While trend analysts predicted the rise of the green movement in the early 2000s, Haul founder Scott Kilmartin says it’s really only in the last couple of years that he has had to do less explaining about what sustainable design entails.

“Green was seen as too earthy and companies would pay lip service to it,” he reflects. “Now every company that calls us says they are ‘environmentally responsible’. It’s easy to say of course. But we can help them do it visibly.”

Yet surprisingly, it’s taken some two decades since UK businessman John Elkington began motivating business to explore the merits of corporate social responsibility and the triple bottom line of People, Planet and Profits. In other words: looking after both stakeholders and shareholders. While it has become the mantra of US and European sustainability indices including FTSE4Good and the Dow Jones, in Australia it’s taken somewhat longer to take hold.

Some, like Kilmartin, place it on the mainstream radar in about 2004. Others attribute the popular awareness of impending climate change calamity to Al Gore’s 2006 Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth. At least, as Kilmartin says, companies are aware that sustainable design is an issue now, even if they don’t quite appreciate how far they need to go to prove their claims.

Over the past year in the Australian Paper Sustainability Supplement we have examined many stages of the sustainable design ‘journey’. We have seen how third-party auditing and life-cycle assessments can verify claims of green credentials, so while sustainability has become easier to say, and more visible for everyone, independent auditing has helped avoid greenwashing. Arguably, it would be easier still if there was one government certification body, but at least the public and businesses can check on the claims.

It’s worth heeding the advice of Büro North’s Soren Luckins that designers need to do their own research, because information is always being updated and products not only change but their credentials are dependent on how they are used. Indeed, it costs nothing to ask questions. Organisations including AGDA, Designers Accord and AIGA provide basic information for anyone who likes to retain an independent eye on the claims made by others. For graphic designers, the print industry is remarkably easy to negotiate. As Luckins says in this issue’s Exchange, there is so much data available on carbon neutral FSC® certified papers and printing techniques.

Thanks to alcohol-free printing and vegetable based-inks, to name just two aspects, printing is a far greener business than it once was. Paper, too, is produced sustainably. It can be recycled easily (2.5 million tonnes of paper and paperboard are recovered and recycled in Australia every year) to make more, and it comes from a renewable resource. Indeed, the economics of the paper and printing industry rely on recycling because recycled paper is comparable in cost to the original fibre. In addition, carbon neutral papers are also available. They provide an effective way for companies to continue their reduction of carbon emissions. The emissions from the energy used to make these papers, and in some cases dispose of it, is offset with approved abatement providers.

Many analysts believe that because paper and print are renewable and recyclable, they have an immediate advantage over electronic communications that use new and additional energy every time they are opened or read from a computer screen. A computer’s plastics, glass, aluminium, monitors, components and parts are also recycled at much lower levels than paper products.

While design can be used to add value to a company’s green message, it’s also being used as an intrinsic part of that designed product. As Desktop magazine’s recent Create awards demonstrated, designers such as sustainability category winner Kent Gration (whom we featured last issue) embeds green principles in his bamboo furniture design – from the choice of the material to the sourcing of the product to its assembly and transportation.

Design-driven companies with green, ethical values as an intrinsic part of their philosophy are trying to change our relationship to stuff. Ideally we should be making stuff that lasts. That means everything we use and live with is designed for zero waste and either meant to last (“heirloom design” and “durability”) or to be shared (“product service systems”) or both.

These are not just models of good sense but good business sense.

If you’ve managed to get your hands on an iPad before anyone else, you may have also unwittingly taken a step away from being a green consumer. Electronic media is becoming more common place, but printed media may be one thing we need to hold on to in a sustainable future.

www.papereveryday.com.au

www.a3p.asn.au

www.pneb.com.au

www.pefc.org

www.paperonline.org

www.fsc.org

In 2006 Sir Nicholas Stern, Head of the Government Economic Service for the British Government, tabled a report into the effects of climate change on the world economy. Among the many comparative figures and charts Stern produced in his 700 page report was an evaluation of the carbon footprint of electronic media vs. print. A simple chart illustrates his point.

