Green Printer Blog

A Green Printer Online Dispatch

While the fair Canadian city of Vancouver has the noble goal of becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020, there’s a small town in Germany that may have already earned that title.

The university town of Freiberg I’m Breisgau, nestled in southwest Germany’s Black Forest, is considered by many to be the “greenest” or most sustainable city in the world currently. According to a report from The Vancouver Sun, the town’s reliance on numerous solar panels for energy in both commercial and residential buildings plays a major role in the title.

It also helps that many of Freiberg’s approximately 230,000 residents either use public transit via the tram, bicycles or their own two legs to get them wherever they need to go.

Additionally, the city has several energy sustainable neighbourhoods, including one that is hailed as being the only one in the world that creates more energy than it consumes, which it then feeds back into the city’s power grid (for a tidy profit, of course).

Perhaps Canadian towns and companies could learn a thing or two from the way residents and workers in Freiberg tackle sustainability together.

A Green Printer interview with Carmen Spagnola, entrepreneur and owner of m.

1. What made you want to start m?
I started m because I was a frustrated consumer.  I decided that  if I want to have access to smarter, more beautifully designed, more  responsible products and amenities for my home and family, I was going to have to create more demand.  Markets are a bit of a chicken-and-egg  relationship.  Many retailers will tell you that they only provide  what their customers want.  That is only part of my modus operandi. I want to showcase the possibility of a better performing future, so  much of what I sell and promote is currently considered ahead of the market.  But how will the market know what it wants if we don’t inspire it to want more?
Read the rest of this entry »

A www.greenprinteronline.com dispatch.

This week, we scoured Google, we marveled and finally chose three design resources, trends and case studies from around the globe that inspire in their boundary pushing work. You’ll probably re-think using the colour green in your branding palette. And that’s a good thing.

1. Did you ever wonder what all those old marketing posters for saving the endangered spotted owls could be made out of? In 1980s, you could have conjured nasty words like ‘subterranean chemicals’ or ‘volatile organic compounds‘ (VOCs). Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you to Daniel Schutzsmith for this fabulous tip.

Green Printer has interviewed rockstar interactive and strategic marketing, design and development firm Core Industries before (who clients include Live Earth, Pepsi and 1% for the Planet) and has been in touch with Megan MacMurray, Production Designer at the agency.

So, we were excited to learn that the Brooklyn-based MacMurray, along with fellow artist Angela Pablo, showcased her Garden Electric exhibit at the Futuresonic Festival and Conference in Manchester, England. Read the rest of this entry »

A Green Printer “Design Goes Green” dispatch. An interview with Deb Ozarko, Director, Creative Services of Clearly Green Design.

[digg=Being “green”, socially aware and committed to the planet doesn’t mean that design solutions have to be serious and dull]

1. If a client comes to you saying that they want to market themselves as a green company, what kinds of advice would you give them in terms of identity and design?
Before I would give them any advice, I would accurately determine their motives. As both a visual communicator and a social/environmental activist, I have a very large responsibility to the public and the planet – as well as my own personal ethics. Clearly Green Design takes our commitment to the environment, animals and social justice causes very seriously so its critical that we understand the motivating factors for a company before we go any further. A green claim or green identity no longer has the same validity that they used to because of excessive greenwashing. Greenwash is rampant because so many companies have simply jumped on the green bandwagon in order to keep up with the trend. Personally, I find this really sad because there is alot at stake here – namely, planetary survival. A glaring example of greenwash are the green claims made by the Walmart corporation. I honestly don’t know how the folks at the communications agency who market Walmart can sleep at night. Read the rest of this entry »

By contributing guest author Ida Cheinman, Principal and Creative Director of Substance 151, a strategic design agency for Green Printer‘s “Design Goes Green” series.

We live in a time when “sustainability” is topping the buzzword charts and a wave of greenwashing is flooding the mainstream. We live in a time of intense competition, gloomy economic forecasts and rapidly disappearing marketing budgets, but also in a time when more and more companies and organizations strive to uphold higher environmental and social values, making the shift to the triple bottom line economic model. Sustainability and social responsibility are the forces that drive many of today’s business decisions; they also change the way organizations re-think their branding and marketing strategies. As marketers and business leaders, we are faced with the challenge of finding differentiation by creating empowering and memorable brand experiences for our audiences in the increasingly crowded sustainable marketplace.

So, What are the rules? Read the rest of this entry »

Design Goes Green – The first of a series of articles by Green Printer on the cross-section between the environment, business and the creative communications industry.

1. Jill, you are an artist, designer and crafter. Tell us about what you do and what you create.

First and foremost I create detailed native nature drawings. With these, I create an eponymous line of paper goods and fabric accessories. I’ve been an “indie-craftpreneur” since 2001, selling my goods on my retail website and in boutiques worldwide. I also create murals, take on custom art commissions, and the occasional graphic design project for like-minded businesses. Read the rest of this entry »

The green we need

A www.greenprinteronline.com dispatch.

A post by contributing writer Melissa Chungfat. 

When Barack Obama delivered his speech on November 4, 2008, he mentioned the challenges of a planet in peril and the worst financial crisis in a century. In the spirit of collaboration, he called upon all Americans to “join in the work of remaking this nation.”

 You can now check out the Clean Tech for Obama website. Cleantech and Green Business for Obama (CT4-O) is a self organized, volunteer based constituency group supporting the Obama campaign. Read the rest of this entry »

A www.greenprinteronline.com dispatch. 

A post by contributing writer Melissa Chungfat.

The dwindling economy isn’t the only thing that’s hurting company profits  it’s also the widespread lack of employee engagement. The Towers Perrin firm conducted a global workforce study of employees around the world, and only 21% of employees surveyed were engaged in their work. The study reported that the more employees were engaged, or willing to go the extra mile to help their company succeed, the better the financial results.

But even before the economic meltdown and the lack of employee engagement, many companies felt they had to choose between economic success and the environment. Can the case of economy vs. environment be settled? Read the rest of this entry »