Sustainable Certifications

Design Can Change
Design Can Change is an effort to bring together the world’s graphic design community to address the issues surrounding climate change. Designers craft much of the world’s products/media and as such are well positioned to build awareness around this issue while encouraging more sustainable industry practices.

Design Can Change is simple. It works on the belief that our industry can make positive change by working together.

Looking for a designer? The Member Directory lists those who have taken the pledge.

CO2 Stats
CO2Stats is a tool that makes your website environmentally friendly. Whenever people view your web site or blog, they use electrically-powered computers and servers. To create electricity, power companies must burn fuels that emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and cause global warming. CO2Stats monitors how much electricity is being used to power your site, and then it “offsets” the emissions by investing in renewable energy projects that help to counteract global warming. Their offsets are funded by advertising sponsors who are committed to making the Internet more environmentally friendly.

Green Mark
Green Mark is an environmental certification which enables businesses to improve their environmental performance and gain recognition for doing so. Good behaviour is good business.

The Forest Stewardship Council
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.

Sustainable Printing Processes

Waterless Printing Association
The Waterless Printing Association is a world-wide, non-profit trade association dedicated to waterless printing and its various forms which include analog, Direct Imaging (DI) and Computer to Plate (CtP). The association seeks to inform and educate printers and print buyers about the productivity, environmental and quality benefits offered by the waterless offset printing process.

Blogs

EcoGeek – Clean Technology
Technology can be a force for evil, or for awesome. Those who shun technologies that could save the planet are just as guilty as those who ignore the environment. There’s a safe balance, where the awesome can help nature as much as it helps us have a good time and live easier lives. EcoGeek devotes its pages to exploring the symbiosis between nature and technology. If you’re interested in that, then stop by, and stop by often.

WebEcoist
WebEcoist is a blog for sustainable living, green design and environmental oddities.

TreeHugger
TreeHugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, we strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information. At TreeHugger we know that variety is the spice of life, so you can find all you need to go green in our up to the minute blog, weekly and daily newsletters, weekly video segments, weekly radio show and our user-generated blog, Hugg. We also extend our expertise to companies looking for a little green guidance. Past clients include Domino, Sundance Channel and House & Garden.

Gristmill: The environmental news blog
Let’s face it: reading environmental journalism too often feels like eating your vegetables. Boiled. With no butter. But at Grist, we believe that news about green issues and sustainable living doesn’t have to be predictable, demoralizing, or dull. We butter the vegetables! And add salt! And strain metaphors!

We exist to tell the untold stories, spotlight trends before they become trendy, and engage the apathetic. We’re fiercely independent in our coverage; we throw brickbats when they’re needed and bestow kudos when they’re warranted. And while we take our work seriously, we don’t take ourselves seriously, because of the many things this planet is running out of, sanctimonious tree-huggers ain’t one of them.

Grist: it’s gloom and doom with a sense of humor. So laugh now — or the planet gets it.

Triple Pundit – A new conversation for business.
Triple Pundit is one of the world’s most well-read websites on the subject of responsible business with a fast growing audience of over 50,000 unique readers a month. Our audience is composed of entrepreneurs, corporate change agents, MBA students and people who seek to create a better world through the power of business.

Environment, Society and Business form a tripartite relationship – actions of one affect the others. You can’t have a successful economy without a healthy environment and a healthy society, and vice versa. That concept is called the triple bottom line, which is where the triple part of the name comes from. It’s also sometimes called the integrated bottom line. Either way, it’s a new and broader way of looking at business and the world.

Development Crossing
With a goal of creating a site where individuals that shared our passion could keep up-to-date with relevant happenings in the world and connect with like-minded individuals, Development Crossing was set up in 2006 around the topics of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development.

Over the past few years, Development Crossing has grown into a fully-supported networking platform, enabling users to create profiles, manage blogs and discussions, create groups and events, and directly network with each other.

