David Anderson
Principal, Canvas Dreams, LLC

This summer, we submitted a chapter for “The Portland Bottom Line: Practices for Your Small Business from America’s Hotbed of Sustainability”, a book due to be published in November, 2010. Drawing from the Three C’s business model we are developing, our submission addresses ways to engage with your customers and build a supportive community centered on sustainable business.

The Portland Bottom Line features short articles like this from 50 regional businesses about their experiences implementing sustainable practices into their companies, and offers readers ways to learn how to apply sustainability principles to their own lives and businesses.

You can learn more about The Portland Bottom Line and read sample chapters on the official Web Site.

 

We’re proud to be a part of Portland Bottom Line. Look for it at your favorite online book seller starting in November 2010.

Yesterday, I received a phone call from the Associate Editor of Sustainable Business Oregon, asking if we’d like to comment on their article about the greening of datacenters. The full article can be read here. Below is my comment.

—

 

As the principal and co-founding owner of a Portland-based, sustainable Web host, I wanted to thank Sustainable Business Oregon for bringing light to an important topic. Since we first opened our Portland data facility in 2005, we have understood that electricity is the single greatest resource we use. As a result, it is extremely important for us where the energy comes from, as well as the resulting environmental impact is we create through its use.

The Pacific Northwest is unique. As a result of the close proximity of nature — volcanoes and mountains, rivers and oceans, massive forests and extensive agriculture — to populated areas, my sense is there is a greater awareness of environmental responsibility here than other parts of the U.S. Looking at how the Northwest’s energy generation profile has evolved, first with mostly hydro, then phasing out coal and nuclear, and finally so many new and renewable energy facilities coming on-line (wind, geothermal, solar, and wave), it is a reminder that the local energy industry has an equal role to play in protecting our corner of the world and is working to live up to that challenge.

I cannot think of a better place than the Pacific Northwest to serve as a model for developing a sustainable energy economy. It pays tribute to our shared commitment to protect our environmental resources and also show that all it takes are a few advancements, gradually but consistently, to effect positive change and convert us away from reliance on harmful and toxic energy sources.

I’d like to see the use of renewable power become a standard for any high-demand energy user, starting with datacenters and Web hosts, and continuing through all industries and market segments. If renewable power options aren’t available from a utility in the local market, then a high demand user should in the minimum opt for purchasing renewable energy credits or carbon credits. It’s better than doing nothing, and again, such a decision would serve as an example to others to follow suit. Just think of the different kind of press a corporation like Facebook could have received if they had chosen to buy local wind energy, instead of the “standard” 57% coal power mix from a California power utility.

Choosing renewable energy has seen many additional benefits for our business that the article didn’t address. For example, by signing onto PGE’s Clean Wind program, we began understanding of the many other ways we could begin greening our business. It led us to adopt a sustainability program, undergo third-party sustainability assessing so we could plot our energy efficiency with meaningful metrics, and conduct our own research and development to build our own server hardware and further minimize energy usage. All of these resulted from us having started down the path. Furthermore, sharing our experiences and educating our clients and vendors about sustainability principles has helped us create a supportive community of commerce between our customers and suppliers alike. The result of all of this is a business model that saw consistent, increased growth during the recent economic recession, and which is now propelling new growth even faster than we thought possible. None of this is rocket science; these are all principles of sustainable business that can be adopted by any business that cares to take the time to learn how, and as a result, make their company and its influence on the local economy that much greener.

Whether the wind blows through eastern Oregon’s turbine farms all the time or not, or whether the sun graces solar cells on rooftops in Portland for just 12 hours a day, all renewable energy sources help replenish the continually increasing demand on available energy. If new technology needs to be developed to store excess energy produced at peak output, so that it may be used when there is no wind or when it is night, then that is an engineering challenge to be solved. Let us not look negatively at the current status of renewable power and what it can or cannot do to determine its long-term role in solving our energy demand needs; let us instead look at it all as an example of what we might all accomplish through support of and participation in these programs.

Thank you,

David Anderson

The following is an announcement that was sent to all Canvas Dreams customers this evening, regarding our announcement of our free Renewsing.com service:

 

Dear customer,

As your Web host, Canvas Dreams is always working to provide better service and support your business needs. We’re constantly researching new technologies, designing cleaner and more efficient servers, and taking your suggestions and putting them into action. It’s what any service provider does when it cares about its customers and their wellbeing.

Today, we have the pleasure of letting you know about an exciting new service, designed just for you. It’s an idea we’ve thought about for some time but only recently began developing. It is called Renewsing.com (“Reducing, Reusing, Recycling, ReNEWSing”). In the spirit of sustainability, it aims to connect all members of the Canvas Dreams community — our customers — while bringing new awareness to your business by promoting your news and blog posts in a comprehensive community service.

Renewsing.com will be comprised entirely of RSS feeds provided by participating customers. We’ll only accept summary RSS feeds (not full-length articles), because the site is be designed to provide its readers with “teasers” and encourage them to click through to the full article located on your own Web site. No advertising or banner ads of any kind will appear on the Web site, to prevent readers from being distracted from the real reason they are on the site — to read your content. As a publisher, there is no fee for you to participate in Renewsing.com. Best of all, there is very little required to activate you as a participant. The service runs itself in an automated fashion. Once Renewsing.com starts accepting your RSS feeds, there’s no extra effort required by you to remain a participant.

Beyond this, Renewsing.com will be actively promoted by Canvas Dreams to our media partners and through the various business networks in which we participate. We’ll even broadcast headlines to Twitter to help draw in new readership to the site. Ultimately, we may even offer a summarized, email-based newsletter of selected articles, further driving attention to content from our participating customers.

Renewsing.com will be open to all Canvas Dreams customers, whether you operate a shared hosting plan, are a hosting reseller, have a dedicated server, or colocate your equipment at our data facility. If you are a reseller or dedicated customer, your own customers can even participate — simply let them know about this service and we can assist you from there.

We’re putting together a complete media kit about Renewsing.com that will detail the complete vision, inform you of available categories in which your content can appear, and address many of the questions and concerns you may have as a potential contributor.

We’ll be launching Renewsing.com in time for the Seattle Green Festival on June 5-6, 2010, where we’ll be exhibiting an interactive, media-rich booth highlighting sustainable business practices through technology. We’d be honored to feature your content on Renewsing.com to the anticipated 35,000+ attendees who will attend the Seattle Green Festival!

So, if you are interested in participating in Renewsing.com, please contact us with your questions and comments. If Renewsing.com isn’t right for you, or if you don’t operate a blog or provide your content for distribution via RSS, please disregard this message.

On behalf of Canvas Dreams, I would like to thank you for supporting our business by hosting with us. As a free service designed to boost your site traffic and help your bottom line, Renewsing.com is the least we can do for entrusting us with your business. We hope you will consider enriching Renewsing.com by participating in this program.

Sincerely,

David Anderson
Principal, Canvas Dreams, LLC