Design for Sustainability.

We look at sustainability from every angle, minimising environmental impact and promoting eco-friendly design solutions.

1.

What’s the most effective way to get your message across? Do you need a publication or printed item to reach your audience, or can you deliver it digitally?

2.

Multi-purposing is a big bonus. Can one publication or printed item serve multiple purposes?

3.

Size does matter. Does the paper printout need to be that big?

4.

Discuss minimising paper wastage with the printer. What’s the best design format for that?

5.

A lesser number of ink colours also means less resources used.

6.

It’s a simple one, but choose recycled materials where possible.

7.

Find out whether the publication or printed item can be re-used and recycled.

8.

Tell your audience about how the work was produced in an environmentally sensitive way.

1.

Does it have a high post-consumer recycled content?

2.

Does it come from sustainably managed plantation timber? Look for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

3.

Is it free of chlorine-bleached fibres? Look for Process Chlorine Free (PCF), Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) or Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) certifications.

4.

Does it come from a paper mill that has an environmental management system certification? Look for ISO 14001 or EMAS.

5.

Is it made in Australia? We like to support local industry to reduce the environmental impact of transportation.

6.

Size does matter. Does the paper printout need to be that big?

1.

Does the printer have an environmental management system in place? Look for the environmental certification ISO 14001.

2.

Ask the printer if they recycle and separate solid waste – paper off-cuts, cardboard, printing plates, ink containers, cleaning rags, palettes, screens and metals.

3.

What is the VOCs emission rating from the printing process? This includes inks, coatings, cleaning solutions, dampening solutions, glues. The less emissions, the better.

4.

Can we skip the hard-copy proofs and stick to digital proofs?

5.

Try to use vegetable inks on uncoated paper.

6.

Can we avoid metallic and fluorescent inks? These contain heavy metals.

7.

Choose aqueous varnish over UV coatings and plastic laminates.

1.

Have you chosen simple and minimalist designs, avoiding excessive graphics and animations?

2.

Have you converted inefficient GIFs, Flash, or other animated content to MPEG-4 or WebM videos?

3.

Consider using the image formats WebP or JPEG XR for better compression.

4.

Have you implemented lazy loading for images? Lazy loading can help speed up webpage load times.

5.

Research hosting providers that are prioritising renewable energy sources, they are called Green Hosts.

6.

Have you developed a responsive design that adapts to different devices, reducing the need for separate websites or apps?

7.

Consider asking the website developer to remove any unnecessary code and compress files.

8.

Are energy-conscious practices encouraged during development and testing?

9.

Regularly monitor the website’s environmental impact using tools and analytics. Track your website’s carbon footprint here.

10.

Have you educated the development team on the environmental impact of web development?

11.

Consider investing in carbon offset programmes to counteract website-related carbon emissions.