What does web design and graphic design have to do with the environment?

It’s a good question and we’ve been looking into it a little bit over the last while and are finding the more you dig around, the more issues there are which design studios and their clients should consider, especially if you are supportive of environmental concerns.

Whether you are a designer, programmer, or a business that would like to hire one of the former, there are questions that need to be asked to get a good idea of the environmental impact that will be involved in any project you undertake. It is important to remember that investigating these areas is good for your expenses as well as the environment, and can help reduce your energy bills.

Environmental Impact of Design

Office Energy Consumption

Problem: Computers, large LCD screens, computer peripherals, lighting, heating, all of these things draw a lot of energy over the course of a year.

What can we do: By being conscious of these factors, we can aim to limit the energy consumption of any design studio.

1. Turn off systems when not in use, or if taking a break consider putting systems into a low-power standby mode.
2. Switch to energy saving light bulbs
3. Unplug your mobile chargers when you aren’t charging your mobile. A mobile phone charger that is plugged into the wall, but not connected to the phone will still consume power. Linear chargers can consume between 0.8 W to 2 W even when they are disconnected from the phone¹.
4. Check the power settings of your computers. You can set it so that your hard drives and monitors power down after a short period of computer inactivity, doing this will help reduce power consumption.

If you are interested in saving money on your energy bills, consider contacting Sustainable Energy Ireland, who offer free energy assessments for businesses.

Firms register with SEI and are matched with a relevant energy expert. The expert will contact them and talk through their issues first by phone and then, if appropriate, on-site, conducting an assessment of opportunities for savings. The expert will recommend the best actions for the firm and keep in touch over time to provide ongoing support.

Printing

Problem: Printing can be extremely wasteful on resources, whether we are looking at small usage of office printers for administrative or proofing, or use of a printing company for flyers, brochures, business cards etc.

What can we do: It is important for design studios to limit in-house printing to the essentials. Clients should be encouraged to use digital mail-outs, flyers, promotional material. Any draft printing should be done using recycled material, and don’t forget, that if you’re managing to reduce your printing needs, you can turn off your printers!

When dealing with a printing company, ask questions about their policies relating to environmental impact before you consider hiring them for a client. You should question whether they:

1. Limit their use of chemical/non-organic ink compounds,
2. Source their paper from environmentally managed forests,
3. Use local suppliers,
4. Recycle paper and chemical waste.

At Pixelapes, our preferred printing company, Carrick Print, are environmentally conscious and clearly state that:

Most of the paper we use contains a percentage of recycled material. This percentage ranges from 5% to 100%, which allows for greater care of our environment.

Our production process generates a small quantity of waste paper. This, together with our packaging waste, is recycled.

We also generate a small quantity of chemical waste, which comes from the development process. This is collected and stored in a secure location on-site and sent for recycling.

Computer Construction

Problem: As everything goes digital it certainly relieves a lot of the old resource wasters. There is less need for printing, distribution, even project meetings! However, all of the improvements this technology has brought also has a negative affect. Quickly advancing technology results in obsolete computer systems that are all too readily thrown out.

What can we do: Careful selection of components coupled with proper recycling can make a huge difference. As we upgrade our systems, we combine older components to make systems which are passed on to friends, relatives or listed on Freecycle. This way all of these computer components get a greater life-span and hopefully delay the purchase of yet another budget system.

When looking into a new computer purchase, you should feel comfortable asking your preferred supplier about Energy Star compliance, or better yet, have a look through the EU Energy Star Database when selecting your new computer models.

Energy efficiency is becoming a bigger and bigger issue for computer manufacturers, with every component being scrutinised. At Pixelapes we tend to build our own custom systems, if you’d like to read more about individual components we recommend reading this article from CPN.com. Here they list all of the standard computer components and discuss the advantages offered by certain manufacturers.

Thinking of upgrading your storage capacities? Why not purchase a power saving hard drive? Hard Drive manufacturers are taking the lead from notebook computer chip manufacturers and have introduced power stepping into drives, meaning that hard drives will adjust the speed at which the drives run dependent on requirements.

Supplier Choices

Problem: Dependent on what type of business you run, choosing your suppliers carefully can make a vast difference to transportation impact.

What can we do: At Pixelapes, most of our communication is digital, minimising use of postal, courier and printing services. Our major deliveries take the shape of computer components, which are sourced from a European company with an Irish distribution branch, Komplett. Where possible design studios should lean towards hiring local suppliers. This may require a bit of research, but most companies are happy to disclose information on the logistics of their company.

Wrapping it all up

The most important thing is to always feel comfortable asking a prospective supplier, partner or service provider about their environmental policies. If every purchaser makes this an issue it will become apparent to companies that they need to actually have an environmental policy to continue gaining new customers.

Pixelapes are committed to improving our environmental impact and will be publishing a page detailing our own environmental policies in the coming week.

If you are a designer you should consider looking at Design Can Change, a website that asks design studios to take the Design Can Change pledge:

In my professional practice, I will endeavour to:

Learn: Engage in the topic and seek to understand the issue,

Act: Put my knowledge to use in my daily work,

Inform: Share information and build awareness for sustainability,

Unite: Spark change through collective strength.

1. Source: http://www.powerint.com/greenroom/faqs.htm