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This dissertation will be investigating the subject of sustainable development as a whole and the new innovations in graphic design such as Tropicana, Nike, Coca-Cola, Philips, BMW and many more who are currently engaged in new sustainable projects. The main aim will be to improve personal knowledge of this subject and to explain the meaning of sustainability, the development, the history behind it and the pioneers such as Gro Harland Bruntlad and Ban Ki-moon who were both members of the United Nations, who have been helping to promote a more sustainable planet. The dissertation will also investigate and cover the political and historical perspectives of sustainability, examine new innovations in the graphic design field, in projects that look at a wide array of material in app design, advertising, campaigning and product design. Based upon these different design projects the study will look at how designers and creators are beginning
to see how this as a very important current issue, which needs to be engaged collectively. This study will look at the concepts behind the projects, the companies they are creating them for, the processes behind them and will also use case studies in sustainable design practice. The structure of this dissertation will flow like a history review of sustainability to show a clear journey of the developments that have been happening in the process of trying to make sustainability a way of life. The research explores historical and contemporary and modern case studies in sustainable design, which is where the graphic designers have an important role in sustainable issues. The study then concludes by looking at the vast development of sustainability across the world and to show if advertising by graphic designers who have created awareness campaign’s, advertising and products, to see if these are working and engaging the public in changing their life styles to be more sustainable.
Dissertation / Alan Danby / BA Honours / Year 3
Contents
Sections
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green crossing
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orange power
- Chinese Environmental Protection Foundation campaign, involving perdestrians raising awareness through there footprints.
- Tropicanas orange powered billboard is breaking new bounderies
001/ abstract 001/ Introduction 002/ The Background to sustainable development
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003/ the pioneers
solar power - Coca-cola and Philips have been helping the Less Economically developed countries across africa through Solar power and comunity centres.
004/ New innovation 005/ Conclusion 006/ bibliography 007/ links
The Cover The cover design is purely made from recycled card with a unique screen printed design.
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earth hour
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- Earth hour is a concept creted by WWF to raise awrness about turning your lights off through the use of turning lights of on major landmarks.
nike bottle shirt - Nike is pushing the bounderies of product design by creating there sporting shirts using recycled bottles.
introduction
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Gandhi states "Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed" /
In the 1700’s, people began thriving from their new booming industries, with only one idea on their mind drawing them forward, money and profit. This was the beginning of global warming and the dependence of fossil fuels from coal, oil and gas which is today still used in our factories but also in vast quantities in our cars, trucks and homes (www.dosomething.org, 2013). At the beginning in the 1700’s the use of the earths resources was not understood, now in the 20th century we cannot keep ignoring that the planet is starting to loose the fighting battle in its use of the planets resources and the rise in global warming. Today, there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any point in the last 800,000 years (www.dosomething.org – 2013). In the last century sea levels have risen 7 inches after not changing in the previous 2,000 years (www.dosomething.org, 2013). Remarkably for the 327th consecutive months the entire
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planets temperature has exceeded the 20th century average, the odds of this occurring are larger than the number of stars in the universe (www. rollingstone.com, 2012). This also shows the world in the 20th century has been the hottest for four hundred years and possibly for several millennia (www.nationalgeographic. co.uk, 2007). These are just a small minority of eye-catching statistics to set the scene and show that global warming is real, its happening today, and faster than we realise. Sustainable development is a subject which is becoming ever more important in todays world, people are starting to think productively about this subject instead off just sweeping it under the carpet.As young designers, our age group will have to take this subject on board with us as we progress through our careers, as this subject is only going to get more important and people start taking the planet seriously. Sustainability is going to become a far greater part of everything we do.
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The background to sustainable development
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What is sustainability and what does it mean to us. This concept is something people are starting to understand and wanting to take forward into their day-to-day lifestyle. This is what every person on this need to take on board. Where does this new concept and lifestyle begin and who are the pioneers of driving this new way of life through to the global population. In 1983 the World Commission on Environment and Development was developed by the United Nations to address the growing concerns of the current global situation ‘about the accelerating deterioration of the human environment and natural
resources and the consequences of that deterioration for economic and social development’ (Weybrecht, 2011, P18). In 1987, after a few years working together the commission brought out a report named the Bruntland report. This alerted the world with these findings to show and how the world needed to make progress towards economic development but without the destruction of the environment. The report stated that we needed to use natural resources that were sustainable. This report was the first ever to make people think about what their countries are doing and how they should start making a change.
