All posts tagged recycling

Digital media, click here for deforestation

By On March 1, 2011 In GIGAbase, Green Design, Positive Design With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Digital media, click here for deforestationPermalink

Most of us think about the flows of energy and materials associated with printing the way fish think about water. In other words; not. This is despite the fact that large organizations typically spend between 5% and 35% of every dollar spent (exclusive of labor) on paper and printing. That printing is done on paper made from the trees in the forests that seem to be on a fast track to disappearing. As a result, we are pushed, bullied and made guilty over using paper. It’s gone as far as seeing clients apologize in advance because they want to make some prints, thinking SGTH is opposed to it. And that will they get frowned upon.

But is going paperless really greener?  Read a full article about this in pdf format, by Don Carli (www.sustaincom.org) here .

Additional links on this are: http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/media/showcase/don-carli-on-marketplace-morning-report
http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/resources/articles/which-medium-is-more-sustainable-paper-or-digital
http://www.sustainablecommunication.org/resources/white-papers/false-dilemmas-and-forced-choices

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Please stop saving the earth!

By On February 12, 2011 In Design Matters, Eco, GIGAbase, Green Design, Positive Design With No Comments Permanent Link to Please stop saving the earth!Permalink

We’re all familiar with the slogans encouraging us to change the way we do certain things in order to “save the planet”. Dispose your non-degradable and non-recyclable paper coffee cup in a trash can and “the earth will say thank you”. Carry your cloth shopping bag around and “help the environment”.

Even if the aim here is simply to build awareness, it just doesn’t do anything for the earth. None of our these eco actions do. Don’t get me wrong; I’m committed to living a sustainable life. But to market or believe that we do this to save our planet?
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Want to design Positive? Go bananas.

By On January 16, 2011 In Design Matters, Eco, GIGAbase, Green Design, Positive Design With 1 Comment Permanent Link to Want to design Positive? Go bananas.Permalink

Positive by design, the banana

by SGTH

True story; at SGTH we compare the final outcome of any design project with a banana. It is actually my studio’s professional goal to one day deliver another banana. Twenty years in the business, I have yet to deliver that one. Nor have I seen any design that compares. Here is one piece of fruit that teaches us nine demanding design lessons, for those who truly wish to design beyond just green.

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Why your design is not getting recycled

By On January 11, 2011 In Design Matters, Eco, GIGAbase, Green Design With 2 Comments Permanent Link to Why your design is not getting recycledPermalink

Pollution is everywhere. You did not need me – nor this blog – to point that out to you. Hence we all have this notion instilled in us that we want and need to recycle as much as we can. We figure that anything tossed in a recycling bin is going to get recycled in one way. Maybe more so here in China, where there is always a taker for anything paper.

The problem here is contamination. That’s a pretty big word, and most of us do not fully understand it. What this means is the blending of two [different and unrelated] materials which renders both unsuitable for any intended or further usage.

Contamination is the quickest way to see an entire batch of recyclables head to the landfill and or incinerators. This is especially true for paper. And paper is kind of big for that graphic design thing we do. We craft it, modify it, have it produced to our and our client’s liking.

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