Design Sustainably. Sustainability is 'the ultimate design brief' "There are professions more harmful than design", wrote the godfather of sustainable design, Victor Papanek in 1972, "but only a few".
Papanek accused designers of creating useless, unnecessary and unsafe products; of wastefully propagating product obsolescence; of creating "stuff-lust" that promoted materialistic lifestyles. As the 2012 London Design Festival kicks off this week, one wonders how much has really changed. Are the objects of desire emerging from the festival destined to bulge our landfills or secure our future? A look at the agenda shows scant reference to sustainability so one can only conclude, and hope, these issues are increasingly integrated rather than dealt with as a stand-alone. Design matters The material world that surrounds us – the signs that direct us, the smartphone pages we flick through, the way we use buildings, how we move around cities – is consciously or unconsciously designed.
Design Sustainably. What is sustainability?
Sustainability goes beyond just "being green" and is moreover not easy to achieve. Its concept is interconnected with everything we do, consume and make. Currently there is nothing created by humans that truly fits its definition. Sustainability is defined as allowing for the needs of all people to be met without preventing those same needs from being met by future generations (Brundtland Commission, 1987). 10 Examples of Sustainability Plans for Graphic Designers. With architecture and product design, it’s pretty easy to craft a sustainability or “green” strategy that makes sense.
If you’re an architect, you design buildings that are more energy efficient, that promote transit usage, and that utilize sustainable materials. Product designers can create products that are more durable (less waste), require less energy to use or produce, utilize less packaging, or generally encourage greener living. Most graphic designers, however, don’t produce as many artifacts with the potential to use – or save – large amounts of resources. This makes it a little more challenging to create a meaningful sustainability strategy, and even harder to explain that strategy to current and prospective clients and the community at large. Sure, you can make a commitment to using recycled paper, but that only gets you so far, and what about the growing number of projects that don’t use paper at all? Creative Slice Brainforest Digital Eskimo Ecocreative. 72 Sustainable Packaging Designs - From Flexible Eco Packaging to Leafy Lighthearted Branding.
Incorporating eco-friendly features into a product is a great way to help out the environment, and these sustainable packaging designs are showcasing that inventive eco branding can make a significantly bold impact.
Shoebox redesign. Distant Village. Distant Village. Distant Village Packaging. Client: Pacha Soap Pacha Soap is a socially and environmentally responsible soap maker, we love their wonderful soaps and clean ethos, and so we wanted to hear what they had to say about our labels.
The custom hemp and wild-grass label we made for their product, they said, helps it look “unique”, and “like no other” on the shelf. “The quality of the paper looks beautiful, and helps with marketing and presentation.” 10 tips for sustainable package design. For nearly a decade, the biggest buzz in packaging has been the move toward sustainability, or “green” packaging.
Driven by retailer requirements, public perception, economic pressures (petroleum, in particular), and government policies, sustainability impacts every aspect of a package—from the source of its raw materials to its end of life—and as such has proven to be an incredibly complex issue. But over the years of debate and discovery, we have learned some core truths about the topic. First, there is no such thing today as a completely sustainable package. Instead, sustainability is a journey. The goal is to make incremental improvements over time in the sustainability of a package to reduce its overall environmental impact. What Is Sustainable Packaging? Image credit: Sustainable Packaging Coalition Welcome to Sustainable Brands' Issue in Focus on sustainable packaging!
As a Senior Director at GreenBlue, the parent organization of the Sustainable Packaging Coalition (SPC), I’ve spent a lot time over the last six years researching, writing, facilitating group projects, developing metrics and creating conference agendas on the topic. If you are new to the concept of sustainable packaging, a good way to get up to speed (besides reading the articles we will feature this month) is to visit the SPC website and click on the resources tab. Start by downloading the SPC Definition of Sustainable Packaging, which is also the focus of my introductory comments as one of the issue co-editors. Figure 1 captures the essence of the SPC Definition, which focuses on eight key criteria. Developing the definition was the first project of the SPC and was accomplished through a 15-month stakeholder dialog process. Green Gate Bio Packaging: Eco-friendly Food Packaging Materials.
Paper : The papers used to manufacture our products are either from recycled or sustainable forest sources ensuring that our forests are not depleted.
Paper can either be recycled or, since paper is produced from organic matter, can also biodegrade. PLA stands for Polylactic Acid which is a biodegradable plastic derived from renewable plant resources such as corn starch. The PLA most commonly used in food packaging has a relatively low melting temperature and therefore is only suitable for packaging cold food and drinks.
PLA food packaging products are generally manufactured through a process of ‘thermoforming’ whereby heat is used to mould PLA sheets into specific shapes. Green Gate bio-plastic food packaging products are largely made using the NatureWorks LLC brand of PLA known as Ingeo. Specific forms of Ingeo meet the EN 13432 standard and are certified as compostable. PSM stands for PlaStarch Material. Eco friendly packaging & catering disposables. Eco-Friendly Materials. TEDxUIUC - Eric Benson - Sustainable Graphic Design. 10 Examples of Sustainability Plans for Graphic Designers. Sustainability - Ethics in Graphic Design. Sustainable practices for graphic designers include a wide range of issues.
When creating traditional print materials the toxicity of ink and paper and the sheer quantity of paper produced need to be considered. In addition to these factors there are other phases of the life cycle of products that need to be examined. To really determine the sustainability or carbon footprint of a product, one needs to follow it through its entire life cycle. Questions need to be raised about how much fuel is being used for shipping, what the final end product is, how long the life cycle is, and how long before the product ends up as waste. In Green Graphic Design author Brian Dougherty asks graphic designers to start at the end of the process instead of the beginning.
Sustainable product design - in pictures. Design Sustainably. Sustainable design. Sustainable Innovation, Sustainable Design, Eco-innovation. The Sins of Greenwashing: Home and Family Edition.