Where does the responsibility for creating sustainable design lie?
Surely we, as communicators and designers, should take a greater lead in promoting sustainable design with our clients, rather than merely responding to the request to "print it on something recycled". We should see it as part of the creative challenge to make our designs not only clever and beautiful, but sustainable too. And we should have fun doing it – playfulness, passion and enthusiasm are contagious.
I guess the biggest challenge is living up to these ideals. After all, when the deadline's looming, and the budget's been spent, it's all too easy to revert to our old, familiar ways. Sustainable design demands commitment and it demands lateral thinking. It needs to be ingrained into our thinking from the outset. We need to make that step change and rise to the challenge.
I recently came across a consultancy that has been set up specifically to enable everyone involved in design and advertising to rethink their working cultures and start to produce sustainable creative solutions that really work. Three Trees Don’t Make a Forest is a not for profit enterprise set up by Sophie Thomas (thomas.matthews), Caroline Clark (Lovely as a Tree) and Nat Hunter (Airside). They're there to help, and have the track record, expertise, know-how and contacts to do just that.
Check out their website (www.threetreesdontmakeaforest.org). They offer advice and research and show how we can maintain quality and reduce costs, whilst still designing sustainably.
One of our core values at Playgroup is collaboration, and working with people like Three Trees Don’t Make a Forest can only add to the value of our product.