‘Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within two key concepts: the concept of needs, in particular the essential needs of the worlds poor, to which overriding priority should be given, and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environments ability to meet present and future needs’ (Weybrecht, 2011, P18). The report also states that we need to improve the quality of life for the entire worlds citizens but in particular the poorest people as they have the most needs, instead of improving the life for the richest people who already have sufficient wealth, health and lifestyle. The report also states that this can be done without increasing the use of the world’s natural resources beyond the capacity that the environment can sustain. Although the World Commission on Environment and Development was only started recently, they have been part of the pioneering drive on today’s sustainable development.
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The idea of sustainable development has been around for many years prior to the convening of the commission. People have had to learn to balance social, environmental and economic concerns in order to continue sustainably for generations. The basic core and structure is about creating an appropriate balance between social equity firstly, such as issues to do with human rights, peace, security, justice, gender equality and cultural diversity. The next section is environmental protection and refers to the natural environment, which covers water, energy, agriculture, biodiversity, fish,
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forests and air. Finally the last segment to the puzzle is economic development, which is simply the understanding of the limits and potential of economic growth and also includes issues such as poverty reduction, responsible consumption, corporate responsibility, energy efficiency and conservation, waste management, employment and education (Weybrecht, 2011). All these different sections need to interact and work together in order to ensure that sustainability works as a global system. The concept of these issues all working together has been stated perfectly by outdoor gear and apparel retailer REI, who states, ‘We don’t distinguish between environmental and social challenges around sustainability for business. In fact, all these issues intermingle. Eventually, some place along the way, there’s really no such thing as an environmental problem that doesn’t have social consequences, and there’s really no such thing as a social problem that doesn’t really fold into or have dimensions that are environmental’ (Weybrecht, 2011, P15). This clearly states and describes how all these different sections need to work together as a global system, to create a sustainable balance around the world. As the International Institute for Sustainable Development states, ‘Sustainable development focuses on improving the quality of life for all of the Earth’s citizen’s without
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increasing the use of natural resources beyond the capacity of the environment to supply them indefinitely. It requires an understanding that inaction has consequences and that we must find innovative ways to change institutional structures and influence individual behaviour. Its about taking action and changing policy’ (Weybrecht, 2011, P14). This further describes the area of sustainable change and lead on to the next subject, which is looking into new innovations in sustainability, to see what is happening to create a sustainable planet and who is pioneering it. As the Institute for Sustainable Development states ‘we must find innovative ways to change’, what are the new innovative ideas, design and products being created to overcome our current and future unsustainable situation across our planet? To say nothing is being done or has been done to save our environment and to say that we are not trying to sustain it for the future is completely false. The first conference, which took place in 1972, to encourage the world to pay attention to the environment, was the United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. When people started to take notice of what was happening to the planet. Individual nations then started to create their own national environmental agencies; this was in conjunction with the United Nations program. Between the years of 1972 and 1992 several major conferences
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and agreements started taking shape as people were coming to terms with the idea of sustainable development, some of these included the convention on international trade in endangered species of Flora and Fauna, the convention on the law of the sea, and the first global meeting to link the environment and human settlements. The United Nations held their next conference twenty years after their initial international conference, this time in 1992, in Rio di Janeiro, Brazil. The Earth Summit was held in order to discuss the environment and world development. A comprehensive plan was accomplished which was named Agenda 21; the aim of this agenda was to plan action towards sustainable development locally, nationally and globally. In the Millennium year, the United Nations Millennium Summit brought together the worlds leaders to commit their nations to a series of targets with a deadline of 2015, these goals became known as the Millennium Development Goals.
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They included the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, to ensure environmental sustainability and to develop a global partnership for development. This was a summit to improve the world in many areas and environmental sustainability was one of the most important. Johannesburg, South Africa, 2002, was to be the next summit, ten years after the Earth Summit. This time it was to come together and adopt concrete steps towards implementing the targets of Agenda 21. Today since the UN Global Compact was launched in 2000, as a platform and framework for companies that are interested and committed to sustainability. It has become the largest sustainability initiative over the globe with over four thousand seven hundred corporate participants and stakeholders from over 130 countries (Weybrecht, 2011).
