AIGA Portland Sustainability Initiative

Friday, June 18, 2010 1 Presentation giving by Lisa Holmes, AIGA Portland Sustainability Chair at the 2010 Leadership Retreat in Chattanooga, Tennessee: Thanks for inviting me to speak about the Portland chapterʼs Sustainability Initiative This presentation follows a timeline: starting with the idea for forming the initiative in May 2008 -- until May 2010.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT 2008 AIGA Leadership Retreat discovered AIGA’s focus on sustainability Friday, June 18, 2010 2 May 2008: While attending the 2008 AIGA Leadership Retreat in Omaha, I discovered AIGAʼs strong focus on sustainability.

Friday, June 18, 2010 3 Portland is one of the greenest cities in the world,and while the Portland chapter had previously held several sustainability-related events, there was agreement that we wanted to strengthen that focus.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT personal interest what can designers do to make a difference? Friday, June 18, 2010 4 And personally, I wanted to know what impact designers can have regarding sustainability. Plus...

Friday, June 18, 2010 5 I wanted to help protect...

Friday, June 18, 2010 6 the natural environment...

Friday, June 18, 2010 7 that surrounds me.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT local chapter retreat discussed adding a new position began to develop a plan Friday, June 18, 2010 8 In June 2008 at the local chapter retreat, we discussed beginning the initiative, but realized that we needed a plan so we would know what it would do. We didnʼt have a current sustainability position so, I agreed take on the role of Sustainability Chair in addition to my board duties as Secretary until our next election cycle.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT mission Promote sustainable practices within the design industry Friday, June 18, 2010 9 From July 2008 to December 2008, I worked on creating the plan, which included a mission, goals and objectiives. The mission: promote sustainable practices within the design community.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT goals raise awareness showcase involvement provide information Friday, June 18, 2010 10 GOALS: Raise awareness of the importance of sustainability in the design ﬁeld. Showcase sustainability involvement by the local design community. Provide sustainability-related information and resources to the local design community.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT 2009 objectives create a green team develop online resources provide event support Friday, June 18, 2010 11 2009 OBJECTIVES Create a “green team” with ﬁve or more committee members. Develop a ﬁrst-phase online resource of sustainability information. Provide support for 2009 events.

Friday, June 18, 2010 12 GREEN TEAM In order to form the green team, we posted a call for volunteers via our communication channels. 18 people responded, and a year later, we have six very dedicated regular volunteers. This has been one of the most important parts of our initiative. We began holding monthly meetings in April 2009 and planning our ﬁrst event: which was Compostmodern PDX.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT April 16, 2009 Friday, June 18, 2010 13 April 16, 2009, Compostmodern PDX

Friday, June 18, 2010 14 At Compostmodern PDX, we showed two webcasts from the San Francisco event, and had a main speaker: Brian Dougherty, who had just published his “Green Graphic Design” book.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT article: project highlight Friday, June 18, 2010 15 As part of our goal to showcase local projects, we published an article focused on sustainable design that highlighted how a designer transformed a binder of materials into a booklet using far less resources. However, writing these articles has proven to be resource intensive and would be a lot easier with a dedicated writer on the team, which we are working on.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT website resource listings aigaportland.org/resources/sustainability design process events: planning and catering exhibit graphics and signage general info and inspiration office practices printing & paper options promotional products website hosting Friday, June 18, 2010 16 From June to October 2009, we worked on researching and creating resource listings. We wanted to provide designers information on sustainable design products and services, with a focus on local vendors.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT 10 questions for printers and paper distributors Friday, June 18, 2010 17 To help designers accurately compare local printers and paper distributorsʼ sustainable design practices, we developed a questionnaire that we sent out to vendors and then posted the responses on the chapter website.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT planning first event series focus on sustainable design reduce environmental impact create dialogue among designers Friday, June 18, 2010 18 From June - October 2009, we also began planning our ﬁrst event series with a goal to create events with: a focus on sustainable design that reduce environmental impact and create dialogue among designers instead of talking to them about it.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT greening events location via public transit reduce waste generated offer recycling and composting locally sourced food and beverages Friday, June 18, 2010 19 In Portland, if youʼre going to talk about sustainability, you have to walk the talk -- or youʼll get called out on it -- so we wanted to make sure we the event was planned well with these things in mind: • location should be accessible via public transit • reduce amount of waste generated from serving ware to signage to promotional materials • the event venues needed to offer recycling and composting • food and beverages needed to be locally sourced • no bottled water or big brand sodas You should not only do these things, but tell people about it so they know that sustainability is being addressed in event planning as well.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT November 6, 2009 Friday, June 18, 2010 20 Our ﬁrst event series was SHIFT, where...

