Ethics and design

Some obviously choose to work on these accounts and others choose not to. Even those who choose to work in these fields though allow their staff the choice to abstain.

Which is great, no one is forced to work on a product they object to ethically. So for me the question is how far do we extend the employee’s right to conscientiously object to working with a particular client or product?

For instance, if you believe strongly in the environment and you’re asked to create a concept for mobile billboards, do you have the right to point out how they use a finite resource for nothing other than driving round and telling people about a product?

That’s a very sensible use of a precious resource! Last summer I saw mobile billboards advertising sunscreen…well I suppose it helped generate a need for the product.

Recently as you may be aware, the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) published an Environmental Claims in Advertising and Marketing Code which is designed to ensure that marketers apply rigorous, industry-wide standards when they make environmental claims in advertising or marketing communications.

That’s a start but I’m not just talking about advertising here, packaging is very much public enemy number one in the eyes of many people. Don’t get me wrong though, I don’t think we should all go back to living in caves and killing our own food.

Having said this, I would like to see us as an industry showing more interest in moving towards a sustainable future and not just spouting forth “Greenwash”.

Obviously if you go too far you’ll only have about 3 products to work on, but let’s keep this in the realm of mainstream products and discuss the packaging and the ethics around whether we should work with specific materials rather than the product itself. If the AANA has established a green code, then perhaps one should be set up for packaging too.

Consider this, if a product is good for you, would you still work on it if it is packaged in an unsustainable way? Whose responsibility is it to drive us towards a sustainable future? Is it the designers? Should we be able to object to working on a project if the product or its packaging doesn’t have the right green credentials?

Imagine being a junior designer fresh out of college, full of principles and ideas of how you can create a better future. With excitement you approach your first brief, for an organic coffee let’s say, only to find that the client has sourced some plastic and metal laminate pack that you know is heading straight for landfill. Should you stand up and say something?

Would you lose your job if you said you didn’t want to work on that product? You wouldn’t if it was a cigarette brand, you would be asked if you had any objections to working on such a brand. So why don’t we get the choice with environmental impact?

This brings me to the question of where the responsibility in fact lies. Should the manufacturer of the product lead the way? Should organic and eco products have sustainable packaging?

If a potential client approaches your company and wants you to add the surface graphics to the packaging of their green product and that packaging is a PVC bottle, what stance do you take?

Would you risk losing a potential client by telling them about the impact their packaging will have? One thing that is certain is the manufacturers of the bottles are going to keep making their bottles until someone says they can’t or they need to do more than a recycling code on them. You know how it goes.

All is fine, deny everything until you are forced to do something about it by the government. It happened with cigarettes and it will probably happen with alcohol too. After all, PVC bottles aren’t illegal and they aren’t going to kill like cigarettes do. So what harm can they cause?

Do you take on the project because at least the product is green and plenty of other people use plastic and don’t worry? After all, they’ll find a replacement before we run out of oil, won’t they? Maybe the client will tell you that they looked into a greener packaging option but it was just too expensive.

So when you weigh it up, it’s better to have another green product on the market. At least the product itself is helping to save the world. Isn’t it?

Unfortunately for us, we can’t blame this on a lack of knowledge. We know what we are doing and we know the environmental credentials of specific materials, so why do we either, a, choose the not so good options or, b, allow our client to choose a material with no green credentials and then just comply? After all, we are just doing our jobs.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I am prefect. We just did a job with Mylar bags, and yes we selected them, we’ve also done mobile billboards. While I did raise the issue, I lost that argument. Should I have quit on principal?

I guess it comes down to the fact that while I have distinct ideals and strong beliefs on a range of issues I know I’m not going to win all of them right away. So, while that battle wasn’t won at least the issue is now out there where I work and sustainable materials will be considered for our next projects.

At that stage, we are going to have to grow a backbone and say no, plus have an alternative solution ready in case our client asks for mobile billboards again.

Last year we did an environmental impact study from the City of Sydney to reduce our energy consumption. We bought timers for our water heaters, turned down the flow of water to the taps, made sure everyone knew to turn the printers and lights off at night and we even bought energy saving light globes (all packaged in un-open-able vacuum formed plastic packs).

Everyone was up for it and embraced the changes whole heartedly. We are now even saving all our single sided printouts and making sketch pads out of them. After all it doesn’t make our jobs harder and it makes us feel like we are doing something good for the planet.

But in our everyday selection of products and materials, apart from FSC approved paper and selecting vegetable based ink, I’ll be honest and say that we don’t really consider the environmental impact that our designs are going to have long term.

So if you can abstain from working on a product that is perfectly legal and is an adult choice if you choose to inflict it upon your own body, then shouldn’t we allow employees to choose not to work on projects that have a much greater impact on the planet as a whole than any smoking, drinking and gambling can?

As designers, should we be the ones pushing for manufacturers to create more sustainable solutions? And folks recycling doesn’t mean sustainable, apart from the fact most plastics aren’t recycled, even if they were it still isn’t sustainable.

As an industry, are we morally wrong because whilst we know the impact certain materials have on the planet we continue to use them in our designs? Is it okay that we design products knowing that after their single use the packaging is going to landfill for the next 100 years?

Is it okay to abdicate responsibility until consumers demand greener packaging? We stand by and don’t object, we’re not pushing manufacturers to create more sustainable packaging materials for us to work with.

From now on I for one will be standing up and telling our clients that we have found them materials that are more sustainable. We will always put forward a greener alternative.

Ian Brown, creative director, the hub agency