PUBLISHER'S NOTE
At a wedding last week, I was seated next to one of the foremost environmental consultants in the Southeast United States, based at one of Georgia's great universities. Discussing this enewsletter, she said that the most important truth to tell graphic designers is that solutions to environmental problems, while they may seem simple, are incredibly complex. Indeed, she argued that the process tends to illustrate the law of unintended consequences: save an endangered specie and exacerbate a drought; dismiss nuclear power and increase pollution from coal; apply a proven certification program to a different location or product and get distorted results. In striving for real world solutions, she must fight against entrenched industry interests and, at the same time, against "environmental whackos" who are often "a mile wide and an inch deep." Her words, not mine, and now you know why she did not want to be identified. The next day, my favorite non-graphic design magazine, The Economist, arrived with a cover story presenting yet another example of the law of unintended consequences. It turns out that as ethanol use rises and diverts the behavior of farmers, grains and other foods are becoming increasingly expensive for the poorest people on the planet. God only knows the ultimate fall out. My point is not to fear "going green;" there is no going back nor should we. But it is important to ask hard questions, support realistic programs and nuanced experts, and recognize that there are no bumper sticker solutions, as desperately as we may wish them.
— Gordon Kaye, editorial@gdusa.com
THINKING GREEN
Idealism Into Practice
Compostmodern '08 is an interdisciplinary design conference dedicated to promoting sustainable solutions within the design community. Promoted as a learning opportunity that can help transform idealism into actual business practice, and further define the role of design and designers in making the world a better place. Alex Steffen of Worldchanging is the featured speaker. Others on the panel include Adam Werbach, founder and ceo, Act Now, Mark Alt and Phil Hamlett representing the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, Jane Savage of Nike, Scott Stowell of Open, and Jeff Walker, a principal at VSA. It all takes place at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco on Saturday, January 19.
http://www.compostmodern.org
FTC Examines Brand Guidelines
As consumers increasingly demand environment friendly products, the FTC is moving up planned hearings — from 2009 to January 2008 — that will its review existing "Green Guidelines" for advertising and marketing. Among other matters, it will consider what exactly constitutes terms such as "carbon neutral" and "carbon offsets," and to determine what verifiable standards, if any, businesses must meet in the future. For close to a decade, the FTC has overseen the use of key environmental identifiers in the marketing and packaging of products and services that claim to use recycled materials, biodegradables or organics. Today, manufacturers and service providers are adding new terms to their marketing lexicons, thus prompting the Commission's hearings. The FTC will also evaluate whether existing rules regulating "green" designations adopted in 1998 are still useful and cost-effective.
Blue The New Green
JWT, the largest advertising agency in the United States, has just issued a report forecasting trends for the near future. Leading the predictions is the ascendency of blue over green as the environmental movement's color du jour. A summary of the report states that "Blue is the new green: Climate change has quickly become the driver of environmentalism 2.0, and people worldwide understand that climate is all about the seas and the sky — both blue. Watch for 'green' to become a subset of 'blue,' which is coming to denote the much larger emerging spirit of good-citizen ethics." This is the third year JWT has published its annual trends forecast.
Triple Bottom Line
The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership held its first stakeholders meeting in late November. Representatives from the Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association, the Flexographic Technical Association, environmental groups, and key government agencies were in attendance to take the first steps towards a national registry program for green and sustainable printing practices. During the meeting, it was agreed by all members of the stakeholders group that the focus of sustainable printing would have to extend beyond environmental concerns and focus on all three important concepts of sustainability — people, profits, and the planet— the so-called triple bottom line.
http://www.sgppartnership.org
Please Recycle Initiative
In last month's GDUSA Green Enews, we reported that the Direct Marketing Association has launched an initiative to encourage consumers to recycle catalogs and mixed paper. We have since learned that the program has much broader reach than we realized. Indeed, the Please Recycle program is sponsored by the Envelope Manufacturers Association and the Magazine Publishers Association, as well as the Direct Mail Association. All three organizations have received the endorsement of the Environmental Protection Agency to use the Please Recycled logo to encourage consumers and customers to recycle mailing materials.
http://www.envelope.org
Dreaming of a Green Christmas
Futurist Chris Carbone is the author of a recent report on the future of toys, published by the global futurist research and consulting firm, Social Technologies. Among his extensive findings: ethical consumption, which integrates personal values into purchasing choices, is having an growing effect on toy purchasing. Carbone explains. "Rather than focusing solely on standard consumer variables such as price, quality and convenience, buyers consider ethical, religious, political and other beliefs in their decisions." Toys will not be immune to this trend and, in particular, Carbone forecasts that consumers will see more "green" toys made from environmentally friendly and recycled materials as well as more "fair trade" toys.