Because paper and print are renewable and recyclable, they have an immediate advantage over electronic communications that use new and additional energy every time they are opened or read from a computer screen. A computer’s plastics, glass, aluminium, monitors, components and parts are also recycled at much lower levels than paper products.

Printing on the other hand is a far greener business thanks to alcohol-free printing and vegetable based-inks, to name just two. Paper too is produced sustainably. It can be recycled easily (2.5 million tonnes of paper and paperboard are

recovered and recycled in Australia every year) to make more, and it comes from a renewable resource. Indeed the economics of the paper and printing industry rely on recycling because in some cases recycled paper is often cheaper than the original fibre.

Of the original fibre that’s used, increasingly all that’s used for printing and communication paper is sourced from softwood plantations and regrowth forests. Third Party verified schemes, such as the Forest Stewardship Council® or Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification ensuring that forest harvesting in Australia is well managed and credentials maintained. What’s more only a very small amount of paper and printed material ends up in landfill.

Today there may be more publishing platforms to choose from, but market research confirms readers still prefer the tactility of paper and print.

Book sales are increasing in Australia ahead of population growth, and we read more magazines per capita than anyone else on the planet. Less glamorous perhaps, but nevertheless vital to the economy, is business, advertising and government pre-printed material (such as direct mail and annual reports).It constitutes almost 60% of all the paper used in Australia.

The reason why two billion dollars is spent on direct mail each year is simple – because it achieves greater penetration and higher response rates with its target market. A July 2009 study conducted for the Australian Catalogue association showed that Unaddressed Advertising Material (UAM) is the least costly and most effective means of communicating detailed product and price information to households and businesses. The reason why paper and print continue to rate so highly in advertising is that research shows people retain and refer to print matter at a later time. It’s a tangible commodity and appeals to peoples’ senses of having received something of value, even before they embark on their purchase.

Then there are the social and economic benefits of a paper and print industry that employs more than 76,000 everyday Australia and creates almost $21 billion of national income every year.

As the former chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission, Jonathan Porritt, declared, “There aren’t many industries around that can aspire to becoming genuinely sustainable. The Pulp and Paper industry, however, is one of them. At its best, this industry is inherently sustainable.’’

* that’s the maximum because once its printed, its printed and can read and used over and over again without new CO2 emissions.

# that’s without accounting for any emissions associated with creating the computer file or emailing it.

 You’ve still got mail. The advertising media landscape has changed dramatically over the years. And yet traditional media, like unaddressed mail, continues to thrive. Ken Bishop, Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Catalogue Association, explains the appeal of print vs digital media.

What percentage of advertising and marketing is constituted by unaddressed mail?

It’s a $2 billion industry. We are probably between one sixth and one seventh of the industry spend, which is fairly significant.

Have consumer habits changed in the digital age, regarding unaddressed mail?

Consumers seem to embrace more and more media. Over the last eight years catalogue volumes have increased year on year. Even with newer digital media, research suggests people are consuming media in a complementary way. The media supports each other. Retailers continue to do TVC and radio, yet you often read or hear at the end of the ad, ‘catalogue out now’. Billboards also reinforce that cross-pollination of media platforms.

So what is the catalogue’s role?

Some companies see catalogues as brand reinforcement. It’s almost subliminal branding. They may not need something immediately, but once there is a need for something, they then jump on line. That, to me, is complete complementarity with one another.

Is there a particular audience that can only be reached via unaddressed mail?

The stats are strong that 70% of people after reading a catalogue make a considered purchase. Grocery catalogues have a high readership and response rate, but it depends on demographics. It’s driven by different needs and requirements.

How has unaddressed mail changed since the digital age?

