Many clients are now embracing sustainability and building their brands around greener practices, so why do so few designers feel their ability to provide green advice is important? Chris Cox reports.
As the UK shifts to a low carbon footing, the next 30 years are going to see radical changes in the way we do business. The question of what role designers can play in reducing our environmental impact is going to be a crucial one. European researchers have said that 80% of a product’s environmental impact is determined at the design stage, and there have been growing calls for designers to adopt more sustainable practices to help businesses reduce their carbon footprints.
And there are plenty of designers taking notice. Almost half of designers say the use resources in an environmentally conscious way. Forty-one per cent say they are minimising their transport requirements, while 29% have been trying to increase the lifespan of the materials they use.
For some designers, these practices are simply becoming part of good design. ‘I think we’re getting to a time when we’re not going to be talking about sustainability any more,’ says Jason Bruges, founder of the Jason Bruges Studio. ‘It’s just going to become part of the checklist.’ Bruges says that he’s interested in ‘the overall intelligence of the design process, which means considering everything from its environmental impact through to its benefits for the client.’
In spite of the encouraging signs, however, very few designers feel that their ability to provide green advice is important to clients: only 16% of design consultancies told the Design Council that it was an important factor for winning work, while 18% of freelances said the same. So are we witnessing a sustainable design revolution – or are designers just providing clients with business as usual?
Where branding is concerned, there has definitely been a visible change. Jon Hewitt, Senior Designer at Moving Brands, says clients increasingly see sustainability as ‘part of their responsibility as good corporate citizens’. In recent years, he says, clients have matured from simply ‘giving a nod’ to greener practices towards building their brands around them. Hewitt says Moving Brands’ designers have undertaken training sessions with environmental consultants, to help them persuade clients to consider sustainable approaches.
But while shaping up environmental messages is one thing, reducing the overall impact of products and services is hugely complex – and not yet fully understood by designers or clients.
Fifty-nine per cent of designers say they feel well equipped to advise clients on sustainable design practices; but there are still underlying problems that need to be resolved.
For example, making a green choice can have negative knock-on effects. ‘We tend to move a client away from heavy print solutions as much as possible now,’ says Neville Brody, founder of Research Studios. ‘But at the same time we’re learning more and more about the energy resource drain caused by continual use of the internet – which could potentially be far more damaging than paper.’ These kinds of problems will keep coming up for designers – the challenge will be keeping themselves, and their clients, educated and moving forward with the best solutions.