Every year the Arizona Daily Star recognizes 40 individuals under the age of 40 who are making significant achievements and contributions to their profession and the Tucson community. This year I was nominated, along with 250 others who are doing great things for this city, and today I’m proud to say I made the list!

Being chosen for this 40 Under 40 award is truly an honor and I’m happy my work with Creative Slice and the design community of Tucson has made a difference.

You can see a full list of this years winners below and check back on October 6th when the 40 Under 40 Man & Woman of the Year will be announced!

• Dan Adler, chief executive officer, Keller Williams Southern Arizona
• Damion Alexander, publisher, Tucson West Publishing, and senior associate, Long Realty Company
• Javier Baca, executive director of information technologies, Sunnyside Unified School District
• Vanessa Bechtol, executive director, Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Alliance
• Veronica Boone, social services director, Tucson Indian Center
• Tim Bowen, owner and creative director, Creative Slice; founder, Spoke6
• Emily Martin Brott, Southern Arizona project manager, Sonoran Institute
• Greg Byrne, athletic director, University of Arizona
• Maya Castillo, library associate, Santa Rosa Branch Library, Pima County Public Library, President, Pima County Chapter, SEIU Local 5 Arizona
• Wendy Cevallos, programs director, Microbusiness Advancement Center
• Demion Clinco, president, Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation; CEO, Frontier Consulting Group; Arizona state adviser, National Trust for Historic Preservation
• Fabian Cordova, chief financial officer, University of Arizona Alumni Association
• Cindy Corona, diabetes prevention director, YMCA of Southern Arizona
• Katie Dabney, principal, Mesquite Elementary School, Vail School District
• Megan Davis, director of marketing and operations, Gadabout SalonSpas
• Danielle Duarte, branch manager, Nesco Resource
• Rebecca Garfunkel, communications and events director, National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) – Southern Arizona
• Tannya R. Gaxiola, president and CEO, QuikHelp
• Brian Alshaun Hairston, software engineer, Raytheon Missile Systems
• Dr. Amy Hauschildt, dentist, General Dentistry 4 Kids
• Lon Huber, governmental affairs representative, Technicians for Sustainability
• Dr. Christina Laukaitis, assistant professor of medicine, University of Arizona
• Dan McGraw, senior vice president and senior market manager for Southern Arizona, Chase Bank
• Kim McNally, principal, Rose Management Group & The Rose Academies
• Abel R. Moreno, co-founder and deputy director, Vets4Vets
• Dan Multhup, vice president and chief operating officer, Metro Restaurants
• Shannon Nash, finance director, Educational Enrichment Foundation
• Isaias Noguez, coordinator of outreach and political Affairs, Consulate of Mexico in Tucson
• David Olsen, owner and publisher, Zocalo Magazine
• Jeannette Ornelas, community relations and promotions manager, Arcos de Oro Inc. (dba McDonald’s)
• Randy Peterson, general manager and development director, KXCI 91.3-FM Community Radio
• Rachel Pross, president and CEO, Tucson Healthcare Affiliates Federal Credit Union
• Matthew W. Randle, board member, Student Veterans of America; student, University of Arizona Rogers College of Law; member, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Veteran Advisory Committee; member, U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s Veteran Advisory Committee
• Carrie L. Rednour, attorney, Rednour Law Offices, PLLC
• Darren Rhodes, director, Yoga Oasis
• Lisa N. Rulney, assistant dean, finance and administration, University of Arizona College of Education
• Erin Strange, violence prevention specialist, University of Arizona
• Maureen “Mimi” Warwick, director of pediatric services, Tucson Medical Center
• Kristine Welter, director of development and marketing, CODAC Behavioral Health Services
• Justin Williams, director, Arizona Technology Council, Tucson Regional Office

Read more about this award at http://azstarnet.com/events/40-under-40/

A few months ago I did a short presentation titled “Green Web Design” for AD2 Tucson which covered the basics of green design, encouraging attendees to be more environmentally responsible designers. The presentation began with a short clip of Kermit the Frog singing Bein’ Green followed by exploration into 3 topics to try and answer the questions: What is a green company? What is a green website?

