Downloadable booklet found here:
Why should designers be concerned with sustainability?
Scott Ewen from Emigre once said, "Designers make the world’s most beautiful trash", and it’s true. Paper accounts for 81 million tons of solid waste annually, which constitutes 40% of North America’s total. In the United States alone, designers purchase or specify $9.1 billion in printing and paper annually. When you create that much demand for such resource-intensive products and services you have an opportunity and responsibility to make a difference. Our action, or inaction, will have consequences.
Why should I care?
The risk global warming presents is huge and its impacts can be devastating. As the main contributors to this crisis, we all have a major responsibility.
"Designers actually have more potential to slow environmental degradation than economists, politicians and environmentalist. Their power is catalytic." Alastair Faud-Luke
Source: The Eco-Design Handbook
If that’s not motivation enough, we should also note that most major brands have added sustainability to their business agendas. They recognize it as a competitive advantage and as a key to continued success. From a position of self-interest alone, you really have to start thinking green.
"A common complaint at many a design conference is that designers are not taken seriously in the business world. Designers want to sit at the adult table. Yet despite the fact that sustainability is fast becoming a top-level business priority, and that it represents a progressive issue for which many designers should be sympathetic—design community awareness currently trails existing business initiatives (and related disciplines such as architecture and industrial design). When looking for examples of "design with a capital D," sustainability holds tremendous potential. Designers like to characterize themselves as problem-solvers. If this is true, then they should have little difficulty inserting themselves in the midst of this crucial emerging business dynamic." Phil Hamlett
Source: Communication Arts, Sustainability and Graphic Design
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