Design 21: Social Design Network

Going green has never been easier than ever.

General Eco Shopping – There are online shops that offer basically almost every kind of green product that you can possible imagine. These “Genaral Eco Stores” are a perfect place to start out when you want to shop green. Here are two of our best picks:

1. Greater Goods – The greater good store is a nice place to start your eco-shopping. From personal accessories. Kitchen stuff and books and guides it is easy buy things for an environment friendly life. We like their sections on Energy and Water savers as well as Waste Reducers. They are perfect to start making your home a “green” place. http://www.greatergoods.com/

2. Green Apple – Based on the United Kingdom, the green apple website is also a good place to shop for eco products. Their cute and friendly interface is an attractive feature, while they sport a huge variety of categories for green products. http://www.the-green-apple.co.uk/

Clothes – What you wear isn't really what people first think about when they want to shop green. Mostly people would think it is about wood, paper and environmentally friendly gadgets and cars. However clothes have a bid impact too on the environment. That is why there are clothes manufacturers out there that make their tshirts and dresses from 100% organic material. Here's our pick:

1. Miss Voltage – This interesting store has a lot of nice and trendy designs for an eco clothes shop. Unlike the others we've seen that are more on th...

The National Environmental Health & Safety Conference takes place March 16-19, 2009 in Indianapolis. The conference will focus on how to become a Sustainable Green Printer (SGP) and best practices to create a safe, cost-effective and employee-friendly work environment. How printing peers are championing sustainability in the workplace will also be discussed.

The conference will span all printing processes, from commercial printing to specialty printing and flexographic printing. General sessions, roundtable discussions and half-day in-depth pre-conference workshops will cover topics such as:

Responsible Sourcing: Inks, Chemicals, Substrates, Oh My! This session is for those that are confused or are just not yet familiar with terms like VOC and phthalate free. Knowing exactly what environmentally friendly means can help printers source inks and other materials that are green. The session will focus on questions printers can ask suppliers to make responsible decisions.

Understanding Green Paper Choices With all the info about green paper floating around, it can be hard to decide on which paper is best for individual printers. This breakout session will sort through environmental issues surrounding paper and will help printers pick the paper that meets both the printer’s and customer’s requirements. State-of-the-art liquid toners, adhesives and other new eco-friendly materials will be covered.

Meeting Environmental and Safety Compliances Robert Fricke will focus o...

Being environmentally friendly is the hottest motto these days, we can all see that. There is no longer any point in turning a blind eye to rising concerns like climate change, pollution control, species extinction and other crucial issues which are already starting to come back and haunt us. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that even in the publishing or marketing industry, practices such as poster printing are undertaken in support of the environment. Printed posters are produced in the millions and billions all over the world. This in turn translates to several million tons of paper and gallons of toxic ink that will eventually end up in waste dumps.

But just as a small act of irresponsibility can build up into one big dump of waste, so too can the little steps we take to support the environment build up and make a big difference in saving the planet.

Here are some pointers to design and print eco-friendly posters.

Browse successful eco-friendly posters. The first thing to do is research or gather information about successful eco-friendly posters. They are easily accessible from the Internet. This research will help get information in terms of each poster's design concept, materials used and overall purpose of the poster's campaign. Most of these eco-friendly posters are printed on recycled materials and so printing them in bulk doesn't hurt as much compared to printing normal promotional posters. The point of learning about other eco-posters is so that you have ...

Being environmentally friendly is the hottest motto these days, we can all see that. There is no longer any point in turning a blind eye to rising concerns like climate change, pollution control, species extinction and other crucial issues which are already starting to come back and haunt us. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that even in the publishing or marketing industry, practices such as poster printing are undertaken in support of the environment. Printed posters are produced in the millions and billions all over the world. This in turn translates to several million tons of paper and gallons of toxic ink that will eventually end up in waste dumps.

But just as a small act of irresponsibility can build up into one big dump of waste, so too can the little steps we take to support the environment build up and make a big difference in saving the planet.

Here is a simple step-by-step guide to design and print eco-friendly posters.

