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Compostmodern 08: Trash Talking
By Ruth Hagopian
“Sustainability is like teenage sex,” said Joel Makower in his introduction at the third annual Compostmodern conference in San Francisco. “Everybody says they’re doing it, nobody is and those that are doing it, aren’t doing it well.”
Makower of GreenBiz.com, challenged designers at the all-day series of seminars to think about what constitutes “green” practices in their personal and professional lives and asked, “Are we making a difference?”
The ample crowd at the Academy of Art University was ready for some answers. Speakers included representatives from the wine, fashion, sporting goods and magazine industries.
Cradle-to-cradle life cycle
Only a massive reduction of our consumption of resources will have real impact on our environment explained Alex Steffen in his opening remarks. Steffen is the executive editor of Worldchanging, the most widely read sustainability related publication on the Internet.
“We need to be users, not owners,” he said of the many products that could be shared, such as cars or even power drills, which average only six to 20 minutes usage in a lifetime. If we’re serious about sustainability, we need the back-story on everything we use, whether it’s cell phones or chocolates.
No longer is a product’s cradle-to-grave life cycle sufficient, as was the focus of Compostmodern’s first conference in 2005. Now, cradle-to-cradle use – what a product is made from, what its shelf life is and how it can be repaired and reused – is the important criteria for sustainability.
It’s a true commitment to consider the life cycle of all that you consume, and the responsibility can seem overwhelming. Since you can’t know all the answers, aligning with a group to share information on best practices and products is the better solution. For the specifics on becoming a greener graphic design professional, two organizations were represented, The Designers Accord and the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design.
The Designers Accord
With the intent to organize the design community to work collaboratively, Valerie Casey of IDEO founded The Designers Accord after being inspired by Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth.”
About 3,500 designers from 20 countries have joined The Designers Accord to share their knowledge about green design practices and assess ecological alternatives. “We can never be in front of a client and not discuss sustainability again,” Casey said.
The analysis of each product includes a dialog on its environmental impact. IDEO has reduced the software packaging for Adobe Illustrator and produced a publication for Sun Microsystems that has no glue or staples.
The intent is not on designing better products with an average shelf life of six to 18 months, but in changing behavior about a product’s usage and lengthening its life cycle. In addition, designers are encouraged to analyze their contracts with their clients to determine where they can conserve, such as rethinking the need to travel in order to reduce unnecessary fuel consumption.
The guidelines for participation in the Designers Accord and their growing list of sustainable designers are available at www.designersaccord.org.
The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design
Marc Alt and Phil Hamlett are co-chairs of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design (CFSD) founded to provide information and support for sustainable design practices. The audience was asked, “What are the criteria for good design?” Some design examples were considered easy targets, such as the Hummer vehicle and the AK47 assault rifle as beautifully engineered products that are ecologically reprehensible.
But some products are more complex to analyze. “It’s not just how things look, but how things are,” Hamlett said, and described the iPod as the “success” story of our time, beautifully designed, but not considered “good design” because its parts can’t be reused or recycled.
Before you design
The CFSD Web site lists these eleven questions designers should consider “before they design, specify or buy anything.”
- Do we need it? Can we live without it?
- Is the project designed to minimize waste?
- Can it be smaller, lighter or made from fewer materials?
- Is it designed to be durable or multifunctional?
- Does it use renewable resources?
- Is reuse practical and encouraged?
- Are the product and packaging refillable, recyclable or repairable?
- Is it made with postconsumer recycled or reclaimed materials and how much?
- Are the materials available in a less toxic form? Can it be made with less toxic materials?
- Is it available from a socially and environmentally responsible company?
- Is it made locally?
For more information on the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, go to www.sustainability.aiga.org.
Incremental steps
During the Q & A, one audience member criticized the AIGA for advocating sustainability while sending out overly designed mailers with vellum wraps, three-word giant posters or invitations with fluorescent inks. Hamlett said the AIGA is aware of the criticism and referred to a report from 2006 that reviewed all of the AIGA’s print projects.
Another attendee asked about postconsumer waste paper, saying he found it too expensive for the print job and wanting to know where he could find inexpensive PCW paper. He was referred to PaperSpecs and advised to confer with other attendees after the seminar. Clearly, there was a need for more of this basic information and not enough time.
The interest of graphic designers in practicing sustainability is evident by the large turnout at this conference. Both Hamlett and Alt approached change as something that begins with the individual and with family and friends. From personal habits and studio procedures, sustainability develops into business practices that eventually become public policy.
If behavioral change is what’s required, hopefully Compostmodern will still address the basic tools of design – paper, ink and printing practices, detailed on the Web sites, but still important to review in a seminar. Change takes place incrementally, as Valerie Casey said, and this forum can send designers home with the optimism that they can do something today that will develop into greener practices tomorrow.
2/13/08
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