Materials life cycle assessment in Graphic Design

Life cycle assessment is also known as life cycle analysis or LCA and can be used to assess the environmental impacts of a product's life and provide a sound basis for informed decisions.
It sounds analytical and complex but with some basic theory under your belt you can apply some practical LCA to your graphic design projects.

The main stages of the life cycle usually follows the cradle-to-grave model (full life-cycle) or occasionally the cradle-to-gate model (partial life-cycle until it reaches the consumer).

This graphic shows the main stages of a cradle-to-grave full life-cycle and the resources that go into the system and waste that comes out (this can happen at every stage, not just at the end). Click on the image to zoom in.

The main stages for analysis include:

• Raw material extraction
• Material processing
• Design
• Manufacture
• Distribution
• Use
• Repair/maintenance
• Disposal

With regard to the following factors:

• Raw Material use
• Water use
• Energy use
• Waste production 
• Waste disposal (air, land, water)
• Transportation steps

Life Cycle Analysis can be as simple as making a basic matrix of these main stages against the factors like in the following graphic (click to enlarge):

Setting up a simple spreadsheet for each material, product, project or the options to satisfy a design brief will bring focus.  It's easy to work out what you don't know (there will be a hole in the matrix) and then you can assess the options against each other.

This is where you'll have to ask your suppliers where their products come from, and if they can source locally extracted/manufactured goods.  You'll have to do some research into what happens at the end of the line.  How do these materials get disposed of?  What actually happens to them in the environment?

I've included "cost" into the matrix even though this strictly isn't a LCA factor, because realistically - will your client stump up extra money for a more sustainable product?

Further posts will look at this in more depth - including open loop production (recycling) and evaluating options that give more useable life for each product.

If you're interested in sustainable design life-cycles check out this post about a graphic designers perspective on sustainability.

The "Design Can Change" Pledge for sustainable design

This is a brief introduction to www.designcanchange.org and their community effort to raise awareness about sustainability in the design industry - specifically climate change (check out the Australian Government Climate Change in a Nutshell info, as you read this remember these aren't tree huggers but government scientists!!)

designcanchange.org proposes that designers are so close to the issue that they are uniquely positioned to make a difference. Graphic designers have influence and that collectively can encourage substantial change by utilising our abilities to effectively communicate and build interest. They propose the following pledge:

The "Design Can Change" pledge
The pledge is intended to be workable - something you can actually do today.  It isn't intended to be restrictive or overly dogmatic; instead, it is a set of commitments that you can easily adopt to your daily practice.

"In my professional practice, I will endeavour to:
Learn: Engage in the topic and seek to understand the issue.
Think: Make a sustainable mindset second nature.
Act: Put my knowledge to use in my daily work.
Inform: Share information and build awareness for sustainability
Unite: Spark change through collective strength
"
If you think this is something that you commit to, then head over to:
www.designcanchange.org/#/act/sign
Where you can sign-up and if you want you can get listed in their directory of sustainable designers.

They also have a couple of pdfs you can download for both designers and buyers to introduce the topic of sustainability:
www.designcanchange.org/files/dcc_answers_for_designers.pdf
www.designcanchange.org/files/dcc_answers_for_buyers.pdf

If your interested in learning more about sustainability in design then check out:

Sustainability - a graphic designers perspective

Why have sustainable graphic design?

Sustainability - a graphic designers perspective

Here is a great video of Eric Benson speaking at TEDx conference in 2010 and gives his perspective to sustainable graphic design.  As a graphic designer his awakening happened at seeing his own direct mail designs dumped in his own rubbish bin (trash can).  Eric now produces environmentally friendly print and packaging material and digital media. Check out the video of his talk below.

Here's a simple graphic of the direct mail life-cycle.  It's highly simplified - and really only shows the journey of the paper, not the ink or other consumables and it only ends in the bin rather than a landfill or incinerator.  Even so, notice that it's not really a "cycle" but a linear flow.  The thing that makes this linear flow possible is cheap energy to transport and process the trees into printed material.

In this video Eric raises some interesting questions and then points out the power we have as graphic designers to change the way we work and to make better decisions.



Eric asks the following questions:
What are the impacts of the objects that I create?
Why is sustainability important to graphic designers?

He gives us the following sobering facts:
Paper industry is the 4th largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
100 million trees are felled annually to produce junk mail.

and Eric points out the power we have as graphic designers:
Facilitate real change throughout the supply chain.
Make sustainable design what design IS not merely what it could be.
The more knowledge and tools, the easier it is to make better decisions that when added up can change the world.

For an introduction into the production of consumer goods check out this post about the story of stuff and sustainable graphic design.

Why have sustainable graphic design?

Graphic design is the skill of using text, graphics and colour to communicate a message.  Traditional mediums for graphic design are business cards, brochures, flyers, posters, billboards and signs.

A primary goal of graphic design is to enhance, advertise or market this message to a specific audience.
This is where graphic design runs into the real world of "stuff".

As graphic designers we are at the forefront of stuff production and marketing - and that makes sustainability very much our business.

Here is a great animated introduction into the Story of Stuff and a good place to start this blog.



We can take this as an invitation to see what we can do, as graphic designers, to find out more about the processes and end products of our design decisions.

Stay tuned as we venture into the world of sustainable graphic design.

If you want to find out more about the sustainable graphic design blog visit this page.