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pioneers
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It’s safe to say that the United Nations has pushed through many new initiatives and plans for the world to become more sustainable. They have also set up many new organisations, through their summits, to achieve this goal they have set themselves. The World Commission on Environment and Development, which was convened by the United Nations, has delegated Bruntland and two other envoys their next task. United Nations General Ban Ki-moon wants them to encourage world leaders to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. When Bruntland began at the commission twenty years ago she was at the forefront of promoting the concept of the world changing into a more sustainable planet. Nearly 5 billion people populated the world and scientists were only just suggesting concerns about green house gas emissions. Today the population is growing fast to reach almost 6.5 billion people; emissions are now rising relentlessly in established and emerging economic powers around the world, as economic expansion is still the primary goal. The task to encourage world leaders to commit to these new protocols for climate change and green house gases is more important than at any other point in time that people have lived on this planet. Her main goal in this new project was simply to help drive world leaders to meet the protocols laid out in the 1992 Climate Change summit, who’s goal was to avoid dangerous human interference with the climate system. These laws and legislations
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do take time as they are complicated issues and it takes a long time for public opinion to change and for the public to put pressure onto their homeland governments. However some countries have been able to take the initiative on board much earlier on along the line, Norway is one of these countries, which is where Gro Harlem Bruntland was born and resides. Norway holds the concept of sustainability in the environment very highly in their day-to-day life and also in their political structure and policies. A clear case of their fast efforts to push sustainability goes back to 1987, when the World Commission on Environment and Development brought out their first report headed by Bruntland. It took until the 1989 elections in Norway, two years after for the initiative for them to start becoming reality. The environment was so high up on the agenda that it overshadowed many other issues in their policies; a Carbon Dioxide Tax quickly followed this. This shocked all the worlds’ major oil producing countries. This move was lead by no other than Bruntland, who was ironically the Prime Minister of Norway and was serving on her second spell when she brought in these new iconic measures. This was a wise move by her as it demonstrated that the Commissions report was not just words and that in fact herself and her own government were going to start straight away with conquering the global warming issues surrounding the wide emitting
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of carbon dioxide. Today, 20 years later, the country has the cleanest oil technology across the planet; the early regulation has inspired them to do the right thing. This is a clear example of a pioneering country, which all governments around the world need to look at and take notice to see how it is working. This would
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not have happened however without the drive of Gro Harlem Bruntland, the main pioneer behind the beginnings of this sustainable story which she helped create through her part in the commission and then her strong regulations that she brought in against carbon dioxide.
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new innovations
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In this next chapter the focus will now move on from all the politics and government issues to look at the interesting, innovative and exciting projects that have been happening around the world and concepts that have been pioneered in the last few years to help create a sustainable planet. To explore many design areas, looking at what new and exciting plans, designs and ideas are coming out of areas such as architecture, graphic design, product design and fashion. These ideas will demonstrate its wide diversity occurring in world of design today to help sustainability to become a life style reality and not just a thought. The next section will look at the graphic design sector, which is vast, their are so many creative, innovative designers. Many of these projects are working along side charities, companies and environmental activists to create campaigns and projects to get their ideas and words across to the public and raise awareness for their cause. This study will be utilising many new interesting and different projects, which are pushing the boundaries of design, to create new innovative projects and ideas. However all awareness campaigns are a very useful way of getting a point across to the public and a step forward in
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promoting the problem of global warming. According to a recent study, awareness campaigns have not only helped the majority of people remember to turn off their lights when leaving home (95%), but also switching off electronic devices when not in use (90%) or turning the thermostat down a degree or two. People also think about recycling paper (65%) and think about conserving water (85%). Even in supermarkets, more people are choosing the most environmentally friendly products and then bringing them home in reusable shopping bags (48%). This has led to more people repairing, reusing and sharing products. In America people are starting to share rides and use public transport (17%), this is a significant figure (www.goodvertising, 2012). It shows people are starting to change their lifestyles and a clear indication that people are starting to make a difference. This has all been helped along the way through designers and their clever little projects ideas to catch people attention and put across a striking message to make them think about what they could do to help. So what are these amazing ideas and projects that have been influencing the people of today and changing their minds on sustainability?
