How Can A Graphic Design Company Be "Eco-Friendly"?
by Ryan Lewis
This is a valid question and one that can be answered surprisingly simply. Graphic design, just as any practice in life, can be approached in sustainable manner merely by having a well-intentioned person with worldly perspectives at its helm. It's going to be hard avoid a "holier than thou" tone here, but I'm going to try :-)
I like to let the natural light shine through the workplace. (This isn't my workplace.)
I'm not going to go into the bitter details here about my every outlook, but I can tell you now that I am conscious every waking moment about the effects that my actions are having on the planet and its creatures. This isn't just to be able to tout that I run a "green" business and appeal to that side of potential customers. It's something that is very important to me, not to take it to the extreme and try living outside society, but to find ways to operate within its parameters in the most sustainable ways possible.
Now that we're through that little diatribe, I will go into a few ways that this carries through to the way my company operates.
Electricity is used on an as-needed basis. We don't come into the office each day and flick on all of the lights, turn on all of our electronics, etc. I'm fortunate to have windows where I work and light comes majorly from the sun in most cases. During night hours artificial lighting is used when needed from a single source overhead without surplus.
My machines are the bare essentials that are needed to take care of my customers' needs and they allow me to do so to the best of my ability. A decked out Macbook Pro does the job for me (and, in turn, you). They are "green" when it comes to computing equipment and they allow me to dim the monitors to only what's needed, not the intense light levels that have many office workers looking like zombies by the end of the day. Sure, brightness might be jacked up here and there throughout the day to ensure I am capturing the correct colors, photography settings, etc., but for the most part it's kept at a minimum. It also allows me to easily shut the notebook when I walk away from my station in order to conserve power whenever the opportunity arises.
Printing is used strictly when absolutely necessary. I've worked in design studios where there are sometimes multiple printers that rarely stop chugging throughout the day as designers, directors, account people, etc. print every slight change to a draft, every e-mail associated to an account, etc.
I have become extremely efficient at operating digitally to the max of my ability. Prints are needed from time to time to ensure that colors match, page elements are sized correctly and the layout is generally working in that format, but I have grown capable of operating with very little printing necessary. Little more than experience has made it possible to view layouts and graphics on screen and interpret them as they would appear in print format.
The acquired ability to envision the translation from screen to print saves A LOT of paper. (This isn't me.)
Unused prints are used as sketch paper for our creative needs. You can say that our primary "recycling program" is done internally. Our customary practice is to use letter-sized paper for brainstorming and sketching and the backs of envelopes and smaller sheets for creating punch-lists and the like. I guess you can call us pack-rats, in a way :-)
All company bills are received and paid paperless with online accounts. Our invoices are sent through e-mail, along with design proposals, contracts, estimates, proofs, etc.
Very little car traveling is required, as I work from a home office, do not require many supplies, and consolidate errand-running to conserve fuel and maximize efficiency.
Other includes not directly associated with the graphic design or marketing business, per se, are practices like always using reusable bottles and well water for drinking, doing dishes and not relying on disposable dishwater or cutlery, eating primarily whole foods that require minimal to no packaging, and composting plant refuse. I also minimize artificial heating and cooling (one office I worked in liked to jack up the heat in the early morning and level it out with a lot of A/C in the afternoon).
So this should give you a good idea of small efforts that it takes in order to be more ecologically conscious as businesses and human beings. I'm not perfect in this regard, but I guarantee that I literally will constantly strive for the improvement of myself, my company, my planet and all of its creatures.