Publishers Note
Thinking Green
Quote Of The Month
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Package Design Awards
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The Greener Good
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T-Shirt Offer
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In the column to your right are brief highlights of the proposed revisions to the FTC Green Guidelines governing eco-marketing. The public comment period on the regulations are now open. The basic principles are simple: keep your claims specific rather than general, and be sure they are relevant and can be supported by evidence. Mine may not be the most comprehensive explication, but it is certainly the briefest and there is value in that. If these matters are relevant to your clients, I suggest you find a lawyer to flesh out the details. If you get the same headache I did parsing the bureaucratic language, I suggest you find a doctor.
— Gordon Kaye
Less Water
Levi’s is introducing a new line of jeans that are made
using less water in the manufacturing process. While the average pair of jeans requires 11 gallons of water in the
finishing process, the new Levi’s WaterLess collection reduces water consumption by at least a quarter and, in some
products, by more than 90 percent. The solution included washing the jeans less and adding an ozone process that
stone washes without water. Erik Joule is Senior Vice president of Merchandising and Design and Carl Chiara is
Director of Brand Concepts at Levis. The line
will reach stores in January.
New Design Metrics
Re-nourish, together with several partner organizations including the Society of Graphic Designers of
Canada, launches the Sustainable Design Auditing Project (SDAP), a multi-stakeholder working group tasked with
developing open-source metrics for measuring the environmental, social and economic impacts of the graphic
design supply chain. “It’s time for the graphic design industry to start walking the walk,” states the official
announcement. The goal is a universal and transparent means of communicating impacts and outcomes for
graphic design.
http://www.re-nourish.com/?l=lab_detail&id=86
“What’s different about the Water<Less collection is that we’re still using
the same materials and techniques to create finishes for our jeans but we’ve substantially reduced water’s role
in the equation. Sometimes, the way to achieve a more sustainable design is to rethink a traditional
process and find a way to do it better.”
— Carl Chiara, Director of Brand Concepts and Special Projects of the Levi’s brand.
Wild At Heart
Leveraging the visual language of rebirth, growth and reproduction, Landor Associates has created a new
identity that ties together the 95-year-old San Diego Zoo, its popular Safari Park, and the Zoo’s Institute for
Conservation Research. The egg image connects the collective conservation and education advocacy efforts of
the three entities, to help reach both consumers and donors. “Ambassadors For Wildlife” became the unifying
brand idea which then spawned the slogan “Wild At Heart.” Each institution is differentiated through color,
connecting the properties without having them overlap.
Google Underwater
Google is partnering with the Good Energies investment firm and Japanese trading company Marubeni, to develop an
undersea transmission line that could carry as much as 6,000 megawatts of electricity — said to be equal
to five nuclear reactors — from wind farms in the Atlantic to America’s northeast coast. The ultimate cost:
$6 billon dollars. Cynics note that Google’s massive server facilities currently use enormous amounts of
energy and that getting regulatory approval for
that many offshore wind turbines will be difficult.
Sustainable packaging is special category in this year’s American Package Design Awards. You can now
download an entry form for GDUSA’s fastest-growing national competition. It is presented by GDUSA and
sponsored by Neenah Paper.
http://www.gdusa.com/contests/apda.php
Tubeless
Christine Mau, a lead inhouse designer at Kimberly-Clark, is helping push the consumer goods company into big green
steps. The latest is the launch of a new tubeless toilet paper roll for the Scott Naturals Brand. The new product goes
without the roll’s cardboard tube, making an automatic, tangible improvement to the overall waste pool. According
to the company, U.S households use an estimated 17 billion tissue tubes a year, the equivalent of 160 million pounds of
trash, or, about 250 Boeing 747s. Add to this the fact that the tubes are often overlooked in the recycling process
and that makes for a lot of waste. The product is now being tested in the Northesast at Walmart and Sam’s Club
stores.
