The Green Festival Gives Graphic Designers Reason to Celebrate

My goals for the day were to find resources for the sustainable graphic design studio and to see how sustainability influences the decisions designers make in paper, ink and packaging choices. When I arrived, the festival entrance was bustling. As I traversed the aisles filled with eager eco-visitors, cheery eco-fashion, green home and renewable energy vendors, and motivating social justice organizations, my initial feeling of dizziness was replaced by an overwhelming sense of hope. Over 300 vendors and a rumored 35,000 per-day visitor total were truly uplifting statistics.

Graphic designers provided a host of print collateral for the vendors and the event itself–much of it actualizing sustainable principles such as post-consumer waste, vegetable inks and wind-powered printers. In most cases designers claimed those environmental considerations directly on their brochures, postcards, booklets and other materials. However, I found plenty of print-based work made from unspecified papers and inks. This should serve as an important lesson for the contemporary graphic designer: if your work is environmentally responsible, you should let your customers know it. Not only does this messaging provide positive PR for your client, but it will also educate other consumers and designers. The more information we can share and communicate as designers and individuals, the more we can do to promote sustainable design.

The organic beer that I drank in hopes of saving the planet was served in tiny plastic sample cups made from PLA (a corn-based bioplastic). The nearby cutlery was made from potato starch, while the plates were composed of compostable sugarcane from China. The “trash” areas were divided into four categories: compost, recyclable paper, recyclable containers and landfill, and were also staffed by a volunteer to guide you through choosing the proper receptacle in which to dispose of your waste. While this process may seem tedious, check out the results: according to show director Georgia Malki, the 2006 San Francisco Green Festival diverted 10 tons of solid waste from the landfill. The 36,000 people who attended that event sent only four percent of the waste to the landfill, while the remainder was either recycled or composted and turned into mulch for gardening.

Plenty of energy-saving information for our studios and homes was on-hand. A group sponsored by Mayor Daly distributed free CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) since the benefits of switching your standard incandescent bulb to a CFL are immensely significant, and it will save your design firm some expensive utility costs, too. Vendors also showcased low VOC (volatile organic compounds), eco-friendly paints and cleaning supplies, ways to offset the CO2 emissions of your business or home, online services to stop junk mail, sustainable furniture, and environmentally responsible hotel options for your next client meeting.

Despite the best of eco-friendly intentions, the Green Festival still produced a lot of “stuff.” The biggest challenge of being sustainable is controlling our consumption. The more we make, regardless of how “green” the materials are, we still use massive amounts of energy and water. The key question that the conference did not address is how as designers and citizens we can achieve more satisfaction with less stuff–what is typically called “consumption efficiency.”

I am not suggesting that we stop creating, but instead plan better (after all, to design is to plan). Victor Papanek said, “Design is basic to all human activities–the placing and patterning of any act towards a desired goal constitutes a design process. ” How can we improve our creative process, further economic stability, and preserve the future of our craft while also taking care of our ecosystem?

The mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” is a good one. In our current design model, we utilize recycling methods and at times reuse. However, we typically forget that crucial first step. In terms of printing, we can reduce our paper waste by ganging up our smaller jobs with other medium-sized pieces of similar color and paper choices, and limit bleeds to reduce ink coverage and increase the ability for the paper to be recycled. But at a macro scale, designers must confront consumption of our creations.

A representative from Loll, a recycled plastic furniture vendor, spoke quite honestly about this dilemma, saying that selling one of their recycled HDPE chairs was “ bittersweet” since its model goes against the current plan of design for obsolescence. A Loll chair is virtually indestructible and simply lasts “forever ” (or until recycled). Its functional design avoids trends, and its durability discourages acquiring more unless you grow your family and home. And if for some reason you don’t want your chair any longer, you can sell it or down-cycle it into something else. As a result, customers don’t return often.

Although the question of over-consumption warrants far more discussion by our profession, the Green Festival was an enjoyable, informative event to test out some of the latest sustainable products and services. The folks over at www.greenoptions.com even confirmed my good decision to travel by offsetting my 130 miles and 210 pounds of CO2 emissions through a purchase of renewable energy credits at Renewable Choice Energy. And even though organic beer hasn’t saved the world yet, it does taste delicious.

The Green Festival is sponsored by Global Exchange and Co-Op America. It will be traveling to Washington D.C. October 6-7 and San Francisco, CA November 9-11, 2007.

Eric Benson is a task-force member of the AIGA CFSD, a Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois, and founder of www.re-nourish.com