A lot of people still think catalogues are a ‘mass drop’ – just a shotgun that reaches as far and as wide as possible. It’s quite the contrary. Even though the volumes are significant the targeted understanding and the knowledge the distribution companies and retailers have of particular postcodes to communicate with the right customers, at the right time, to the right product, is pretty sophisticated. It cuts down waste and also the retailer is only spending what they need to.

Has the way catalogues are designed and presented changed?

Certainly the design and presentation has changed. We’ve all got shorter attention spans. Retailers can get their brand, products and whatever message they’re trying to get across more quickly. The design, placement and presentation

is a new world. Certain groups consume that information faster.

Will it ever go completely digital?

Our research suggests people still like to engage in that tactile experience of paper. There’s still something about the human psyche that enjoys that ability to touch and feel.

Has there been an increase in packaging to achieve ‘cut through’?

It’s still a relatively simple medium in terms of packaging. It’s still put through your letterbox. It’s all down to design and targeting. The old days of saying ‘let’s put everything into it and hope they read it and buy it’ have gone. Research from 2009 told us that a catalogue stays in the home on average between 2–5 days, and quite often is read by 2–3 people. That’s a decent shelf life for something not considered anything more than just underaddressed mail. It obviously has some repeat attendance. That’s one of its strong merits and obviously the brand and product owners believe that too.

What sustainable practices does the catalogue association require or encourage?

All the paper in the Australian catalogue market comes from sustainable plantation timbers. Catalogues are 100 % recyclable and nearly 70% of catalogues are recycled via kerbside collection. It adds value to the recycling stream.

How do the lifecycle assessments of digital marketing compare with print?

I get very disturbed when I hear people saying I can look at catalogues on line for half the night, and have no awareness that that has a carbon footprint as well. There’s a great big power station in Yallourn burning coal so we can all stare at our computer. And then when we throw [the computer] out every two or three years it doesn’t end up as ‘pretty’ in landfill as paper does.

“There are two ways can go with sustainability,” says architect and designer Toby Horrocks. “Design something so robust that it never gets thrown out, which fights the consumerist trend. Or you could go with it, and change all the time by making your product from recycled sources.” Such is the pragmatic philosophy that drives Horrocks’ Freefold designs.

Made from recycled  cardboard his fold down interiors and shelving are an antidote to what he has seen around him while living and working in the CBD – skips full of dumped interior fittings.

Embracing the natural human impulse to consume, Horrocks has built a modular interior that can be recycled when boredom or a new tenant arrives. An experimental prototype, which resembles a theatre set, was built for the 2010 State of Design festival installation Look Stop Shop, together with Sydney-based designer Kristian Aus. The work has led to a commission to design another popup, this time a juice-tasting stand at a shopping mall. 

Horrocks has been experimenting with post-consumer waste cardboard furniture and modular systems full time since leaving award-winning architect John Wardle. Horrocks was Research and Development architect with Wardle, a practice renowned for its detailing.

Working with repeatable modular patterns for walls and windows was, in its own way, part of being “drenched” in the computer modelling he would undertake for his modular shelving systems. Further evidence of the repeatable patterning we see in public architecture can be seen on the reverse side of his modular shelving, which act as room dividers and screens.

“Computer modelling is my realm. I’m not hands on folding paper,” he says. While experimenting with computer modelling he designed a “beautiful geometry” for a shelving system, but wanted it more lightweight than plywood, and less expensive than a South African Xanita Exboard he’d been testing. He found that local cardboard could be used cheaper and more effectively. The revised modular systems are made from 1.8 mm thick cardboard and allow “nice sharp folds – it’s more like origami,” says Horrocks.