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Tropicana
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The first case study will look into the company Tropicana, as their recent advertising campaign is completely astonishing in the way we look at creating electricity and energy. Tropicana is a large industrial company that burns vast amounts of electricity or fuel making large amounts of carbon dioxide and pollute the planet, their carbon footprint is relatively small and their product is simple, harmless, healthy orange juice drink. So they do not have any moral reasons to produce environmentally friendly campaigns, which drive sustainability, their aim is to help the environment and advertise their brand through catching peoples eye by their staggering advertising experiments. After 3 months of painstaking planning and an extensive amount of many, many oranges, Tropicana and the DBB design agency in Paris, which stands for the creators initials: Ned Doyle, Maxwell Dane and Bill Bernbach. Together they released the first orange-powered billboard. The idea of a billboard literally only powered by oranges is compelling; it has
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no connection to the national grid and was powered purely by the acidic juice from the oranges connected with wires to zinc and copper electrodes (www.goodvertising, 2012). This intriguing piece of advertising was created in Paris and had the words “Energie Naturelle� displayed on the frontage, this plays on the Tropicana orange juice concept – that it is a natural product. This is just a great simple message putting across their perspective, that their product is completely natural. Through the use of advertising, which uses no electricity and therefore has a positive environmental impact. This really is a remarkably, innovative creation from Tropicana, which really pushes the boundaries not only of advertising but also the formulation and making of electricity. Even though this idea would not be a way of producing enough electricity to cover the planet, but it does simply show that there are other ways in which we can create power and not harm the environment.
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electricy powered by oranges
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fiat
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Alan Danby
Many companies use eye-catching advertising to draw your attention to world affairs and environmental problems such as the Korean based design agency Daehong Communications, who depicted an island which was being sucked up by the rising water levels, with the tag line ”we are drowning”, this was meant to shock people into looking at the problems facing seaside communities (www.scrible.com – 2009). Another great example was created by Percept Golf Design Agency in the United Emirates (www.scrible.com – 2009). They played on the same idea looking at water levels rising, however they have made their advertising eye-catching with a more heart grabbing simple image of koala bears stuck up a tree. These are not always innovative in helping stop sustainable change but are innovative ways to grab our attention so that we ourselves can change our life styles and help the planet be sustainable.
image of a Panda, which is an endangered species, behind the wheel. This also links in with one of their products named the Fiat Panda. They have taken this simple carbon emissions statistic, which could simply be read and forgotten, and have tried to make it more emotional, with the image of the Panda. This then creates a more powerful message, which sticks in your mind and makes you think about Fiat cars. The idea is basic in its concept to show that, if you buy their cars, then you are technically helping to safe the environment by producing lower emissions from your car. Fiat is the current pioneer in the race to become the lowest carbon emissions producer in the car industry and was noted for this when they won an award at the Cannes International Advertising Festival for this advertisement, in which it replaced crash test dummies for endangered animals (www.photocarsonline.com – 2009).
One company that prides itself on having the lowest emissions in Europe is Fiat. They recently brought out some rather striking advertising with a fairly simple image of one of their new Fiat 500’s, however the advertising shows the captivating
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wwf
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The World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature is an International Non-Governmental Organization, which is recognized around the world for its efforts into helping the environment in every way they possibly can. In 2007 in Sydney, Australia, the phenomenon, which is know as Earth Hour began. The initiative focuses on major landmarks around the world, the first landmark to begin Earth Hour, was the Sydney Opera House (Goodvertising, 2012). The idea behind the concept is simple, from the hours of 20.30 to 21.30 on the last Sunday of every March, these landmarks, which are usually bathed in light, are turned off. It is not just the Sydney Opera House that is part of this initiative, it includes businesses, homes and many other landmarks around the world such as the pyramids of Giza, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Empire State building in New York and the Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro which also took part and had their lights
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switched off for 60 minutes. Allowing people and many landmarks around the world to collaborate with Earth Hour, the idea continues to grow, with now over 130 countries joining in with the project. This is a great example of how one very simple idea has spread globally to raise awareness for the environment. The Earth Hour is not just about turning your lights off for one hour every last Sunday in March, but also to try and encourage people to only use their lights when they are needed and to think about their general lifestyles and how they can improve it to help the global pressure on the environment to sustain us. The simplicity of the idea is what makes this so creative, all it involves is simply turning off your lights, and anyone can take part and raise the initiative.
