Our logic was that a Federal election was about to be announced, and we assumed that most - if not all - candidates would be campaigning on a platform of local business/jobs and the environment.
After having researched each of our targets by determining the location of their chosen hosting solutions - the majority of which were located in the U.S., we sent an email (or completed online forms where we could not locate the candidate's personal email address) along with a press release for GreenServe.com.au. They read something like this:
Dear [name of candidate],
I have just come across your website in educating myself about the upcoming election.
Whilst I doubt I am alone in suspecting that you will be campaigning on both local and environment issues, your website appears to be hosted neither in Queensland (Texas, USA, in fact) nor on a carbon neutral web server.
I would like to offer you the ability to host on a carbon neutral web server - located in Brisbane Technology Park - and provided by a hard-working Queensland small business.
Being a customer of our carbon neutral hosting solution also gives you the right to display an icon on your website, which promotes your website's carbon neutral status and confirms you as being on the cutting edge of the next generation of "green IT" solutions.
If you would like to consider moving your website to our Brisbane-based (servers located at Brisbane Technology Park), carbon neutral (fully offset) hosting solution, please check out http://GreenServe.com.au - or contact me directly.
If you require assistance in migrating or making changes to your website, we can help with that too.
Regards,
Ian Exaudi
Managing Director
Creative Intersection Pty Ltd
Phone: 07 3366 9935
Fax: 07 3366 9965
Mobile: 0402 844 804
Product Support:
USA: (617) 297 2327
UK: 020 8123 2780
EU: +44 20 8123 2780
AU: 1300 853 868 / (02) 8011 4575
479 Waterworks Road
Ashgrove West QLD 4060
PO Box 69
Red Hill QLD 4059
AUSTRALIA
So - interested in the response from your local member or candidate ?
Of the 19 emails we sent out, we received absolutely no response from 16 recipients ... indicating - we assume - that they either did not receive the email (fail on communicating with your constituents), or that they either do not care for the opinions or services offered by local businesses or for the environment.
A bit disappointing, really.
How does that break down for each party ?
Given the utter lack of responses, there's not much to break down really, but here goes:
Labor: 1 response - committed to current supplier but would consider in May 2011 when the hosting falls due (BTW: Fair enough. Pity that local member has just been kicked out of their electorate).
Coalition: 1 response - being invoiced by a Queensland company (which obviously uses an overseas hosting facility) - and that they would ask that supplier to "carbon neutralise" their hosting (whatever that means).
Independent: No response whatsoever. No surprise there from Mr Krazy-power-mad-North-Queensland-guy-currently-enjoying-his-15-minutes-of-fame-and-relevance (oops - couldn't help myself there).
Greens: Here's the weird one ... we received an email 2 days after sending out our emails from the Queensland Greens Federal Election campaign. This email did not mention our GreenServe hosting solution, but rather asked if any of our designer might "like to donate a little of their time and web design know-how to help out with our upcoming campaign". Hmmmm .... let me see (you can probably guess the volume of laughter in our office) ....
Family First/Democrats/other: Well, actually we couldn't really find any who had bothered creating websites and/or were visible enough for us to locate in the first place - so didn't send to any of them.
What does all this mean then ?
Not really anything - we just thought you might like to know.
... and of course if YOU care a little about the environment and would like your website visitors to know, then feel free to contact us about getting a Carbon Neutral website hosting solution happening for your website.
