Why is Sustainability Important?
Graphic designers have made some fairly amazing and powerful work since the inception of the profession with the early Art Nouveau movement in 1890. We have changed public opinion on wars, politics, as well as influenced new consumer behaviors that dramatically increased the world’s economic output. We’ve made life simpler (at times), faster and easier to navigate. However, as much progress as the design profession has made for society at large, we’ve also been responsible for helping to create an over-consumptive population and an ecosystem teetering on disaster. With every new print piece we produce we make or brand we promote, we also impact the general health of our planet through the vehicle and materials we choose to use.
Quick facts:
-
Paper consumption up 64% since 1961 and continues to rise (Source)
-
Printing industry is the world's third largest polluter (behind cars and steel manufacuring) (Source: Imhoff, Daniel, “Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World,” pg. 100, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, 2005.)
-
Global population growth expected at 3 billion in the next 45 years (Source)
-
If everyone in the world consumed like the average U.S. citizen, we would need at least four more planet Earths (Source)
Graphic designers have helped, through our profession, to deplete the planet of 50% of its most bio-diverse forests and fuel the need for oil (and increase air pollution) by choosing predominantly petroleum-based inks. The paper industry is the lifeblood of the print designer, as they supply the medium for our ideas. However, the price we pay as a society for our creative work is the contamination of our basic life necessities: biodiversity, clean water, and fresh air. The alarming rate at which natural resources are being depleted combined with a projected population growth of 3 billion over the next 40-50 years will only exacerbate current over-consumption and waste trends.
These emerging and important problems will force the graphic designer to face new design criteria. This new standard will be guided by the principles of sustainability, already adopted by many in the product design and architecture industries. These principles will force the designer to be very aware of the impact their solutions have outside of exclusively improved revenue for their clients. The graphic designer will need to understand materials, their contents, their end impacts and the full life cycle of their design objects as to not further damage our biodiversity and increase the depletion of our important natural resources. They must also be constantly informed and up-to-date in order to promote awareness of contemporary issues to the consumer and their clients. Graphic designers need to better understand the impacts of their choices in the beginning stages of a project and design to increase the lifecycle of their work. Designing using sustainable principles with biodegradable or safer materials, and intentional re-use should be the key strategies that graphic designers employ going forward. This is not an easy journey, but one that can be best achieved through relying on each other in a design community. Our decisions will effect business and policy level decisions as we speak with our dollars.
Eric Benson is the creator of renourish, a depository for practical information about sustainable materials and design theory. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois. His teaching methods and assignments hope to serve as an incubator for producing more socially responsible designers in the world.