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the green pedestrian crossing
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China has become one of the largest powers in the world, it is also the most populous with a population of over 1.35 billion people, which means that China itself has one fifth of the worlds population, which is a staggering fact to think about, one out of every five people live in China. However this vast population has its downfalls as China is the world’s largest Carbon Dioxide emitter, this has lead to severe urban air pollution and recently in a poll in 2013, by the World Bank, China hosts sixteen out of the twenty most polluted city’s in the world (www.cbsnews.com, 2007). In 2011 the Chinese Environmental Protection Foundation decided to raise awareness for the problems surrounding their air pollution and primarily the amount of cars that are polluting their country, which is said to contribute to 40% of all carbon emissions across China. Their award-winning campaign named The Green Pedestrian Crossing began in Shanghai with seven projects, this quickly spread to one hundred and thirty roads in fifteen major cities across China. The simple idea was to get people to walk more often and not use their cars and this was why people walking over pedestrian crossings were used as their way of getting their idea across. The concept was to lay a blank canvas of a leafless tree, down on the road. Environmentally friendly and washable paint was positioned each side of the road in large sponges. Pedestrians were then encouraged to walk through sponges and onto the canvas, these footprints created leaves on the printed image of the branches, creating a full healthy green tree. This was a great fun way of getting the public involved for a good cause and got people talking about the campaign, but also think-
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ing about the prospects of the pollution occurring in China. In terms of statistics this campaign achieved some massive results, over 3.9 million people crossed these canvases, which is still only a small percentage of the China population but the general awareness of environmental protection rose by an incredible 86%, which just shows how the knowledge of the campaign was spread throughout the country very quickly (Goodvertising, 2012) The importance of this initiative was demonstrated when these canvases were exhibited at the Shanghai Zheng Da Art Museum (www.goodvertising, 2012). The campaign whose sole purpose was to raise awareness for the environment, has also picked up many major advertising awards, most recently, the activity was awarded Best of Show in the ‘Outdoor’ category at the 2011 ADFEST awards (Daniel Gilroy, advertising.chinasmack.com, 2011). The ADFEST awards are the largest regional advertising festival in the Asia-Pacific. The campaign started during the process of the government changing its policies on its countries insane amount of pollution. Last year Beijing’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was measured at between a minimum of 84 and a maximum of 240, the AQI is ‘which measures the tiny airborne pollutants that are most harmful to human health and are one of the main causes of smog’ (Jack Perkowski, China getting serious about Pollution? (www.forbes.com, 2013). These figures are very significant based on the fact that a safe AQI should be around 50, and anything over the 100 mark, is therefore deemed as being severely dangerous. The Chinese government has begun to start pumping billions of Yen into their efforts to reduce their vast emissions.
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garnier
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Product design has always been pushing new boundaries in many different fields to stand out in their products appearance, but also to be distinct in the way they are created. The next chapter will be looking into the pioneers behind innovative and environmentally sustainable merchandise and products. Garnier is not a company you would normally associate with sustainability and the environment. So what did they help create? Garnier teamed up with the Times of India and the design agency Lodestar, Mumbai, to create the worlds first Newspaper to be made entirely with 100% recycled newsprint (www.goodvertising, 2012). The aim behind the project was to educate India’s vastly growing youth population about environmental and world climate issues. The concept behind it was to get the Indian youth to submit green and sustainable ideas, plans and objectives to a committed website, then for every idea submitted, Garnier would buy 10kg of used paper. This paper was then used to produce a special edition of the Times of India, which was cleverly released on World Environment day in 2010. As India is becoming one of the fastest growing
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economies in the world, through production, population and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is also having an effect on their sustainability. This allowed the project to really take off, because the teens are now involved in a very exciting time in India with it starting to modernise, this shows they are very much involved with world issues. The youth of India felt empowered to take charge and be part of the solution. The statistics after the first campaign in India showed that 4.1 million youths had participated and the children’s environmental awareness had increased, so Garnier took this concept over many other countries with the same target audience. However most predominately, 5000 ideas were put forward, which then resulted in an incredible 50 tons of paper being recycled, this equates to 1,200 trees. This project therefore didn’t only raise awareness for sustainable issues, but it also created the first ever 100% recycled newspaper, and saved 1,200 tree’s (www.welovead.com, 2011). This therefore became a very innovative campaign, which helped the environment but also helped raise awareness for their own company.