Green Options – Helping You Make Green Choices
Practical news and DIY ideas on environmental issues such as green energy, solar energy, biofuels, water issues, fair trade, healthy homes and families, toxic chemicals and clean tech.

Sustainability Search Engines

Greensearch | You search, we donate.
SEARCH FOR GOOD You search for stuff all the time. So do we. Wouldn’t it be cool if small, everyday actions could add up to something? Greensearch is a way to harness the power of those lost moments and turn them into a focused impact. When you visit Greensearch, you help us generate money from advertising, which we donate to an environmental non-profit. In a sense, your eyes and fingers are making a big difference for the environment. You may not be planting trees all day, but your efforts can still add up.

We aren’t just a great way to search for good, we are also a collective of technologists, designers, entrepreneurs, artists, hackers, educators and activists that have a knack for parsing out useful information.

EcoEarth.Info
EcoEarth.Info is an Internet search tool that provides access to reviewed environmental sustainability news, information retrieval tools, and original analysis and action opportunities.

Businesses

Airside
Airside is an award winning British design company who have been accredited level 1 by the Green Mark UK.

Perennia
Bienvenue chez Perennia, une entreprise de design durable, socialement responsable. Son objectif ? Aider les organisations québécoises à améliorer leur performance environnementale.

Futerra
Futerra is a communications agency. We do the things great agencies do; have bright ideas, captivate audiences, build energetic websites one day and grab opinion former’s attention the next. We’re very good at it.

But the real difference is that since our foundation in 2001, we’ve only ever worked on corporate responsibility and sustainability.

Organizations

Moxie
How would you like $550,000,000,000? No of course you can’t have it all. But you could well tap into part of it by understanding what’s motivating conscientious consumers to actively seek out products and services that fit with their environmental and social values. Welcome to the age and the potential of the ethical economy.

Designed to Help
The Designed To Help project was launched by UK designers iLovedust, in 2009. The idea was to produce a book of graphic design, illustration and photography, to raise money to help charities deal with the tsunami crisis in Asia. iLovedust received an overwhelming response from designers and prospective partners who wanted to support the project, and when renowned design publisher Die Gestalten Verlag (dgv) joined iLovedust, ‘A Book Designed To Help’ became a reality. The book is a lavish hardcover of 304 pages, featuring around 1,000 artworks from over 240 contributors from around the world. The book is a “must have” for a design-oriented audience worldwide and all profits from the sale of will go to respected worldwide charity organization CARE, who will use the funds to help the poorest communities recover from the tsunami disaster.

Partly Sunny
Designs to change the forecast. Partly Sunny is comprised of 36 design projects and initiatives that highlight what individuals businesses and municipalities are doing to address challenges posed by climate change. The projects, mounted on exhibition boards, are organized into 6 topic areas: energy, land, transportation, food, buildings and water. Together they demonstrate how individual choices, community investments, and national policies are creating jobs, creating healthier communities and securing the future by design.

Partly Sunny premiered in Denver in August 2008. The show was commissioned by the City of Denver, and a featured part of Dialog:City, a groundbreaking art and design festival held during the Democratic National Convention. Following Denver, the exhibition is on tour through 2010.

The Canary Project
The Canary Project produces visual media, events, and artwork that builds public understanding of human-induced climate change and energize commitment to solutions. Following are the key strategies we employ:

• Visualize global warming in compelling ways that leverage data and communicate a sense of urgency.
• Integrate the tools of art with those of science, education, mass communication and other disciplines
• that enhance our ability to engage diverse audiences.
• Investigate questions lying at the root of our current ecological crisis and provoke reflection on those questions.
• Cultivate media attention to further inform a broad public and to create excitement around the issue.
• Distribute information on concrete actions people can take to cut carbon emissions and lead people to take more action.

Designers on the run
We think in Green...because we love rainbows and we’re one of the first design studios in Edinburgh to take action on minimising our environmentally damaging footprint. At Designers on the Run we take the issue of corporate social responsibility seriously which is why we have restructured the way we work to officially offer a greener and ethical working policy.