Friday, June 18, 2010 21 10 speakers give 5-minute presentations on “what does sustainable design mean to you?” With over 80 attendees, we were very surprised at the number of people who were interested in sustainability-focused events. We initially thought that 20-30 might attend, so we didnʼt have seats for everyone but no one seemed to mind since the presentations were fun, low-key and inspiring.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT began planning Earth Day event ReSource: Green Design Expo trade show and program keynote & featured speakers, mini-seminars Friday, June 18, 2010 22 In December 2009, we began planning “ReSource: Green Design Expo”, an Earth Day event that would be a mini trade show with speakers. For the trade show component, we needed to decide what types of vendors we wanted; they needed to offer sustainable design products or services, so we eliminated some potential sponsors due to this requirement. It was important to us that if we were going to call it a green design event, the vendors in the trade show had to represent this.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT January 13, 2010 Friday, June 18, 2010 23 At the same time, we launched our second quarterly event series: the Green Salon Meetup.

Friday, June 18, 2010 24 An open discussion format event held during the lunch hour where designers get together to talk about sustainability.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT February 25, 2010 Friday, June 18, 2010 25 On February 25, 2010, we held our 2nd SHIFT event.

Friday, June 18, 2010 26 With over 140 attendees in a new auditorium space donated by Ziba Design. We launched a “bring your own mug” promo: where if you brought a mug, you got free beer, otherwise, you paid $5 for a compostable cup and the money was donated to a non-proﬁt. This was a huge hit with over 50% of the people attending bringing mugs and comparing them, which became a point of discussion.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT March 24, 2010 Friday, June 18, 2010 27 March 24, 2010: we held our 2nd Green Salon Meetup, the open discussion format event. After the event, we asked for feedback. We decided to make the discussion more focused and wanted to tie it in to SHIFT, so we decided to hold the event the week after SHIFT and invite past presenters to lead the discussion.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT Earth Day: April 22, 2010 Friday, June 18, 2010 28 On Earth Day, we held our Green Design Expo event...

Friday, June 18, 2010 29 Which was a mini trade show with six speakers, including egg from Seattle. We initially thought the trade show component would be larger, but instead the program part of the event was bigger. Three top level sponsors were able to speak for 15 minutes each: topic needed be about sustainable design products or services and educational in nature.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT what’s next? SHIFT & Green Salon Meetups Green Design Expo improve resources stimulate online dialogue reach out to local community share tips for greener events Friday, June 18, 2010 30 WHATʼS NEXT? We will continue to hold the quarterly events: SHIFT and Green Salon Meetups; hold the Green Design Expo annually; improve the resource listings on the chapter website; start an online dialogue via a new website blog; reach out to local community more: including businesses and the Cityʼs Department of Planning & Sustainability; and weʼll share tips with all of our event planners on how to make events greener.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT tips on getting started it’s not all or nothing seek feedback and listen to what people want build a team of passionate people local board support Friday, June 18, 2010 31 Advice to other chapters: when starting a sustainability initiative, itʼs not all or nothing; it doesnʼt have to be 100% green; you can start small. The objective is to get people to think about the impact of their choices. To be successful, it is important to seek feedback and listen to what people want. Developing a team of passionate people and then letting them contribute the things they have to offer has been invaluable to our success. The initiative needs to be supported by the board. While everyone in the Portland chapter felt this was something we wanted to do, we needed to see a structured plan to understand what was do-able.

2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010 2010 MAY JUNE JULY- FEB APRIL MAY JUNE- NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APRIL DEC OCT Thanks! follow us on Twitter: @aigaportland #aigapdxgreen Friday, June 18, 2010 32 Thanks for listening!

AIGA Portland Sustainability Initiative

by Lisa Holmes on Jun 18, 2010

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AIGA Portland Sustainability Initiative — Presentation Transcript

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