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ikea
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World-renowned innovators Ikea pride themselves on their sustainable ethics and green business. They have been a class above any other brand in their sector and have been innovating new products sustainably for years. One of their first eye-catching projects was their clever reusable packaging, which was to show their clean green attitude to the world. The idea was simple, all their packaging included another useful day-to-day item template printed onto the packaging, and this was then easy for the buyer to create. The customers were used to building their own furniture and other products, so using the packaging to make further products made perfect sense, as this then saved the cardboard being thrown away and also gave the buyer another
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item. Ikea also involved their customers in the building of this campaign by encouraging them to enter a competition where they had the opportunity to create their own ideas for the packaging. The winning ideas were then implemented onto the packaging. This campaign was such a success for Ikea that they soon implemented it across the world. The design world took this idea by storm, as their green credentials were a breath of fresh air for the packaging sector. In a world where you see so much unnecessary packaging, Ikea’s idea was not only green and environmentally friendly but also gave the buyer added value to their purchase; this campaign was therefore a win-win situation for both the buyers and Ikea themselves.
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toyota
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Saatchi & Saatchi collaborated with Toyota to create a virtual glass of water; this is an IPhone app that helps drivers drive smoothly without too much accelerating or braking. Recent studies have shown that this increases petrol consumption by up to 10-20% (www.aglassofwater.org, 2010). The concept was that Toyota wanted to support environmentally friendly driving and suggested people should drive as if they had a glass of water on their dashboard. This could be a rather messy idea, so this is where Saatchi & Saatchi stepped in, and helped them release the ‘A Glass of Water’ app for initial use by the IPhone. The simple idea was executed using the iPhones accelerometer to mimic the
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movement of a real glass of water on the dashboard of the users car. The drivers used this app to track their travels and see how much water had been spilt, with the main aim to spill the least amount of water possible. This information could also be uploaded to Toyota’s website, so you could compare other peoples results and see how your driving was. Either very economical or you were racking up the carbon emissions. This was a very simple, but innovative idea created by the two companies to benefit the consumers. It also demonstrates that Toyota is a company who are concerned about carbon emissions and the environmental impact of its products.
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can you recycle plastic?
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Sustainable Brands are an international community who source out all the prime examples of sustainable products during the year and show the future innovations in the pipeline. They have been running a yearly conference for the past seven years now bringing together sustainability, brand and innovation professionals from around the world to create a network of forward thinking creative people who want to build a better sustainable tomorrow. Last years theme was “From Revolution to Renaissance� (www.sustainablebrands.com, 2013) which focused on the current positive movement between business and s ociety, as well as purposeful innovative products. Each year they choose around ten products to feature, last year, as it was 2013 there were thirteen innovative products included. First to be examined in this section is a product, which is produced and consumed in the US 125 billion times. This simple day-to-day product is the plastic container, which is reportedly only recycled 28%, with the rest being sent to landfills and discarded in the environment (www.business. ca.gov, 2012). In 2007 Ecologic were born in California, their aim was to create sustainable packaging from paper. Their end product which was patented in 2008, is a moulded
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paper bottle, which consists of an outer shell made from 100% recycled cardboard and newspaper, this was then fitted with an inner pouch, made from plastic. However this was a staggering 70% less than the traditional plastic bottle (www.ecologicbrands.com, 2007). Post-use this bottle can simply be recycled into paper and the plastic melted down and re-shaped into another product. This is an innovative idea which has been created for a day-to-day product used by everyone, if these type of products started being introduced world wide we would have a much simpler system to create products, consume them and then recycle and re-create them. Many companies have recently have taken the plastic bottle and recycled it into their own products, however not all plastic bottles are recyclable, even if they have a symbol on the bottom. This symbol is an identification code developed by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), which is simply used to sort the type of plastic it is made from. Plastic biodegrade over hundreds of years, but they can be recycled through a process of melting them down and then re-creating products from this.
