The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada adopted sustainability principles

Design is an important part in every work and especially in print productions. That's why I was happy to read good the news (on Environmental Leader) that the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) adopted sustainability principles.

The GDC's website brings the details:

Unanimously endorsed at the annual general meeting of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) held from 24-25 April 2009 in Winnipeg, the working definition states:

Sustainable communication design is the application of sustainability principles to communication design practice. Practitioners consider the full life cycle of products and services, and commit to strategies, processes and materials that value environmental, cultural, social and economic responsibility.

The definition is supported by a statement of values and principles to guide the GDC and its members’ actions. If you go over these principles, you see the full commitment of the Canadian designers to change. I'm especially happy to see that they refer to all major aspects of their work - environmental, social, economic and cultural. I believe that this comprehensive approach is the key to succeed when developing a sustainable strategy and therefore I think the GDC is in the right direction.

I hope the GDC will follow its promise to "collaborating with other design organizations worldwide to promote and develop best practices for sustainable communications design", so this great initiative won't be limited only to Canada, but will inspire graphic designers worldwide to commit to sustainability.

I also hope the U.S. will be next. Actually there's a good chance for the adoption of these principles here if your think of the fact that, as we reported last month, the graphic arts trade association - Printing Industries of America is providing now its members with a new tool for those who wants to go green: The Green Guide for Graphic Communications. If they already encourage their members to go green, wouldn't it be only natural to go one step forward and encourage members to adopt a comprehensive sustainable practices?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting green printing!

Green Options - ReadyMade Magazine Goes Digital In Green Issue

As part of Eco-Libris' ongoing content partnership with Green Options Media, we bring you today a post that was originally published by Kelli Best-Oliver on April 2nd on Sustainblog. Today's post is exploring the opportunities in digital versions of magazines following the new digital version of ReadyMade.

In my quest to live a greener life, my Achilles' heel is my obsession with print media. We subscribe to our city's daily newspaper, we get the Sunday Times delivered, and I get approximately eight monthly or bimonthly magazines right in my mailbox. There are also three or four magazines I buy off the newsstand on a fairly regular basis. I love the varying lengths of stories, which perfectly cater to my dynamic attention span. I love letters to the editor and dog-earing pages with things I want to explore further. I love finding a new issue in my mailbox after a particularly long day. I even love the ads.

While cleaning my home recently, I realized just how much paper this leads to each month, and my green guilt set in. Unfortunately, I really, really love both magazines and the daily newspaper. It's something I am reluctant to give up. Fortunately, there may be a solution that seems almost plausible to a printaholic like me. ReadyMade, a design/home solutions magazine for the DIY set with a sustainable sensibility, is now providing readers with a digital version of its print form. You can see every page, just as it appears in print, in its entirety, starting with the current issue #34, their green design issue.