There is currently no universal, reliable set of sustainability standards available to graphic designers, their clients, or consumers—no way to know, quickly, whether or not a project, or a studio, is legitimately sustainable. As a result, studios struggle to educate clients about their environmental efforts, clients don't know where to begin the decision-making process, and everyone ends up either confused, mislead, or just disgusted with the whole business.
Re-nourish aims to change all that with our Sustainable Graphic Design Standards. We've developed a set of evolving standards that allows anyone to immediately place a given printed piece (or the studio that produced it) into a sustainable context. With this assurance that specific and rigorous design criteria have been met, designers now have the power to quickly and painlessly educate clients and the public at large about their sustainability efforts. Perhaps more importantly, a codified set of standards will facilitate the implementation of sustainable design practices throughout the industry, as designers finally have rigorous yet practical guidelines they can follow.
The Re-nourish Sustainable Graphic Design Standards are classified by project type—print, packaging, or digital—with an additional standard for studios. Each set of Standards is tailored to the specific issues involved in the given medium, as well geographic considerations throughout a project or studio's supply chain.
To meet Re-nourish Standards, projects must meet specific criteria in the following areas:
Individual designers, studios, or their clients can apply for Re-nourish verification by filling out our online application for projects or studios. Re-nourish will assess each application according to the Standards, review any applicable documentation, and notify the applicant of our decision to verify the project or studio. Throughout the process, the Re-nourish team will remain available to answer any questions and guide the applicant through the verification process.
The Sustainable Graphic Design Standards are not intended as a panacea or a marketing tool. Their primary purpose is to provide a verifiable context for individual projects and studios.
Measuring sustainability criteria is, of course, an incredible challenge. What impact areas do we take into account? How high do we set the bar? How do we adapt to the constantly growing knowledge base of scientific/technological research?
Our answer to these questions is to embrace the Standards not as a static document but as a constantly evolving set of processes. Each criterion is based on the unique issues surrounding the design process, geographic practicalities, academic and scientific research, and sound sustainability and design theory. As these elements continue to evolve, so do the Standards.
We openly invite input from industry associations, manfuacturers, sustainability experts, nonprofits, working designers, and other stakeholders who have experience and knowledge in these areas and are interested in contributing to a universal, open-source Standards program. If you feel you have something to add to this conversation, please contact us at standards@re-nourish.com.
View our Sustainable Standards list for