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In 2010 Nike took on this idea and decided to re-design their Football jerseys for the World Cup in South Africa (www.insideworldsoccer.com, 2010). They created a new process which used recycled polyester made from up to eight bottles for each jersey. Nike created the yarn from plastic, which had been sourced from the landfill sites in Japan and Taiwan. Nike decided to do this to show the world they were more responsible and committed to create greener ethics throughout their production process, this process was also
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beneficial to them as well as the environment, as they reduced their energy consumption by 30% compared to the conventional process. The benefits for the environment were a staggering 13 million plastic bottles were saved from going to the landfill sites; this amount could have covered 29 football pitches. This process Nike created as a simple eye opener to show that recycling isn’t that difficult and that it can save you money in the long run after the brain storming to create a more ethical product.
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every little helps
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Finally this study will be finishing on a happy note. This will be looking at how the western world is helping use sustainable innovation to help the poorest people across the world. Going back to the sustainable brands conference, the main focus last year was the current moves between business and society. Coca-Cola and Philips were two of these companies who went out of their way to source out new innovative technology to help third world countries. This shows they are being responsible to the planet and also helping less economically developed countries. To start with, Philips has been helping to create light centres across Africa. These centres are fully sustainable and are powered from solar powered LED lighting. These areas run over a space of 1000m2, allowing a very useful space to be created for evening events, social events, education, commercial activities and health care (www.sustainablebrands.com, 2013). The aim behind this lighting was to produce safe areas in the evening to support the community and enable activities to carry on after work has finished for the day. Coca-Cola began a similar project across Africa, Latin America and South East Asia. However their main aim was to provide fresh, clean drinking water to the communities in
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the chosen countries. Coca-Cola partnered up with Deka Research and Development Corporation, who focus on creating innovative solutions and new technology (www.sustainablebrands. com, 2013). One of their very well known products is the Segway scooter. However their latest innovation was much more useful in helping world health. Their product is called the ‘sling shot’, which is a water purification system. The system works by using vapour-compression distillation that runs on low levels of electricity. It boils and evaporates any dirty water sourced from rivers, the ocean, lakes and even raw sewage. It then condenses the pure water to be collected by the users. The electricity used by the slingshot is minimal and even this is powered by solar energy. The unit this water purification device sits in doesn’t only create clean water; it is also like a hub for the community with a flat screen TV and mobile phone chargers. The main aim behind this project was to help less well off communities in less economically developed country (LEDC) but it was also to show the how Coco-Cola is a responsible, green company. As this project along with others has helped Coke achieve its goal to replenish 100 per cent of the water they have used throughout its beverage production over its many
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years as a leading company (www.sustainablebrands.com, 2013). This is great to see large western brands going out off their way like Philips and Coca-Cola, to help communities in less developed countries, but it is also starting to develop them with sustainable products and innovation. These sustainable roots will hopefully carry on through development creating more sustainable platforms for the future.
Alan Danby
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conclusion
The Final Chapter P/047
Alan Danby
The aim of this editorial piece was to look at the beginnings of sustainable development and to find out what new innovations are being created to help make our world a sustainable planet. From the examples that are included in this study, there is a clear outcome that many projects are being created to help make sustainability a life style. This therefore is a very exciting age people are living in at the moment, as people are seeing a massive shift in the transformation of this planet. This is not only because of all the new creative and innovative products and ideas being created to save the planet, but also because of the new ideas and knowledge driving our technology forward. Our globe has come such a long way in the past
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50 years with not only the great products for are daily use, but also products and concepts that are helping to save lives through the use of new medication for disease, injuries and medical problems. The examples included in this essay are just the tip of the iceberg as there are so many innovative projects and ideas being put into use to help create a sustainable planet. In the next one hundred years who knows what is going to be created and what problems are going to be solved by new technology and new innovations. Graphic designers in conjunction with leading companies are raising our awareness of sustainability and putting forward innovative ideas and concepts to create a more sustainable world.
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