Sustainability.

Creating sustainable design.

Given the current situation, I would like to focus on making my designs sustainable, and using recycled materials. This is acually something that I would like to start considering for all my designs. Although this would be the more exspensive approach, I feel this will become mandotory in order to produce a successful design in the near future.

So, i've set out to do a bit of research into sustainable materials, and how I can help sustainable design.

What is sustainable design?
"Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of wellbeing, which in turn depends on the wellbeing of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources."
-Wikipedia

I do want to focus on using recycled materials for my designs, I will not, however, let this become the focus/direction for my designs.

A different kind print design
"More and more, though, print designers are taking small steps along a new, more sustainable path. We're discovering that small changes become large when multiplied by thousands of other designers making similar decisions.

Need an example? Given a typically tight budget to produce a catalog, two University of Illinois design students assumed that recycled paper would be cost prohibitive. But using the Re-nourish Project Calculator, they discovered that if they trimmed just 1/4" off the book height they would save around 1,000 press sheets. This saved them $3,000, allowing them to specify a high quality, 100% recycled, FSC-certified paper. With a little design thinking, they saved 9,717 gallons of water, 13 million BTUs of energy, 942 pounds of solid waste and avoided 2,255 pounds of greenhouse gases. Now imagine what you could do with the right tools.
These are the small changes we're asking you to make when designing for print: run your project through the calculator. Choose a greener printer or a greener paper. Take a stroll using the full sustainable design roadmap as your guide, and see where it takes you."

A different kind of packaging design
"Greener packaging design, on the other hand, can fulfill all of the above roles without sacrificing our environment. So how can designers use their creative problem-solving skills to break the landfill cycle and design better packaging?

Eliminate packaging altogether. Although the greenest packaging is no packaging at all, many designers fear this will put them out of business. But examples abound where smart designers are able to eliminate most packaging and build brand equity, like the clothing company that simply rolls up their t-shirts and secures them with a product tag. By focusing on the ultimate goal (safely delivering a product to a customer), we can break out of standard formats and design better delivery methods.

Reduce materials. To reduce the amount of materials required, try lightweighting your packaging (using lighter-weight materials), designing a package that can be reused over again (or even reused for another purpose), or reconfiguring shapes and sizes.

Design for recovery. Designers can divert waste from landfills by designing packaging that's made to be composted or recycled by standard municipal systems. This means careful choice of greener materials, making sure components can be easily broken down, and including clear disposal instructions on the packaging itself. It also means potentially working with clients to develop take-back programs for packaging and used products. Many European countries already have laws regulating design for recovery, and the U.S. may not be far behind (see the Green Dot program for more information).

Design primary and secondary packaging to work together. Think about redesigning primary container shapes to minimize secondary shipping containers. By designing both primary and secondary packaging into a cohesive system, you can reduce freight volume and weight, which in turn reduces the environmental impact of shipping goods.

Choose nontoxic materials. One of the most important ways designers can improve packaging is to specify nontoxic alternatives to commonly polluting materials. PVC, for example, is a particularly toxic plastic that can often be replaced with a less toxic material depending on the use."

Resources.
http://www.sustainable-packaging-solutions.com/Sustainable-Packaging-Materials.html
http://www.ecolect.net/articles?id=563
http://www.jbconline.co.uk/index.php?gclid=CPnriPGL6p0CFWlr4wodTwhVMA
http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/resources/InformationSheets/Glass.htm
http://www.rethinkdesign.org/index.html
http://www.re-nourish.com/?l=resources_printdesign