It’s been 46 years since British graphic designer Ken Garland penned the impassioned First Things First manifesto. Its plea that designers’ skills be used for ‘worthwhile purposes’ enjoyed a brief burst of support – including a run in the Guardian newspaper – before it lapsed into countercultural obscurity. Three decades and an anti-globalisation movement later, however, the manifesto was updated in 2000 and signed by some of international graphic design’s biggest names. The call to balance profit making with social responsibility was as strong and idealistic as its predecessor.
But in the 10 years since that second manifesto, society has changed considerably. More than ever, consumers and companies are keenly aware of the ‘unprecedented environmental, social and cultural crises demand[ing] our attention’, identified in that 2000 manifesto. Consumers and companies know too well the risks created by overconsumption and poor manufacturing practices, and the long-term consequences that jeopardising our planet’s fragile ecosystem will have for future generations.
Corporate Social Responsibility has become the model, if not the manifesto, among many of the most profitable companies and the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profits, is the mantra they are expected to adhere to. Independent agencies like the Global Reporting Initiative help verify company processes, while stock markets have sustainability indices like the FTSE4 Good and the Dow Jones to track performance for ethical investors.
Companies that don’t adopt this approach or abuse consumer trust through ‘greenwashing’, do so at their own peril according to former Saatchi & Saatchi UK chairman and chief executive, Lee Daley. “Brands will not be able to opt out of this,” he told the Financial Times. “Companies which do not live by a green protocol will be financially damaged because consumers will punish them. In the longer term, I do not think they will survive.”
It follows, then, that there will eventually be greater expectations on designers to live up to that corporate policy.
“In the end, doing sustainable design doesn’t take more effort,” says David Berman, Canadian author of Do Good Design. “It’s probably going to save more money and, like all design problems, limitation drives really good solutions. You just need intent and skills and wisdom.” “Eco-design is just good design,” agrees Leyla Acaroglu, who runs a lifecycle assessment consultancy Eco Innovators, and wrote Design Victoria’s indispensable What is Eco-Design? guide.
She also believes designers have the opportunity to lead the way creatively. “There’s a lot of positive things about it, but we need to understand that we haven’t achieved our goals of being sustainable businesses,” she says.
As she outlines in the eco-design guide, designers can act on many levels from choosing papers taken from certified timbers that are processed without chlorine and made from post-consumer waste paper, to printing techniques that don’t impact negatively on the environment by using VOC-free inks. Just as proactively, they can create work that avoids excessive blank space, reduces size, and maximises paper use. That immediate ecological impact of production can extend to wider workplace practices: from low energy, water saving offices, to ensuring electronic waste like computers are handled responsibly. What the First Things First manifesto defined as a crisis of conscience has moved toward an environmental imperative for all of us – and an economic imperative for designers. If they don’t understand the consumer groundswell, and the imperatives of the client to satisfy that restructuring toward a triple bottom line, then designers may find themselves left out of the loop – and out of a job. “You either know how to design with sustainability or you’re not going to be in this business,” says Berman.
More worrying, perhaps, are the greater implications. As an old slogan intoned, there are no jobs on a dead planet.
Like so many advertising agencies, Droga5 received its highest accolades (so far) for doing community work. But even by award-winning standards, the ideas behind the Million and Tap projects are ambitious. Interactive, fun, and delivering a powerful social message, they help the disadvantaged while inspiring others. Both won Cannes Titanium Awards.
