I saw a link on Twitter about blogactionday.org and after visiting the site and seeing what it was all about – signed up! Basically on a day – all bloggers all around the globe blog on a certain subject and this year’s topic is climate change…  and why wouldn’t i want to contribute to a “green” (not the colour) message!

from blogactionday.org “Climate change affects us all and it threatens more than the environment. It threatens to cause famine, flooding, war, and millions of refugees.  Given the urgency of the issue of climate change and the upcoming international climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December, we think the blogosphere has the unique opportunity to mobilize millions of people around expressing support for finding a sustainable solution to the climate crisis”.

Designers are involved with an overwhelming amount of paper products… whether you are printing out quotes, briefs, research found, drafts of designs and the list continues! And the industry we are in – means paper! You design something to be printed on – well – mass amounts of PAPER! There is no way of getting around that unless you start considering printing on recycled materials or taking things online as opposed to paper etc… but just think – if we all take steps towards reducing the amount of paper we use daily – means less trees get cut down to provide the paper in turn helping the environment, less resources get used to shred the unwanted printed paper, less carbon emissions into the air from trucks transporting waste to landfills, less waste in landfills, if we are semi-green already and recycle – further more by reducing the amount of paper we use we are lowering emissions/environment harming fuels from the machines that recycle … and all in all a greener future – all by reducing the amount of paper we use/print on etc.!

From “www.designcanchange.org” Pulp and paper is the 3rd largest industrial polluter to air, water and land in both canada and the US. Paper manufacturing is the third largest user of fossil fuels worldwide and the single largest user of water per pound.”

Now i know I love paper – and as a graphic designer rely on it heavy – so i am sure other designers reading this probably think yah right! But let’s face it – there is a huge problem we face – climate change!

Global surface temperatures are rising, the ice caps are melting, there are more and often deadly heat-waves occurring globally, sea levels are rising and reading some of the forecasts – a pretty grim portrait is painted – unless we take action NOW!

Here is a list of ways that we can still use paper but at least reduce the amount we use (excluding the obvious being to RECYCLE!)… and still be the productive designers we are – and help the environment at the same time. Every little contribution helps!

1. Work with dual display monitors! That way you can display the design brief or whatever document you would have usually printed on one screen while you work on the other screen – I have tried and tested this method and it totally helps!

2. Preview your documents before printing! Often times if we don’t preview our document – pages that we don’t really need/use get printed ending up in the trash or on scrap paper pile… which leads me to – if you print something in error – flip it over and use it as scrap instead of a clean fresh piece of paper.

3. Set computer defaults to print double sided. When printing documents, spreadsheets, email messages – setting the default to print double sided reduces the amount of paper your would have previously used by half!

4. Print only what you need! If there is a 30 page document you need to print and you only require page 5, 8 and 26 to make changes to – print only those pages. Most software applications like Word or Acrobat allow you to print certain pages – so this shouldn’t be a hard one to do.

5. Scrap paper! Getting back to scrap paper – we all like to make notes or jot things down and yes in a perfect world we wouldn’t – but we do, so use printer error pages or unwanted sheets of paper. Trim it down to note size to leave by the phone or on your desk – jot down notes on the back side of the unwanted pages and once you are done – don’t use the trash – use the recycle bin!

6. Go paperless! Make an effort to try go paper less. Scan instead of photocopy, email instead of fax, approve print runs on colour-corrected PDFs you receive via email or email invoices/quotes etc instead of by postal mail.

Some great links on “going green”

Jennifer Blais  Going Green Doesn’t Have to Take Much Green
Jennfier Blais How to Green your Office an Stay in the Black
Tips for Designers on going Green!
A neat site with some facts: www.designcanchange.org
Going Green has Tangible Bottom-Line Benefits
A resource for Today’s Green Business
some great links to articles relating to green design and books on the subject

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