#1 Go green by doing more online

• Save energy by replacing in-person meetings and travel with online tools like Skype, IM, Webex, Gotomeeting, etc.
• Reduce Printing by using web forms for quick feedback and tracking digitally. PDF’s are a step better than printing (especially when people read them on tablets) but not as good as web forms.
• Paper-less management. Improve efficiency, organization and be more green using online organizational tools like Basecamp, Salesforce, Freshbooks, Freeagent, etc.
• Digital Billing. Improve conversion rates and remove hassle using online methods like Paypal, Authorize.net and Google Checkout.
• Build websites, not brochures for promotion. A website has dynamic current content, interactive features, and allows one-click sharing which makes any message easy to go viral to hundreds and even millions of people.

#2 Be a Green Designer

Make green choices for yourself and your clients

• Green web hosting. Self sufficient (AISO.net) vs carbon offsetting
• Save Energy by becoming aware of power usage and waste with a Kill-a-Watt meter, LED bulbs and GreenWatts electricity.
• Transportation. Cycling, walking, bus, proximity to work instead of driving 100% of the time.
• Work Environment. Through telecommuting you can work from anywhere and should not be tied to a corporate office every day.
• Co-working office spaces, like Spoke6 in Tucson, give you shared resources and the chance to work with like-minded people. “Saving the planet together”
• Be a master of efficiency. Make your website save paper and let customers be more efficient with Mobile themes, SEO, Google Local, Online Reviews, Application Forms, etc.

#3 Be a Green Beacon

Educate others and promote green choices

• Watch out for greenwashing. Be authentic.
• Creative Slice has started a Green Choice program to promote green choices for our clients. Making the choice is 1/2 the battle, by demonstrating your choices you can inspire, connect and attract others.
• Show off your green choices and associations and let them promote you.  1% for planet, local first az, green america, etc.
• Green Marketing.  Green is great for marketing, people WANT to be good/green.  Let them know they can be that way by working with you.
• The web is a gateway to other green practices. Awareness is the first step and can grow throughout a business
• Be conscious. A green company is one that is conscious of the environment.  Be aware of consequences and improve through understanding.

This presentation generated a strong discussion about what it means to be green and helped serve as a starting point for those in attendance who were just starting to become more eco-friendly and green designers. Please leave a comment below with your thoughts on Green Website Design.

The Good

• WPEngine.com They ONLY host WordPress sites and do a great job of it!
• AISO.net A solar powered (100% with panels on their roof) hosting company. They charge a bit more due to power costs, however we’ve found their service to be great and many of our green clients choose to host with them.
• Laughing Squid - A small host out of San Francisco costing $6/month and offering really good and fast service. We’ve been recommending them for most of our clients over the past few months and the service has been phenomenal.
• DreamHost - They offer a huge variety of hosting packages which work well for just about every site. They also have some Green practices which are noteworthy.
• BlueHost (affiliate link) - They offer up to 100 sites hosted for one low price and we’ve found them to be well optimized for WordPress. However BlueHost has been having some trouble lately and it will be interesting to see if they can become a stable host once again.

The Bad

• Eapps – This was our host of choice 5 years ago, however they’ve migrated all small sites to old servers and the lag time is easily noticeable.
• GoDaddy – The GoDaddy servers are simply too crowded and we’ve found WordPress will regularly take between 10 and 60 seconds just to load a simple page.
• Network Solutions – They have overcrowded slow servers and do not offer .htaccess rewriting which drastically limits what you can do with a WordPress website.
• Media Temple – We’ve had a number of security problems with (mt) sites getting hacked through their database and do not consider them to be stable or fast enough to host a live website.
• Yahoo – Read our previous post about Yahoo Hosting and WordPress here and stay away.

This is by no means an exclusive list and only covers our recent experience with clients we’ve worked with. If you have other WordPress hosts you’d like to recommend please leave a comment below.

1. Rob Paulus Architects
2. Table Talk
3. Healthy Weight 4 Life
4. Barker Morrissey
5. Community Food Bank
6. Intuitive Learning Circle
7. Cafe 54
8. Roadrunner Biodiesel
9. Dykinga Photography
10. Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce
11. 44 Broadway
12. Ironwood Tree Experience
13. Red Team Investigations
14. Image-Spark
15. Dwight Bowen
16. Peggy Shannon Glass Designs
17. Tucson Tennis Pro
18. SaddleBrooke Democrats
19. Susan Denis Realtor
20. Fourth Avenue Merchants Association
21. Lean Thinking Network
22. Evening Rain Farm – Hawaii

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