It's amazing how much water we get through in the so-called developed world. From cooking cleaning and washing, the average usage in the UK is around 150 litres per person per day!

Here's some simple and effective steps we can all take to reduce our use of this precious resource.

1. Check for home for leaks, hidden water leaks can be wasting water without you even being aware of it
2. Turn off tap while cleaning your teeth, shaving or washing your face. You can waste can up to 9 litres a minute by just letting the water pour down the sink

A year ago my partner and I bought 15 hectares of land just north of Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and set out on an adventure in search of an alternative lifestyle to the one we had always experienced in the city. Our vision was to grow (organically) as much of our own food as possible, use only renewable energy sources, reuse all our “waste” products as inputs back into the farm, and offer the farm as a healing community for anyone who wants to live and work with us.

A Typical day at the farm

Sustainable Development is about ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and in the future.

This can be achieved by living within the Earth’s environmental limits, while also creating a just and fair society and attaining a strong, stable economy.

Here in Wales Sustainable Development has been made a constitutional duty for the National Assembly of Wales. They have to consider sustainability in all their functions, one of which is Education.

In the past few years, many in the computing industry have affirmed their commitment to helping to develop a sustainable world. These days, the number of options for Green Web Hosting has risen along with consumer’s awareness of the need to reduce carbon emissions and offset energy usage.

There's lots we can all do to save energy (and so save money) around the home, and they don't have to cost much either. In fact many of the best energy saving tips cost very little or nothing to implement, as they about changing habits. Thry these for starters:

1. Take control of your heating - turn down the thermostat by 1degree or more
2. Turn off or turn down radiators in rooms that don't get much use
3. Don't leave taps running - use the plug
4. Share your bath water!
5. Insulate your water pipes, especially the hot water pipes

Trees play such a large part in our lives. Collectively, they are the lungs of the earth, whilst individually they can each be self sustaining eco-systems in their own right. On a more subtle level, they can be symbolic of many aspects of human life, including our businesses. I’ve used this idea to map out some ideas on maintaining sound sustainable business relationships.

Roots

We all get used to seeing the "think before you print" tag at the end of emails but sometimes things really do need to be printed! There's no need to take a guilt trip, because there are lots of ways to lessen the environmental impact (and financial cost!) of churning out those precious paper pages... here's our advice:

1. Think first! And if you must print....
2. Printing both sides saves twice as much paper (duplex)
3. Double up (more than 1 page per sheet/side)
4. Use "draft" or "fast" mode - this uses a lot less ink

Many people have heard of the term PR, or Public Relations, but how many actually know what it is? To most, images of hilarious TV show "Absolutely Fabulous" spring to mind, or stereotypical caricatures of booze-fuelled glammed up Sloanies schmoozing editors with champagne in a bid to secure some column inches...

Not only is this an exaggeration but in fact, a sadly negative picture of PR. PR is actually a very helpful and invaluable way of gaining media coverage, public awareness and ultimately, sales.

After many false starts we've finally got our Lightbeing Creations newsletter, Helios News, launched. The first issue has now been sent out to all subscribers, but don't worry if you've not yet signed up as it's just a click away!

Each monthly issue will bring you:

• The latest news and developments at Lightbeing Creations
• Special offers
• Green Tech (& non-tech) Tips
• Guest articles
• and more beside!

For the second time this year, we're increasing the disc space and mailbox size on all our shared hosting plans.

Packages now come with 750MB, 1GB, 1.25GB or 1.5GB of disc space/mailbox for the same great prices.

If that wasn't enough, we've also upped the monthly bandwidth on all of our dedicated servers, so you now get a whopping 500GB monthly bandwidth.