Environmentally Friendly Design

There is a new trend on the horizon in the web design industry. It’s not another useless acronym or another form of social networking. And no, it’s not even a design style like the shiny, reflective text and rounded corners of Web 2.0. The future is bright, the future is green.

Web designers and design studios are slowly becoming aware of the environment and the issue of climate change. There is now a definite trend of web designers and studios labelling themselves as “green”, whether or not this is just band-wagon hopping, or a genuine passion for the environment remains to be seen.

Compared with other industries, the design sector is far behind. Imagine the quantity of paper used each year, the number of ink cartridges used and thrown out and the amount of electricity used to keep our offices running. However, we can reduce the damage we have already caused by doing simple things such as cycling to work, using energy saving light bulbs and using recycled materials.

Thinking about the environment was never the first thing that came to mind when I design a web site, but after researching this article I have become more aware of how my work affects the environment. In the future, expect to see initial design concepts design sketched on the back of an email printed on recycled paper! Or maybe I’ll just buy you a cup of Fairtrade tea instead.

Green design can only be a good thing with more designers becoming environmentally aware. However, in the same way that many web design companies adapted their home pages to show that their services included web standards, I predict many sites will be adding green design to the list. For further reading please visit my del.icio.us links at http://del.icio.us/oconingham/environment.