As well as Freefold Furniture, he now runs his own architecture practice, Toby Horrocks Architecture. “Sustainability drives my practice,” he says. “I hope to influence the culture of waste.”

www.tobyhorrocks.com

Many new businesses have grown out of the issues we face as we strive for a more sustainable future, where existing companies must adopt new values to become positive contributors. Think about the core principles in your business. It can be a huge task to rethink the way you do business, but the right strategies will become drivers for growth and long term survival.

www.lendlease.com/sustainability

www.dell.com.au

www.simsmm.com

www.westpac.com.au

www.boral.com.au

Designed as a hothouse for architectural investigation, Grocon’s Pixel building is made from recycled aluminium – its shade battens prevent the prototype office building from becoming an actual hothouse.

Native grasses on its roof filter rainwater, encourage local ecology and provide insulation, while cantilevered reed beds on the windowsills help cooling.

Three patented wind turbines designed specifically for the turbulent urban environment and winds, generate electricity and feed the excess back into the grid. Pixel is the first building to achieve a 100% green star score from the Green Building Council.

Not only does Pixel use new technologies, it also recycles many materials – like the structural steel – reducing the embodied energy of the building.

“Research suggest 6% of the world’s greenhouse gases every year is a consequence of the manufacture of cement,” says Grocon’s David Waldren. In conjunction with Boral, Grocon has developed Pixelcrete, which Waldren says has half the embodied carbon than normal.

Pixel building’s name comes by being a small building in the big picture – an image Grocon plans to upscale.

 www.pixelbuilding.com.au

“Sustainability is about working with clients who are sustainable,” says Jason Grant from the respected Queensland design practice Inkahoots.

Talk to many designers and they have varying ideas of what sustainability is. Responses vary from those who believe sustainability is simply about making something that people won’t want to throw away, to those, like Grant, who believe it’s about actually choosing who you work for.

While Grant’s ‘take no prisoners’ response sounds the more heroic, it’s not feasible for everyone. If a business is truly sustainable it will be both profitable, and not harmful to the environment. Educating clients – and potential clients along the way – is also part of the process. And if the idea of ‘creating something that lasts’ sounds slightly naïve, it does have certain merit.

“The answer to the problem of overconsumption isn’t recycling cans or green shopping, it’s changing our relationship to stuff, so that everything we use and live with is designed for zero waste and is either meant to last (“heirloom design” and “durability”) or to be shared (“product service systems”) or both,” says Alex Steffen from Worldchanging.

It’s a belief echoed by Leyla Acaroglu, founder of Eco Innovators and this issue’s ‘shining star’. “It’s not enough to be buying green electricity and recycling paper,” she says. “It’s about foundational thinking. Ecodesign is often wrongly seen as complex and costly, but in fact it’s simply good design that offers financial, social and environmental benefits. If designers embrace sustainability, we can create consumer goods with the smallest possible ecological footprint.”

In the online video and recently released book The Story of Stuff, Annie Leonard outlines the process of production. The problem, she explains, is treating it as a linear system that leaves out important aspects of the process. The true hidden costs of production aren’t covered by the cheap products we buy, but are absorbed by the lack of workers’ wages and pollution into developing countries.

Using a lifecycle approach – exploring the impacts of each stage a product goes through – helps designers make informed decisions that lead to more socially and environmentally responsible products with lower carbon emissions.

As Planet Ark’s Jon Dee writes in the Sustainable Growth guide, published by Sensis, sustainability brings many benefits for small and medium businesses: reducing energy contains costs and overheads. Improving the supply chain can mean more productive relationships with suppliers. Younger, better educated (possibly more handsome, though he makes no promises) people will be attracted to companies that are sustainable. Knowing where your supply chain sources materials is essential to ensuring your corporate reputation. Being environmentally and socially proactive makes smaller companies attractive to larger companies who rely on likeminded companies as part of their own sustainable procurement policies.

It’s also about attaining a competitive advantage. While the Chinese dragon of manufacturing represents an insurmountable behemoth to many, others like Tim Piper, from the Australian Industry Group, see the challenge in finding the soft underbelly and slaying it with products of higher quality and better techniques. “Australia is not a low cost producing country, therefore we have to make sure it’s high quality,” he says. In short, it’s about creating products that last. Here too it’s a matter of self-preservation. What other chance is there? “Australians no longer buy Australian made just because it’s Australian,” he says. If done correctly, as part of a wider strategy, sustainability will deliver profitability and a platform for long-term survival.