Urban Forest Project
Last fall The Urban Forest Project, an unprecedented outdoor exhibition, took root in New York City. One hundred eighty-five of some of the world’s most celebrated designers and artists employed the idea or form of the tree to make a powerful visual statement on banners that were displayed throughout Times Square.

The tree is metaphor for sustainability, and in that spirit the banners from the exhibition were recycled into totebags designed exclusively for the project by Jack Spade. Profits from the sale of the totebags went to Worldstudio AIGA Scholarships and the AIGA/NY Mentoring Program to sustain the next generation of design talent.

The totebag sale ended in May 2007, and the made-to-order bags have been shipped to recipients. Thanks very much to all who purchased bags and, especially, to all of the designers and artists who participated in the project.

Slow Design
Slow design’ focuses on ideas of well-being. A manifesto for ‘slow sustainable designers’ (Fuad-Luke 2003a) suggests subtle and dramatic changes to everyday design practice.

Design 21
Network for socially conscious designers, non-profits, individuals or organizations who believes social change can happen through design.

Zerofootprint
The Zerofootprint group of companies empowers communities, businesses, and organizations to live ingeniously in a low carbon world. We do green.

The group is currently comprised of three distinct but related organizations: Zerofootprint Not-for-Profit, Zerofootprint Software and Zerofootprint Carbon.

Design Can Change
Design Can Change is an effort to bring together the world’s graphic design community to address the issues surrounding climate change. Designers craft much of the world’s products/media and as such are well positioned to build awareness around this issue while encouraging more sustainable industry practices.

Design Can Change is simple. It works on the belief that our industry can make positive change by working together.

Looking for a designer? The Member Directory lists those who have taken the pledge.

The Centre for Sustainable Design
The Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) was established in 1995 within the Faculty of Design at The Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College, in the UK. CfSD has organised over 30 conferences and workshops, and undertaken a wide range of research and training projects on eco-product development and sustainable product design. It has achieved an international reputation for high quality, innovative, leading-edge work. CfSD is supported by an international advisory board.

The Centre for Sustainable Design (CfSD) facilitates discussion and research on eco-design and environmental, economic, ethical and social (e3s) considerations in product and service development and design. This is achieved through training and education, research, seminars, workshops, conferences, consultancy, publications and Internet. The Centre also acts as an information clearing house and a focus for innovative thinking on sustainable products and services.

Climate Change, Global Warming, and the Built Environment

Architecture 2030
Architecture 2030, a non-profit, non-partisan and independent organization, was established in response to the global-warming crisis by architect Edward Mazria in 2002. 2030’s mission is to rapidly transform the US and global Building Sector from the major contributor of greenhouse gas emissions to a central part of the solution to the global-warming crisis. Our goal is straightforward: to achieve a dramatic reduction in the global-warming-causing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the Building Sector by changing the way buildings and developments are planned, designed and constructed.

Buildings are responsible for almost half (48%) of all greenhouse gas emissions annually; globally the percentage is even greater.

Design It Greener
Designitgreener is an all-inclusive resource for the graphic, packaging, industrial, interior and architectural design industries. They’re helping designers stay informed and educated on the latest and greatest in all realms of green design by providing news, tips and advice, a glossary of common green terms and a green design gallery where designers will find inspiration to help begin and continue to make green choices a part of their everyday design practices.

Sustainable Product Design – ESP Design
ESP Design is an online resource for design professionals and students seeking to learn about Sustainable Product Design. It is intended that as well as providing a background to sustainable product design, ESP Design also provides practical advice and guidelines on how to design sustainable products.

Originally Environmentally Sustainable Product Design, the name of ESP Design has been changed to Entirely Sustainable Product Design in order to more accurately reflect the wide range of issues that affect sustainability.

The Sustainable Business Network
The Sustainable Business Network is a forum for businesses that are interested in sustainable development practice.

We promote sustainable practice in New Zealand and support businesses on the path to becoming sustainable. We link businesses and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences.

