We are concerned about our impact on the environment and strive to create business practices that support sustainability. In our business we strive to reduce our use of paper and take other steps to control our impact environmentally.

In our role as marketing strategists, designers and often as the lead in the specification and vendor qualification process for print production, we are in the position to educate, create and produce on behalf of our clients. Thus, we do so with the smallest possible environmental impact. In these pursuits we are currently taking the following initiatives:

• Communicating via email (invoices, newsletter) where practical and client preference. This not only reduces paper, but also the carbon impact of mail sent via traditional means.
• Convincing numerous client NOT to print excess collateral materials such as annual reports, and if possible avoid printing altogether in favour of producing online materials to be distributed electronically.
• Educating our clients on the benefits of specifying paper from mills committed to sustainable production such as Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC); wind power, recycled content and carbon neutrality.
• Selecting printers who are committed to sustainable practices through FSC certification process and their own efforts to use environmentally-friendly materials and reclamation processes.
• Donation of used computers to schools and deserving charities, or environmentally safe disposable services.

April 27th is World Graphic Design Day, and the Canadian design community celebrated with GDC announcing new sustainability definitions and principles for its members at the National AGM in Winnipeg on April 26th. This is a huge leap forward for Canada’s National design association and shows terrific leadership in this area.

Happy World Graphic Design Day indeed!

Most of us have already seen Microsoft’s impressive multi-touch display technology, but I’m not sure how accurate this utopian portrait of the future of computing is, called Microsoft Sustainability. Pretty awesome bit of motion graphics by the Seattle-based studio Oh, Hello under the direction of former Digital Kitchen Creative Director  Mason Nicoll. Slick stuff.

Here’s an article about Hemlock Printers on BC Hydro’s website about their hard work to protect our environment. Good work guys! Now, can I UV coat, laminate, foil stamp, hot glue and add thermography to that booklet project? Awww, why not? Poo.

Thanks to Jason Murphy for the link.

As the “Big 3″ automakers scramble to stay a float, one company is rethinking the electric automobile. XP Vehicles Inc. have developed an electric car based on the Mars Lander technology that would make it the first inflatable car. Powered by a battery array and water, these cars are capable of reaching speeds up to 120 MPH, and a balast keeps the car on the road. The vehicle can configured in many way and because of its modular panels, the car can take on any appearance the customer likes. If that’s not enough, the car even comes delivered to your door in a box and assembles in under two hours.

During the research and planning phase of an upcoming GDC event—Practivism: Practical methods for radical sustainability in design—I came across Alyssa Walker’s article Conventional Wisdom: Eight Ways to Save Design Conferences. In it Walker claims that design conferences have become “exercises in regenerated, wasteful spectacles,” feeling “less like intellectual retreats and more like conspicuous consumption.” In her forthright Core77 post she shares her perspectives and offers numerous ideas for making them more sustainable and relevant. Perhaps her most profound recommendation being to cancel conference plans altogether and replace them with more organic, local, spontaneous and sustainable alternatives.

Having attended numerous conferences and helped organize various events over the years, this article really hit close to home and resonated with me. I even did a little ranting about the traditional conference format myself after attending the HOW Design Conference in Boston earlier this year. But more importantly, it made us in the GDC/BC Executive reconsider our own choices regarding events and role in hosting competitions such as Graphex and conferences such as Icograda Design Week.

Our goal for the Practivism event is to host an enlightening, rhetoric-free evening of wisdom and discussion as our sustainability experts share their experiences and insights, attempt to demystify green speak and provide attendees with practical answers and strategies they can apply in their lives and design practices. But as we discussed the event logistics, such as printing invites, posters, flying the speakers from New York and California, etc, it was a harsh reminder of the impact we have on the environment even when putting on relatively small industry events such as these.

We’re making every effort possible to make effective choices to promote and host our event within realistic parameters, such as reducing our print requirements and ensuring we use production techniques with the smallest environmental input. We even considered remote web video technologies and web streaming as an alternative to needed the speakers to be on-site. Hopefully as we move forward we can make innovations to how events and conferences are organized an produced.

GDC‘s Designer Speaker Series event Practivism: Practical methods for radical sustainability in design will be held on November 13th at Science World in Vancouver. Speakers include, Innovation and Sustainabilty Expert Marc Alt, Green Graphic Design author Brian Dougherty and Design Can Change Founder Eric Karjaluoto. Information and tickets are available at www.practivism.ca.

UPDATE: So far he’s raised just under $10,000 and has been featured in the National Post, The Huffington Post and The Metro. Throw in some interviews on CBC and CKNW and there’s quite a bit of support behind this initiative. If you haven’t already, to check out 3bucksforbrendan.com.

One of my good friends recently got accepted into Oxford to do his MBA in Social Entrepreneurship. One big hurdle, the program costs $90,000. The solution? Start a campaign to get 30,000 people to donate $3 each called 3 Bucks for Brendan. The Reward? A warm fuzzy feeling that investing couch change to help Brendan gain tools to make the world a better place.

But this isn’t a fleeting idea for Brendan. He’s already worked with Engineers Without Borders, sat on their Board and founded a Professional Chapter. Through his role with Engineers Without Borders he’s twice worked to develop potable water technologies in Southern Senegal and is completing his Masters in Engineering for Sustainable Development at Cambridge.

Go check out 3bucksforbrendan.com and check out what he has to say. If he convinces you that his goal is worthy of your donation then you can help him out. After all, it’s only change…

One of my good friends recently took the plunge and moved his life to the Cambridge University in the UK to study Sustainable Engineering. Brendan Baker has been researching the eventual environmental impacts made during product design. His project seeks to answer the following questions:

To what extent have environmental impact assessment tools been adopted into commercial product design processes?

What are the business drivers for increased environmentalism in product design?

If you’re involved in product design, on any continent, check out his undertakingThe Ginkgo Project, and more importantly, take 5 minutes and fill out his survey. Could win you $100 gift certificate at Amazon!