How To Be A Green Sign Company

In the January issue of Sign Builder Illustrated there is a Green Supplement that has several articles related to green issues including one that I wrote called "How To Be A Green Sign Company." 

As we move into 2011 there is still a lot of uncertainty around what companies need to do to be more environmentally conscious. This article along with the other articles in this issue give insight into what other companies are doing which hopefully inspires you to do the same.

After reading my article a college had the following comments which I thought I'd share - "When you look at green the easiest way to accomplish large goals is to be minimalistic about your approach-  If you re-evaluate your product line and ask Do I  need this or how can I condense  this product - that is where the win – win comes from -  Saving money and reducing resources."

Maintaining the Green Learning Curve by Beth Gillispie

Anyone invested in sustainable design and products, especially in the fields of architecture and design as well as signage, knows that new ideas,  products, and applications are emerging every day.  The challenge is to maintain our “green learning curve” in the midst of our busy lives.  It helps to network with like minded colleagues who are also passionate about sustainability, and it helps to stay connected with vendors, associations, and publications with a focus on green building.

I have found that one of the easiest ways to get a daily dose of inspiration and keep my learning curve strong is to use the internet to do the research for me.  You can stay current with just a few minutes every day (easier than an exercise routine!) by setting up a free GoogleAlerts account. Type in your key words, and each day Google will send you articles available on the web with those key words. For example, I have set up “green friendly signage” and “environmentally friendly signs” as some of my topics. Those of you who follow sports teams or other specific topics know that this is similar to having your own personal news delivered to your email each day.  The items are not always relevant, but there are often some jewels amidst the cyberspace asteroids, and for the few minutes it takes to scan the results you just might see an application that not only lifts your learning curve, but also your ability to innovate and provide more sustainable solutions yourself.

Beth Gillispie

CEO

Acorn Sign Graphics

Sustainability

The word sustainable or sustainability has now become one of the biggest misunderstood and mis-used words related to environmental issues. Sustainability is defined on http://sustainabilitydictionary.com/ as "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Wikipedia defines Sustainability as the "capacity to endure".

Are we really doing this in our industry and have we really adopted processes and procedures and started building products that are sustainable? Have we evolved to the point were the projects we design and build have a zero landfill contribution or are we at least working towards this goal and more?

Bill McDonough said years ago "We still have people talking about 'sustainability'! Nothing is more boring. Are you proud if your marriage is 'sustainable'?"


There are many good people working hard to push environmental initiatives forward in our industry. It becomes very easy to be complacent and say, "we're sustainable" when most of the time saying we're green is a stretch.

Halfway Through

 As we approach mid-July we are all in summer mode with thoughts of vacations, barbecues and beaches. The beginning of summer also represents the half way mark of the year.

2010 started with a lot of uncertainty and wondering if things will ever get back to the way they were. One thing we know for certain now is that things will not go back; the world has moved on. Not necessarily bad, just different - the natural evolution of life where one must adapt to survive.

This brings me to the half way point of 2010. How many have hit their environmental goals or are on track to do so?  How many of us have changed or altered our initiatives?

I believe that sharing ideas, initiatives and progress with others helps with accountability, primarily to yourself, while encouraging others and spreading ideas.

I started out this year with the goal of changing the NovAcryl product line and incorporating all base substrates that have recycled content.  Although challenging, the NovAcyl GR product line was recently introduced and we will almost certainly have the complete product line converted by the end of the year.

The second initiative was to change the way Nova does business by creating a paperless environment and tweaking the way we interact with clients to be more efficient, cost effective and less wasteful.  This has proven to be very challenging but we have implemented several new program and have many more things to roll out before the end of the year - more to come.  

There has also been great progress made with the SEGD Sustainability Forum with the launch of the SEGD Green Resource Guide website and the sustainable issue of segdDesin magazine.  We will be doing a work show in NYC July 23 and will be rolling out the Green Certificate Program by the end of the year.