1. Browse successful eco-friendly posters. The first thing to do is research or gather information about successful eco-friendly posters. They are easily accessible from the Internet. This research will help get information in terms of each poster's design concept, materials used and overall purpose of the poster's campaign. Most of these eco-friendly posters are printed on recycled materials and so printing them in bulk doesn't hurt as much compared to printing normal promotional posters. The point of learning about other eco-posters is so ...

The Times Online in the UK released a news story Sunday about Google’s CO2 emissions coming from their data centers. Alex Wissner-Gross, a Harvard physicist, estimated that about 7 grams of CO2 results from each Google search. Wissner-Gross said “Google operates huge data centres around the world that consume a great deal of power.” The Times Online states that “Performing two Google searches from a desktop computer can generate about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle for a cup of tea.”

Google Refutes. Google won’t tell anyone its energy consumption and carbon footprint. It also won’t tell anyone the locations of its data centers. Joseph Romm, who was acting assistant secretary of energy for energy efficiency and renewable energy for the Clinton Administration says the Harvard research is off. And Google quickly posted on its blog that the number is more like 0.2 grams of CO2 per search, which is about 35 times lower than the Harvard estimate.

The Researcher Weighs In. The Times Online featured the story on January 11. Google responded on its blog the same day. The next day, Wissner-Gross told TechNewsWorld that he never even mentioned Google in his research. He said, “For some reason, in their story on the study, the Times had an ax to grind with Google. Our work has nothing to do with Google. Our focus was exclusively on the Web overall, and we found that it takes on average about 20 milligrams of CO2 per second to visit a Web site.” And...

Catalog printing may be losing some steam from the Internet, but many large companies are still printing them. And those companies are turning green. Nordstrom was the first among the fashion specialty retail companies to print their catalogs on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper stock, with 30 percent post-consumer waste (PCW). As Erik Nordstrom, president of stores for Nordstrom said, “We know our customers care about the environment and this is an effort to serve them better and reduce our impact. We will continue to look for ways we can be a better corporate citizen.”

Printing an eco-friendly catalog doesn’t mean just printing on recycled paper, although that definitely is one of the main “green” factors. And, green catalog printing doesn’t have to cost more money, what with printing companies (especially online printing companies) buying recycled paper and vegetable-based inks at a discounted bulk rate.

Read on ways to make the whole catalog printing process more green.

GREEN PRODUCTION TIPS

Adopt an eco-friendly lighting system in the printing facility. Installing sky lights and using CFL light bulbs can help reduce the amount of energy used in the printing facility. Turning off all lights (or most lights) when the facility is closed down for the night will also save much energy.

Use vegetable-based inks. Veggie-based ink is good for the environment because it is a renewable resource and it greatly reduces the amount of VOCs (volatile...

Many businesses have to print things like memos, emails and other important company docs. It’s inevitable. But, all that printing is costing us a lot of trees and a huge carbon footprint. The ink and toner, the parts of the printer/copier – everything takes energy to make. And then energy to ship. Although many businesses can’t go totally without printing, anything companies can do to scale back the amount of printing is commendable. Read More

1. Use 100% recycled paper.

Brands of recycled paper just keep increasing every week. And printing on recycled paper is one of the easiest ways printers can help keep the planet green. Astrolite PC 100 is the cleanest and smoothest 100% recycled paper available. It’s certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which means it’s made of only 100% post-consumer recycled fiber.

Paper certified by the FSC and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) means that responsible forestry practices have been followed. Only 10% of the world’s forests are certified by these organizations, meaning any printer that is certified by either group or that uses certified paper has gone to extraordinary lengths to protect the environment.

Other 100% recycled paper brands include Genesis, Synergy, ENVIRONMENT papers and Save-A-Tree.

2. Use paper that was not bleached with chlorine.

In the old days in the U.S., paper was given its bright white color by bleaching it with chlorine. This bleaching process released cancer-causing dioxin into the atmosphere and into the Earth’s waterways. Now the Environmental Protection Agency has required that most paper be elemental chlorine free, or ECF, which means paper must be bleached from chlorine derivatives, such as chlorine dioxide. This significantly reduces dioxin pollution, but doesn’t completely eliminate it.

Printers can also choose process chlorine free papers (PCF) that have been bleached with oxygen-based compounds that don’...