Connecting The Earth
Panasonic’s current advertising campaign focuses on its ongoing commitment to environmental responsibility and to
becoming a leader in environmental innovation. The Connecting with the Earth campaign features print and television ads
highlighting Panasonic’s eco-initiatives to develop products that save, create, store, and manage energy as well as
products that can be more easily and completely recycled. Panasonic’s Green Plan 2018 initiative hopes to make the
consumer electronics company the greenest in its category.
http://www.panasonic.com/environmental/ecoideas.asp
Read about designers who are emerging greener
and busier by changing their attitudes, and
those of their clients, about green graphics.
http://gdusa.com/issue_2010/10_oct/feature/index.php
Early Bird Special
Compostmodern, the biennial interdisciplinary conference for designers created by the San Francisco Chapter of AIGA, takes
place January 22-23. Early bird pricing holds until November 30. Rahul Raj, AIGA San Francisco Sustainability Chair,
comments: “By connecting the dots between design practice and social responsibility, this event delivers attendees
real-world examples of how to put ideas into practice. Our conference goal is to instigate action.” The Academy of
Art University will host the event which includes Bruce Mau, Yves Behar, Scott Thomas and Jenifer Willig.
http://www.gdusa.com/eblasts/2010/101118-comp/msg.html
Vertical Video
Hansen Belyea created a short video that tells the story of Eco-Laboratory — a first-place winner of
the national 2008 Natural Talent Competition. In Spring 2010, the project was included in the National Design
Triennial: Why Design Now? exhibition at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum.Seattle-based architecture
firm Weber Thompson developed the EcoLab concept, with input from Dr. Dickson Despommier, Professor Emeritus at
Columbia University. Hansen Belyea created this five-minute video for the Cooper-Hewitt exhibition.
http://www.hansenbelyea.com/work/weber-thompson-video/
THIRD
Third Planet Global Creative, based in Pittsburgh, has created the 3CO t-shirt to raise awareness of human impact on our
fragile planet. A portion of the proceeds of each shirt sold will go to a variety of conservation and environmental
charities. The shirts are organic and eco-friendly. Learn more at...
http://www.333planet.com/tshirt_3co.cfm
Saints and Sinners
The Terrachoice release of its annual “Sins of Greenwashing” study is exquisitely timed given the current focus on
eco-marketing. The study is admirable assemblage of data about consumer products and their claims. The report in a nutshell: there is good news and bad news. The positive is that the number
of products making green claims has increased more than 70 percent, indicating consumer interest is high and rising. The negative? According to Terrachoice analysts, 95 percent
of the products still commit at least one greenwashing “sin,” 70 percent offer no proof of claims, and one-in-three include a package design element that falsely implies a
seal of approval.
Green Recruiting
Do ‘green’ policies help companies attract and retain employees? Current HR research is mixed. One the one hand,
studies by the likes of Adecco and Monster.com find that many workers would be more inclined to work for a green
company and want a job that allows them to have a positive impact on the environment. But... when asked to rank the
elements they look for in a job, the employer’s degree of eco-friendliness was 18th out of 20 factors,
behind the perennials like opportunity, money, responsibility and work/life balance.
http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=533323738
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KEY CHANGES IN NEW
FTC GREEN GUIDES
General Environmental Claims
There is a bright-line rule against general environmental claims. All claims must refer to a specific and limited benefit.
Certifications and Seals
Certifications and seals must clearly state whether created by the company itself or awarded by a third party. Seal must limit claims to specific substantiable benefits.
Free Of Claims
“Free-of” claims (e.g. PVC free) may be deceptive if another substance is just as risky or if the substance has never been associated with the product.
Recyclable Claims
General recyclable claims are allowed only when a substantial majority of consumers or communities have access to the appropriate recycling facilities.
Degradable Claims
General degradability claims for solid waste products and packages can only be made if the process takes one year or less after customary disposal.
Compostable Claims
A general compostable claim is allowed only if product or package will break down in approximately the same time as the materials with which it is composted.
Renewable Energy
With respect to “made with renewable energy” claims, companies should not make that general claim if the product was manufactured with energy produced using fossil fuels.
Renewable Materials
“Renewable materials” claims must be substantiated with information on what the material is, how it is sourced, why the material is renewable, and if it is made almost entirely of the renewable material.
Carbon Offsets
No specific or detailed guidance here. Just be truthful and be able to substantiate with competent and reliable scientificmevidence.
Sustainability Claims
No guidance on claims of sustainability. The FTC believes consumers do not normally perceive “sustainable” as an actual environmental claim.