redpoint+ earth=Green Design Machine

Resources

  • Design Can Change A website devoted to increasing the green awareness and activism in the design trade.
  • Forest Stewardship Council Canada A resource for printers (and clients) to find information on the printing industry’s efforts to green up. Useful information includes a list of certified green papers to choose from.
  • Forest Stewardship Council Similar to the above, but the international site.
  • Stop Disasters Game Just for fun, an addictive game developed by the UN to educate about the dangers of disasters.
  • David Suzuki An incredible resource with loads of general climate change information. Whether you think he’s a weirdo or not, Suzuki has some good information worth considering.
  • Flick Off A global movement to reduce greenhouse gases by “Flicking off” lights.

Having a green policy is really just a commitment to increase the environmentally friendliness of our products, service and office. It becomes a vehicle to direct our efforts in an environmentally responsible way. In the design industry, we need to balance the economic results with the environmental factors. Many new options are coming available with each passing day, from digital delivery to more eco-friendly printing

The Policy:

  1. We will adopt responsible practices and regard the environmental impacts of our activities. We will continually review our processes for achieving our goal to protect our entire global environment.
  2. We seek to reduce environmental loads by efficiently using resources, saving energy, reducing waste, encouraging material recycling, and particularly by minimizing emissions of greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting substances, and toxic matter.
  3. We endeavour to minimize environmental loads and adopt environmentally friendly technologies when ordering and purchasing necessary resources, such as printing and office equipment.
  4. We make social contributions by supporting environmental conservation initiatives.

So what does THAT mean?

Really is just means that we will try to stay lean and reduce, reuse and recycle. It will shape our work in the following ways:

In the Office

  • We will use our laser printer as little as possible, and archive printables digitally.
  • We will keep recycle bins accessible in the office.
  • We will group meeting and errands in groups to reduce mileage on vehicles.
  • We will keep the A/C turned down.

For our Clients

  • We have the option to provide printing with partly recycled content, or all recycled content. You have that option to choose from. Most printers today are quite clean-they use vegetable based inks and recycle all waste paper.
  • our files will be archived digitally (hard drive/server) and not necessarily as a hardcopy (CD or DVD). This reduces out reliance on cds and dvds.
  • We will promote web-based initiatives, to reduce print volumes.

Things To Ask For

  • Ask for vegetable based inks on your print projects. This means the ink is water soluble and therefore washes easily down the drain with no environmental harm.
  • Ask for chlorine (bleach) free paper. The paper had to get “White” somehow.
  • Ask for the price. Many of the FSC certified papers are affordable, and others are expensive. We’ll work with you to ensure you can make the commitment to the green products.
  • Ask for forgiveness. Sometimes there isn’t a green solution and you just need bright white paper, or a low-cost print run. This is business, and we all need to get things done.
  • Ask for online solutions. In today’s age of high speed internet, bandwidth isn’t a problem. Perhaps your project could be accomplished online.
  • Target your efforts. Strategically market, don’t mass market. Doing this alone will save printing, mailing, recycling, delivery truck fuel, tires… the list goes on - printing less has more impact than printing more on the best paper out there.