Green is a complex color

We talk about environmentally-friendly "green" design in my classes fairly often. One of my classmates is pursuing a thesis topic devoted to recycling. Another classmate literally yells at us almost every time a plastic bottle or soda can ends up in the trash instead of the recycling bin (we don't actually have a recycling bin in our new studio, so his desk has taken on that job now).

It's a topic of some conflict for designers. On the one hand, designers tend to hail from the artist crowd and are by and large idealists. On the other hand, it is their job to make new stuff and, in so doing, contribute to both consumerism and the waste that follows. It's hard to reconcile "green" with that kind of work. So we talk about it and argue about it and generally try to figure it out as we go.

This discussion is helped in part by an increasing consumer demand for "green" and the resulting increase in industry attempts to meet that demand. The problem is that it's a complex issue, and no one really likes complexity. They want a rubber stamp that tells them whether a product is good or not (the healthy food trend faces the same issues). It's the metrics problem all over again. People want an easy measure, but there isn't one. There are tradeoffs. There are always tradeoffs. An ability to deal with that truth is what separates "design" from "whimsy."

Also, there's profit to be made in "green" now and that muddies the waters a bit. Companies produce new products, slap a green label on them, and watch the other kind of green come rolling in, regardless of how environmentally friendly they really are. This kind of opportunism only adds to undercurrents of distrust that already exist. One of the trends my classmate has found in her thesis work is that people are often skeptical of the quality of "green" products. Her mother, for instance, won't buy cleaning products that are labeled "green" because she assumes they don't work (whether there is truth to this, I cannot say). Companies that use "green" as an excuse to overcharge aren't helping any.

Sarah and I do what we can. We recycle everything, even the stuff our apartment complex doesn't. We use our own bags for groceries and we try to avoid other areas of waste, no matter how small. For instance, if we're eating at a fast food place, we skip the straws and the plastic lids for our cups. The classmate that yells about recycling gave us this idea. It's not much, a little less plastic to throw away, but it's part of our overall attempt to think about our impact and to consistently reduce it wherever we can. It's the consistency that gets tricky. Recycling everything means we have to drive our stuff to the county recycling center some distance away, using a fair amount of gas in the process. It's a tradeoff, but we try to wait as long as possible and take care of other errands in that region at the same time to minimize the impact. We also try not to get complacent ("It's okay for me to just toss this TV set because I'm already environmentally conscious; I don't use straws.")

It's not easy and we probably goof up as much as we get right, but we''ll keep trying. I'll pay close attention to what emerges in my classmate's thesis.