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A greener design agency

Erskine Design are looking to encourage more design agencies to adopt an ethical, greener stance in their workplaces.

For some time I’ve been one of those people who recycles my waste and cares about the environment, but how easily can this be applied to business? When I worked at Agenzia the boys had initiated some good recycling policies and I was impressed that people in a small business would care. Nowadays, since starting Erskine Design, I’m verging on the obsessive about running an ethical, “green” business.

Erskine recycling

Now, my intentions are not cynical here, but I cannot deny that ethical and green issues are sexy these days, and in our case this commitment is attracting the right kinds of clients. As a design agency, we are developing a strong niche working with ethical partners and clients and our genuine willingness to reduce waste and act responsibly is bringing great rewards. The thing is, business is business, and taking steps to improve these things is not easy. It can be hard to find the right kind of information and services to help, and there is much contradiction in the press.

So, in the first of what I think will be many forthcoming “green” articles, I’ve collated a number of links and resources that have helped us get our offices in order, in the hope that they’ll also be of use to you.

What kind of things does a “green” agency do?

Some of these are obvious, but in general we are striving to comply with the following:

Carbon offset our websites and mobile phones.
Travel less or cycle, and use trains
Share a car and keep within the speed limit
Turn the computers and printers off at night, or when possible.
Unplug iPods and mobile phones once they’ve charged.
Keep the heating down and get some jumpers on.
Use energy saving lightbulbs in our offices.
Print on both sides of paper where possible, and never print emails.
Buy locally-sourced food with minimal packaging
Get fair-trade tea and coffee in for the team.
Use envelopes and stationary printed on recycled material.

Some of these things need will-power, and there are inevitably times when you just have to print that email or can’t share a car. Still, I honestly feel that making an effort is what really matters, and doing so with integrity.

Don’t know where to start? Visit these sites...

Coco: The easy way to offset a website or mobile phone, costing from £6 per year. COCO automatically make a donation and/or purchase carbon offsets to offset the impact of your websites on the environment. A typical web server can generate over 2 tonnes of carbon per year. COCO intentionally over-invest in carbon offsets to ensure the emmissions generated by registered websites are reduced or negated elsewhere.

npower Juice: Responsible electricity supply is within reach, and Juice is generated from a number of renewable energy sources. npower matches every unit of normal electricity that you use and feeds the same amount, generated from renewable sources, into the electricity network. There is no premium to pay with Juice. It costs exactly the same as standard npower electricity.

Recycle Now: Recycling at home or in the workplace. This is the main site for facts, ideas and general info/support about home or office recycling. The composting section will tell you if teh local council have any subsidies available to you.

Home Composting: If you work at home, or perhaps have a bit of spare soil where you work, think about sticking a composter on it. This is a great way to reduce rubbish and turn it into something useful. Mine cost just £8, subsidised by the local council, and as well as all the “greens” and “browns” I’m filling it with, it is also a great home for all the shredded paper that I couldn’t reuse.

Lovely As A Tree: Graphic designers are involved in the destruction of forests as well as fuelling the need for oil and increasing air pollution by choosing petroleum-based inks. Us poncey designers are at least partly responsible for the 12.5 million tonnes of paper and card that get thrown into landfill in the UK every year. This website aims to help graphic designers take a more environmentally friendly approach to print projects, with advice on how to reduce the impact of your design, and contacts to help you source environmentally friendlier paper and print.

Green Your Office: Transform your workplace into a socially and environmentally responsible place to be with high quality socially and environmentally responsible office products and services.

WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme): WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.

New Consumer: We are biased here as we built this site, but we do read it every day for tips and advice on ethical products for the home, office, garden… everything.

Use Apple computers! Greenpeace’s Green My Apple rang the alarm bells about Apple’s record here, but Steve set the record straight with Apple’s response.

Don’t think about it, do it!

I admit that we have not yet implemented all of the above across the board, and we’re realistic enough to know that it is a gradual process. We are building carbon offsetting into our quotes, and as most of us still work at home, individuals take responsibility for their own work environments until we finally find a perfect office space. Still, we’re proud of our progress so far, and we know we have more to do.

I’m sure there are many more resources out there, so I’d be interested to hear of your ideas, initiatives, or of any other useful sites that can help.

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Posted by Colly on 22/05/07 in Erskine news

Comments

I applaud your sentiments and general intentions - not to mention Erskine Design’s excellent web sites. However, re your green intentions, carbon offsetting is dodgy in the extreme! the whole concept legitimises the continuation of carbon emission production in the west whilst resulting in potentially unmonitored and unregulated ‘offsetting’ activity in developing countries. Digging up pristine rain forest to plant new trees or biomass fuel sources are not good outcomes. Direct reduction of carbon emissions and not offsetting is what is needed.

22/05 at 08:08 from Brenda

What do you mean by ‘poncey’ designers?

22/05 at 08:10 from Graham

Brenda: Oh. That has taken the wind out of my sails. I’m sorry to have suggested it, but you have to agree it is hard to know what to believe from the media, scientists and activists these days.

Graham: Here is a definition of poncey/poncy. I’m only being tongue-in-cheek. I am, as a designer, making a generalisation that we are a snobbish, self-important bunch that care more for a font-flourish or Pantone reference than we do about whether the paper is recycled or not. You know what I mean - its written all over our in-joke t-shirts, our obscure music tastes, our mockery of those we believe do not “get” design. That is the ponciness (and a worryingly large number of designers fit the generalisation), and that is probably fine!

22/05 at 08:23 from Colly

This sounds like a lot of worthy, self-righteous nonsense. Am I wrong?

23/05 at 19:42 from Nigel

Nigel: Yes, you are wrong. Any amount of respect for our colleagues, environment, the planet etc can’t be seen as self-righteous can it? I’m not doing it to impress anyone, I just think it is worth making a few changes, and if we all did that things would soon start to improve.

23/05 at 21:29 from Colly

So can you explain how getting fair-trade tea and coffee in for the team contributes to being a “greener” design agency?

23/05 at 21:40 from Nigel

Nigel: The article is about being more ethical as well as “greener”. I put “green” in quotes as I relaise that this is a misleading but popular term and doesn’t entirely encompass our aims and objectives here.

I’m not sure why you are taking such a strong stance here. Its a confusing time with lots of mixed and often misleading information about these issues. We’re just looking at it from our own perspective, and considering issues that are common to design agencies. Whether I’m entirely wrong or not far off the mark, I am happy to be making an effort, and surely this is more beneficial than not caring at all. I’m sure some of these ideas will be welcomed in the offices of my friends in the industry - indeed I know quite a few who are really giving these issues their attention.

23/05 at 22:39 from Colly

And you will be forgotten too, Alistair.

24/05 at 07:11 from Nigel

Nigel: Alistair’s comment addressed not only my article, but also the points from the first comment, and he added to the argument with some opinions, which I do not feel your one-liners and snipes are doing.

Don’t persist in punctuating the dialogue this way. Join in and share your opinions, or be gone.

24/05 at 07:24 from Colly

Hi, you can find out which of your current activities are having the most impact and then you can prioritise the actions you can take to tackle them. Go to
http://www.climatecare.org for a quick and easy assessment. Ideally tackle the problem at source eg by reducing travel. Offsetting is a last resort to mitigate those emissions you cannot change.
Happy greening.

07/06 at 03:26 from Chrissie

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