As the years have gone on, Sustainability has become more and more a part of our every day lives. There have been a large amount of programmes on how to recycle properly and each household now must contain a different bin for what seems like every different item in the world. Some may say we have gong sustainability-mad. This statement will look at how we can reduce our impact on the environment by adopting sustainable practices for graphic communication.
Although many people may not think it, there are a number of practices we can make in order to provide sustainable development. This entails things like assessing the media used to make products For example; do posters on billboards use more or less energy in their production and use than electronic displays? For they create more or less pollution with their by products such as ink and waste paper than the production of electronic displays and the electricity to power them?
On a smaller scale, we can look at reducing the amount of printouts we make during the design process, turning off electronic devices that are not in use, using environmentally friendly materials such as ink and recycled paper, keeping sustainability and impact on the environment at the front of the design process.
Design can also be created in a sustainable way, for example, recommending and designing for sustainable packing with less plastic produced from oil and more produced from abundant, replenishable, recycled and biodegradable material, such as wood and paper. Sustainable messages and recommendations can even be incorporated into design by suggesting the use of the Recycled symbol, “Green” emblems and information on how to recycle the product at the end of its life.
Sustainability can have a positive effect on a company by reducing waste, also promoting a responsible image in the eyes of the customers and the staff, and leading to new green initiatives that can reduce cost and increase profit. For example, hotels now promote themselves as Green by encouraging their guests to use the towels for more than one day to reduce pollution from laundry detergent and energy from washing and drying them. What they don’t mention is that this sustainability reduces their costs and increases profit. This is also true of supermarkets stopping the free issuing of plastic bags. This is not a problem though as there are no losers, only winners. Everyone is pleased with the outcome.
So, although people have many different views on sustainability, it is clear to see that it is becoming more and more popular and features regularly in television adverts and others and as time goes on I can see it taking over the world! Everyone’s a winner.
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