Resources: Greener Materials

Greener materials at a glance:

The challenge of greener materials

As the very building blocks of our designs, the materials we choose bring more than just structure to our work; they inform the user experience. Picture the last time you struggled to open a thick, plastic clamshell so heavily sealed that you risked slicing a finger open just to get to the product inside. The thick plastic protects the product inside from theft and breaking, however it's toll on the user and the environment were not accounted for.

Of course, we're also faced with the cold, hard facts of budgets, deadlines and plain old access to materials and substrates. These limitations, though, are starting to fall away as manufacturers recognize the demand for more environmentally responsible materials. Even more importantly, designers are discovering how greener materials can actually enhance their clients' brand, thus feeding that demand.

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Making material decisions

It's important to remember that sustainability is a flexible framework, not a rigid set of rules. When faced with difficult decisions or trade-offs regarding materials, designers can use the following guidelines to remain focused on the essentials:

  • Identify the necessary features before deciding on the material. Start with what you need the thing to do and work backwards from there, identifying all potential materials that will meet your needs.
  • Eliminate materials altogether when feasible. If you can eliminate the need for a particular design component, you also eliminate any negative impact that material may have had. This isn't always possible, of course, but it's a step worth considering.
  • Replace harmful materials with better alternatives. Swapping one material for another that serves the same purpose can make a significant environmental difference. Polystyrene or a bioplastic, for example, is a less harmful alternative to PVC, which emits highly toxic compounds throughout its life cycle.
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Re-nourish recommendations for Greener Materials

As with most sustainability decisions, the answer to "what makes a material greener?" isn't black and white. To make good decisions, we need to understand the multiple impacts a material may have, and weigh them against each other. When choosing a material for your next project, look for the following attributes:

  • Material is nontoxic
  • Material has a low-VOC content
  • Material contains recycled content
  • Material can be easily recyclable or reused
  • Material is a renewable resource
  • Material can be accessed locally
  • Material is durable
  • Material is produced under safe and fair working conditions
  • Material extraction does not require the destruction of ecosystems or cultures
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Finding greener materials

It's hard to choose greener materials when you don't know who to trust, or whether their "green" claims are true. To move designers past this roadblock, Re-nourish has developed a rigorous set of research-based criteria for the vendors and products included on this site. In addition to these, we've identified the following sources as providing reliable information to continue your search for greener materials:

General material information:

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Re-nourish Sustainable Graphic Design Standards ©

Learn more about Re-nourish criteria that defines greener projects.
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