As we celebrate award-winning sustainable design in this issue of Desktop, it is worth remembering the words from another award recipient. “We must abandon the conceit that individual, isolated, private actions are the answer,” Al Gore said in his Nobel acceptance speech. “They can and do help. But they will not take us far enough without collective action.”

Clients, designers, production people, distributors and consumers can collectively help lower the carbon footprint and ensure the sustainability of the products they create and purchase. It’s about working together to be sustainable.

 www.worldchanging.com

 www.storyofstuff.com

 www.inkahoots.com.au

Since it was established by the Victorian government in 2000, Eco-buy has developed into a national, independent, not for profit consultancy. Its diverse membership list ranges from NAB to Qantas and Origin. Andrew Foran, Eco-buy’s Manager for Client Services and Business Program discusses how Eco-buy helps organisations ‘green up’ processes around purchasing.

How does Eco-buy differ from other companies like Ecospecifier and Green Pages?

We are an independent, not for profit. We specialise in organisation, B2B purchasing. But we’re broader than that. The database supports knowledge tools, processes and practices in our member’s resources. There’s not a huge amount that’s free beyond the database.

What templates will members find?

Most valuable are the documentary templates, product category guides, and checklist tips.

Should people – or businesses – work collectively toward sustainable solutions?

It’s about working collaboratively rather than collectively – getting competing companies in the same room. The underlying theme is collaboration.

Do companies pay to list products on your database?

They have to pay an annual listing fee of $200.

What eco-labels do you look for on these products?

It depends on the product category. GECA, energy and water rating stars. Fair trade, green power and organic labels. We also look at comparable or competing products – what else is in the market place.

Why?

Because in some cases a product with a small environmental attribute can be leading the category.

Would you remove them as better products came to market?

Absolutely, it’s a dynamic space. There’s no such thing as a green product, there are greener products. As we make them greener, things move along. We’re driven by what members are purchasing.

Could graphic design be offered as a service on your database, for potential tendering?

Traditionally we’ve concentrated on products, but we’re working on service category guides that could include graphic design services. The short answer is not yet, but we are working on it.

Do green products cost more?

Green products can be more expensive from their sticker price, but the true cost of ownership from a holistic sense is less. As a general rule of thumb, it will save you money in the long term.

Should sustainability budgets be factored in over a number of years, instead of just one financial year?

It should be. In the corporate space they are.

Are people more open to sustainability and the costs required to change?

Definitely. From any educative sense it’s about showing real examples in context. It’s about embedding structural change so over time you can improve on it.

Is it too slow?

We say ‘aim for the stars, but be realistic and bite off what you can chew right now’. Get some things going while you can but keep a weather eye on some big step changes where you can.

Isn’t structural change at the heart of this?

We need to stop relying on continued linear growth. We need to close the loop. Slowly that’s happening.

Who has to make this change happen?

The organisation has to commit to changing. We see the key driver of negative environmental impact is purchasing and consumption patterns – both as organisations and individuals. The first step is realising it. The second is making some changes to deal with it.

Should there be more regulations and standards imposed by government?

The more structures like 5 star building the better. But the single biggest thing would be a carbon price.

Does Eco-buy offer life-cycle assessment?

We commission RMIT Centre for Design. We can help clients directly or steer them and we do workshops and training.

Three key messages for designers?

90% of a product’s environmental impact are built in at the design stage, so you have a great opportunity to drive real change (leadership and legacy). Make sure what you design first does what it’s supposed to, then looks great, and then is green (form plus function plus green = mainstream). Every product has an environmental impact, so it’s about designing something to be as green as your brief allows, then trying to do better with your next job (continual improvement).

www.ecobuy.com.au