http://www.socialtechnologies.com
GREEN PEOPLE
A Go-To Resource
In August 2005, Eryn Willard opened Studio 22 in the Washington DC area to specialize in visual branding, marketing and corporate communications, and sustainability communications. She has proven to have a thoughtful approach to design as well as expertise in environmentally-friendly printing, all with the goal of creating high brand awareness for clients but with less impact on scarce resources. The firm's mission is be "the area's go-to resource for environmentally-conscious graphic design solutions, and to serve as partners in educating our current and prospective clients about the lower-impact options available to produce their communications materials." In that spirit, Studio 22 has developed a separate division that concentrates on helping companies shape and promote their sustainability reports and related communications regarding responsible practices. Eryn is a graduate of McDaniel College. Her work has received regional and district ADDY Awards, a regional AAF Judge's Award, an Admissions Marketing Award, and GDUSA's American Graphic Design Awards. She has been published in Graphic Design USA, Creativity, and American Corporate Identity. Eryn is also an active member of the regional chapter of the AAF and has served on its board of directors as an officer for a number of years.
www.studio20two.com, www.sustainabilitreports.com
PROJECT PLANET
Long Road CD
The Eagles recently released and highly anticipated CD, Long Road Out of Eden, is the first new music from this Rock & Roll Hall-of-Fame band since 1980. The package, designed by Smog Design of Los Angeles and printed by Ivy Hill Packaging, features Domtar Feltweave, a text and cover paper made with 30% post-consumer recycled fiber and virgin fiber from FSC-certified forests or other controlled sources. Feltweave papers are part of the Domtar EarthChoice® family, a line of papers that are FSC certified, publicly endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance, and supported by World Wildlife Fund and Forest Ethics. The CD is exclusively distributed at Wal-Mart stores, in part because the retailer has recently unveiled straightforward environmental goals and policies.
Rudolph The Recycling Raindeer
Barneys, at Union Square in San Francisco, has created its first "green" holiday window. Conceived to coincide with the store's switch to eco-friendly catalogs and recycled shopping bags, the creative staff went pawing through piles of aluminum soda cans and bottle tops to create the giant, colorful Rudolph the Recycling Reindeer that graces the front entrance of the O'Farrell Street store. The main holiday windows feature merchandise paired with paintings of Mother Earth by developmentally disabled artists at Creative Growth in Oakland, along with colorful tin stars made from soda cans. Simon Doonan, Barneys creative director, said the soda can displays were very labor intensive. "Our windows are always artsy-craftsy and always include a community feature. We did 17 Rudolphs... it took six weeks to build the frame and six months to collect the cans..."
A New Superhero
An unlikely new super hero — KAB Man — has the mission of motivating young adults to become involved in litter prevention and waste reduction programs in their communities. KAB Man is the creation of Taylor Design, and is aligned with client Keep America Beautiful. The character is starring right now on a website that the firm developed which features, among other things, three original movies by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, an interactive recycling game, and branded things for sale.
http://www.kabman.org
Compact Living
Easy Living, the British-based Condé Nast-owned women's monthly magazine, launches a compact "eco edition" in response to reader demand. Publisher Susie Forbes contends that this is the first glossy women's magazine to be offered with am "environmentally friendlier" paper option. The compact edition, which will start in February, is to be produced on 100% de-inked, recycled paper. The cover will use a combination of waste and virgin fiber. A full size edition will continue to be produced. Says Forbes: "We aren't claiming to save the world, but the fact that the compact eco edition will be printed on fully recycled paper is a very small step in the right direction on behalf of the environment."
Sustainable Vodka
360 Vodka has a brand identity based entirely on sustainability. Graphic design firm Sagon Phior handled the identity and package design. "The concept behind the bottle (85% recycled glass) and logo that adorns it (blown into the glass) is all about sustainability, represented by the idea of things coming full circle or 360 degrees," says Sagon-Phior's Darren Tarlow. "Every aspect of this brand and bottle were created to be as renewable as possible..." Design elements include labels completely encircling the bottle and printed on New Leaf 100% PCW paper; shipping boxes made from recycled paperboard complete with handles so they may have continued use for moving or storage; and inclusion of a return mailer so consumers can return the bottle top closure for reuse by the company, leaving the consumer with a pure glass bottle for recycling.
Drinking The Pond
To help market a new beer brand, Pure Blond, Foster's enlisted young Melbourne creative agency We Are Hunter to create a temporary bar and hangout called The Pond. The creative brief: develop a space that reflects the brand's sense of purity. As such, the bar features materials and a look that might once have been considered junky, furnished with reclaimed concrete and plantation pine furniture. Birch trees used for decoration were found sitting disused at the back of a golf course. Menus and posters are printed on discarded rock posters while lighting comes courtesy of beeswax candles and low-wattage LED lights. Hunter's Barrie Barton says: "The idea is to make people think a little bit about our resources and how we use them." And, we presume, to sell a bit of beer along the way.
COMING NEXT FROM GDUSA...
The American Inhouse Design Awards call for entries coming in mid-January; to be included on the mailing list...
http://www.gdusa.com/contests/aida.php