The ISA Environmental Subcommittee is also making great progress.  The committee ran a campaign to find out the level of "green" knowledge in the industry as well as to get an understanding of the industries needs.  The results have let to several initiatives including the development of resources specific to Best Practice for sign companies and suppliers.

Overall a good start to the year with much more to come.

Reduce - Begin with the End

Stephen R. Covey coined the term "Begin with the end in mind" in his famous in this book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  Although his focus is on personal characteristics that lead to an individuals effectiveness, the same principal can be said for building sustainable signage and wayfinding.  

Beginning with the end in mind is an important part of reducing waste and land fill contribution and is unique to each project that gets built and designed.  A typical commercial interior may change design and signage every 3 years.  The occupants of an office building may move offices several time over a 2-3 year span.  How do these things impact sustainability and overall design in the begining?

If a sign is intended to hold up over 10-20 years is it OK to use less environmentally friendly materials to reduce the waste associated with making the sign multiple times?  Even so, how will the sign be maintained and ultimately disposed of?

Why are so many wall mounted signs taped on the wall with adhesives that will destroy the wall once removed when everyone knows that the life of the sign will be shorter than the wall itself?

Can the sign system being designed be built in a custom way that allows only the portion of the sign that will change to be replaced without removing the entire sign?  If so, does this change the way replaceable components are made so it can easily be recycled or re-used?

We ask many of these questions everyday and give in to our client for multiple reason including budget.  Many times we know that throughout the life cycle of a project, changing things upfront saves a lot of money.  This is the job of sign professional to educate and consult with clients to understand the big picture of these packages.  It all start with the end - how do you get somewhere if you never look to see where you're going, especially when sustainability is concerned.

Rolling Into The New Year

Friday, the end of another work week. Not just any week but the first week of the new year. It is amazing that with the holidays and all that occurs to close out a year, we start the new one off running like nothing has happened - business as usual.

So, I ask two questions; did we as companies, industries and/or individuals meet our environmental goals in 2009 and what are we planning for 2010?

From my perspective I think the green buzz slowed a bit over the last year. The economic climate we've seen is somewhat to blame as many people have focused on surviving and keeping their heads above water. I have also not seen the push on the manufacturing end which is hard to understand as most things associated with environmental consciousness revolve around conservation of resources, reductions in waste, the development of products that are wanted by an industry and so on.

I will admit that I personally did not meet 100% of the goals I set out to accomplish in 2009. This is OK though as the goals I had where high and although they were not completely accomplished, progress was made and the necessary change has been started.

In 2010 my personal focus is on introducing a new product line for Nova that will make the most commonly used photopolymer substrate more environmentally friendly - more to come.... In addition to product development, I am focusing on meeting my previously set goals of redefining the way Nova does business with clients - order consolidation to reduce the shipping footprint associated with material orders and creating a paperless environment (yes, you will have to order online by the end of the year, no more paper orders, invoices etc!).

I am interested to hear what others are doing in manufacturing, fabrication and design. Are we collectively being proactive or are we watching others and living vicariously through their actions?

Air Quality in Schools

I just received another newsletter for GreenGuard talking about the growing importance of indoor air quality in schools. Minimizing the air pollutants and VOC's in schools is major factor in LEED for Schools and is being talked about more and more everyday.

Improving the air quality of a school is undoubtedly beneficial to the students and faculty. Most of the current focus regarding air quality revolves around the materials and coating that are being put into schools.

This raises the question to those of us who are designing and fabricating signage for schools; are we looking at creating better signage and wayfinding solutions which match the evolving needs for greener and healthier schools? I have not seen any systems or designs in our industry that are focusing on this issue. One may say that this is an opportunity to distinguish ones self or firm by taking a proactive approach to a main stream issue in green building.

We all know by now that there are very few green things that directly focus on signage and EGD. Air quality improvement in schools should be seen as a challenge and opportunity for us.

