Sustainability in graphic and web design

/ Delux Multimedia/
http://www.daevasdesign.com/organic-design/

Reduce your environmental impacts of graphic design

The graphic design industry relies on a number of resources, such as energy, water, paper, inks, solvents and packaging. Designers make decisions that 'lock-in' potential environmental impacts associated with the life cycle of their designs.

Eco-design is a way of minimizing the impacts of graphic design on the environment.

What are the impacts?

The size, shape, color, printing style and paper stock choices made by a designer will ultimately determine the size of the ecological footprint.

By making informed decisions, designers can reduce their environmental impact, resulting in less greenhouse gas emissions and more efficient use of natural resources.

Paper

With a shift towards electronic file management and cloud computing, paper products still remain an important commodity in today's society.

The life cycle of paper starts before the felling of trees for pulp – the steel and fuel required for machines come from other industries that have their own environmental impacts. Once the trees are cut down they're turned into chipping, then transported, pulped, bleached and finally manufactured into paper.

Each of these stages uses valuable resources and releases pollutants such as Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and greenhouse gases into the environment.

Inks and solvents

Inks and solvents can contain pollutants and create emissions that contribute to environmental pollution.

Many printing inks and solvents contain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute to climate change – and once VOCs are emitted and mixed with vehicle exhaust, they can form photochemical smog.

Some inks contain toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and barium, which can pose major health and environmental risks if they find their way into the natural environment. During printing, waste ink is produced through color changes, press cleaning, and poor ink management.

Printing

A significant concern with printers is their emissions to air, water and the solid waste that's produced.

Printing companies who've considered their emissions will have some form of environmental accreditation or management system in place. Be sure to ask about how a printing service deals with their waste, and what measures they take to reduce their air and water emissions before selecting a printing service.

Design for the web

As a web designer, it's important to consider what happens to the design if it's printed. While techniques such as white text on a black background facilitate onscreen reading and reduces a computer's power consumption, it wastes huge amounts of ink when printed. This is also true of web pages that run onto two or more pages when printed and waste paper.

Another key issue with web design and development is the energy required to operate internet and IT servers.

Office energy use

Graphic designers rely on their computers for work. However, computers eat up large amounts of energy and contribute to climate change. Try switching a proportion of your electricity to green power – even if it's only 20 percent – to reduce your carbon footprint.

Tips for sustainable web and graphic design

There are a number of ways you can design graphics in a way that considers the environment.

Design

  • Do more with less: be innovative in downsizing – go for originality rather than size, whether it's a retro self-folding envelope or tiny business cards.

  • Rightsize it: by optimizing rather than oversizing the job, you reduce the demand for paper to be produced.

  • Fill the white up: by reducing the amount of white space in a document, you can reduce the amount of paper needed to produce it.

  • Give it a second life: give your product a second chance at life so that it reduces the possibility of ending up in a landfill.

  • Don't bleed to the edges: by simply leaving a white border around your design, you can reduce ink waste and allow for more paper to be recycled.

Paper

  • Make it chlorine free: request paper that has been bleached using either Totally Chlorine Free bleaching (TCF), or Process Chlorine Free bleaching (PCF).

  • Look for certification: there are several certifying bodies that provide a tick of approval for paper stock from environmentally friendly sources.

  • Use PC (post-consumer) recycled: choose paper with the highest percentage of recycled content available.

  • Make it thinner: does it have to be on thick heavy-duty card, or can you get away with a lower GSM and still deliver a quality product?

Ink and printing

  • Request VOC-free inks: reducing the demand and choosing VOC-free alternatives can really make a difference to the amount of VOCs emitted.

  • Use an eco-friendly printer: ask your printer what they're doing to reduce their environmental impacts – a good printer should be reducing waste.

  • Don't print at all: go digital and use an alternative to printing where possible as this will drastically reduce the environmental impacts of your product.

Customers

  • Let them know: communicate your decisions to your clients and encourage them to include the information on their product.

  • Give clients the eco-option: always offer your clients an option that has been designed to reduce impacts.