Design, print, marketing and event management are all concerned with one thing: creating awareness and communicating ideas. But with the excess of advertising in our society that saturates most avenues for promotion, it’s not easy to get the desired message across. Producing a flyer to promote an event, a product or a brand just won’t cut it anymore. Not only will it fail to make an impact amid all the new-fangled techno media available, but any impact it does make is more likely to be on the environment than the target audience.

It is more important than ever to carefully consider our use of the creative services available to us and to take advantage of media that can successfully market a message with minimal environmental consequences.

When considering avenues for marketing it's certainly no secret that printing has the potential for great environmental damage. And yet, amid all the new forms of communication out there, we can't seem to give up our love affair with paper copy. To reduce the environmental impact of this romance, it is important to consider not only how, but also what we print.

Look out for the ‘responsible print’ and ‘FSC’ markers as handy symbols of sustainable printing practice. ‘Responsible print’ specifies paper with at least 50% recycled fibre content, vegetable-based inks, carbon footprint product-analysis, biodegradable and cold compostable laminates…and the list goes on.

Design also has a role to play in reducing the carbon footprint of printed material. Cut down on ink-use by: eliminating bold headers, hunting down physically thinner fonts, reducing font size and embracing white space. Incorporating sustainability as a key design principal is vital. Good design solves everyday problems and inspires beautiful, thoughtful living. Bad design miscalculates space, produces waste and creates confusion.

Intelligent marketing, good design and resource-saving ideas, along with conscious consumerism and realistic manufacturing, are all essential if our journey towards a low carbon future is to be successful.

We need to think about what we do with a view to the lifespan of what we produce. With resources becoming more limited and costly, our creativity is challenged to consider new alternatives.  As creators, consumers, inventors, designers and lovers of good taste it is up to us to set the precedent. What we produce, buy and own should be efficient, aesthetically pleasing, have a clear purpose and last for as long as we do.