We define Sustainable Business as the integration of economic growth, social equity and environmental management, both for now and for the future.

AIGA Center For Sustainable Design
The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design is dedicated to providing designers with practical information, including case studies, news articles, discourse and resources, relevant to sustainable business practice. It examines sustainability from a wide range of perspectives: from the nuts and bolts of daily studio life to the larger marketplace dynamics and global concerns within which designers operate. The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design’s objective is to encourage and support designers as they incorporate sustainable thinking into their professional lives.

Three Trees
Three Trees Don’t Make A Forest is a not-for-profit social enterprise set up by directors of three established and successful agencies.

Our aim is to provide tools for all designers and businesses who are involved in design and advertising to inspire them to re-think their working cultures and start to produce sustainable design that really works.

Our ultimate goal is to be the catalyst for the creation of a zero carbon design industry.

Greengaged
Greengaged is a not for profit organisation founded in 2008 by Sophie Thomas from thomas.matthews, Sarah Johnson from Re Design and Anne Chick from The Sustainable Design Research Centre at Kingston University.

Greengaged aims to advance the design industry’s capacity to respond positively to key environmental challenges such as climate change. This is done by offering thought leadership, creating spaces for dialogue, and opportunities for knowledge sharing – within the industry and beyond.

Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society
The Australian Life Cycle Assessment Society (ALCAS) is Australia’s peak professional organisation for people involved in the use and development of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).

ALCAS was established in 2001, and became an important milestone in Australia’s development of LCA. It was incorporated to promote LCA and sustainable development, and to coordinate the rapidly growing professional community in Australia.

A not-for-profit organisation, ALCAS has individual and corporate members from industry, government, academia and service organisations. We welcome membership from people interested in the practice, use, development and interpretation of LCA.

Centre for Design
The Centre for Design promotes sustainability through research, consulting, and capacity building through active dissemination and professional development.

We are recognised internationally for our innovative design methods and tools to support sustainable design of products and services — everything from packaging and consumer products to buildings, suburbs and cities.

As Australia’s key node of activity in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the Centre is dedicated to all aspects of achieving environmental sustainability outcomes, and undertakes fundamental research to inform policy and practice to this end.

The Designers Accord
The Designers Accord is a global coalition of designers, educators, researchers, engineers, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact. The Designers Accord is made up of over 100,000 members of the creative community, representing 100 countries, and each design discipline. Adopting the Designers Accord provides access to a community of peers that shares methodologies, resources, and experiences around environmental and social issues in design. Any designer, consultancy, or organization creating consequence at scale should join.

Waterless Printing Association
The Waterless Printing Association is a world-wide, non-profit trade association dedicated to waterless printing and its various forms which include analog, Direct Imaging (DI) and Computer to Plate (CtP). The association seeks to inform and educate printers and print buyers about the productivity, environmental and quality benefits offered by the waterless offset printing process.

The Forest Stewardship Council
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC sets high standards that ensure forestry is practiced in an environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable way.

Tree-free Paper
Your tree-free paper source for all nonwood and tree free fiber paper products (bagasse paper, hemp paper, kenaf paper, agricultural residue paper, wheat straw paper, rice straw paper, sugar cane paper, bamboo paper, banana ply paper, tree free paper, tree-free paper, treefree fiber, tree-free fiber and nonwood fiber) including Reprograph copy paper, Propal Reprograph paper, and all 100% treefree ecological sustainable papers for a sustainable and beautiful world!

Sustainable Forestry Initiative
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) program is based on the premise that responsible environmental behavior and sound business decisions can co-exist.

SFI program participants practice sustainable forestry on all the lands they manage. They also influence millions of additional acres through the training of loggers and foresters in best management practices and landowner outreach programs.

This unique commitment to sustainable forestry recognizes that all forest landowners, not just SFI program participants, play a critical role in ensuring the long-term health and sustainability of our forests.

Communicating Urgency
Award-winning international ads to save the planet.

Also see Environment & Sustainability.