What's your Green Message?

What is your Green message? What do the signs you design and build say about you and your company? Are you pushing new ideas on your customers and creating change in the sign world?

I have a good friend who says that to be successful at anything in life you must give people what they need, not necessarily what they want. This philosophy applies to the signs we design and build everyday.

Pushing clients toward modularity and other environmentally friendly methodologies is not always easy but it must be done in order to start changing the way the industry operates. Over the last few years things have changed to where a story can be built around the "why" something needs to be a specific way - long term cost savings, energy reduction, PR etc.

So, do your clients know your Green message?

TreeHugger Boxes

I spend a good deal of time talking to different people and browsing the Internet in search of new, innovative products and solutions. While the primary reason for doing this is work related, I will admit it has become more. Sometimes I am amazed by the things I find and the people who are doing them.

TreeHugger Boxes in Dallas, TX is a relatively new business that focuses of repurposing boxes. They have a great website and business model that provides a unique and green way to buy, sell and repurpose corrugated boxes. They do not have a store front and do all their business via the web - an underutilized concept in business today. TreeHugger Boxes has a small operating footprint serving the local Dallas area.

I could go on but I encourage you to take a look at their website. Somethings strike you the right way and this has for me. Thinking outside of the box has always been a winning formula in business. It's great to see innovative people who are doing good for the environment while providing a valued service - not to mention making a buck along the way.

CLICK HERE for more info on TreeHugger Boxes

Yard Sales

This past weekend I decided it was time for a yard sales. Every once in a while we stop and go through all the things we collected and decide to get rid of what we no longer want or use.

The concept behind a yard is a great - selling your unwanted things to others instead of throwing them away. Most of us don't have a yard with environmental consciousness in mind but indeed are being green.

Two things came to mind during this yard sale; the first was how crazy yard sale people actually are and the second was how can the yard sale concept effect the business environment. In reality it already does. EBay and Craig's List to name a few created a forum for people to buy and sell just about anything including consumable materials and unwanted or unused equipment.

Imagine taking things a few steps further - an industrial park yard sale. Crazy idea? Maybe or maybe not!

LEED Certified Materials

I get asked all the time about whether or not a product/materials is LEED certified. The majority of people do not really understand LEED thus are confused about how LEED relates to products/materials.

According to the USGBC's website, "LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality."

So, there is no such thing as a LEED Certified product/material. In each of the different certification programs, there are points awarded in the five key areas for things like incorporating materials with certain amounts of recycled content and using materials that emit no VOC's. These point are for the overall amount of materials that are in a building which is why signage truly does not factor into achieving LEED points.

The only area that signage has a direct impact on LEED is in the area of education. There is a potential 1 point available for developing an education system throughout a LEED certified facility. The education system is intended to inform the occupants and visitors of the reasons why the building is LEED certified. The idea is to celebrate the success of building green while informing people about environmental consciousness.

This however doesn't mean that signage can't follow many of the same principals of incorporating products with recycled content and low or no VOC coatings. There are many great resources that can be found, including this blog, that can help in choosing the right materials for a project that is trying to obtain LEED certification. The USGBC's website has a great deal of information that can also be of great help.

A Green Looking New Year

Today is January 5th and marks the beginning of a new year. We can all agree that the there is a high level of uncertainty due to the economy as we head into the new year. The current economic state is fueling the importance of environmental issues such as energy reduction, manufacturing and distribution efficiencies along with the development of new lean processes and materials.

An economic downturn always results in the survival of fittest. Struggling company fold or sell while the strong companies innovate and lead.

What a perfect opportunity to lead and come together as an industry - strive to meet the demand of the changing world around us. The building industry has made fantastic strides in what is now the green movement. The USGBC's LEED rating system has shown everyone that going green has extraordinary financial benefits and has lead the way to a new mindset toward efficiencies and other universal environmental issues.

So what about signage? Where does the industry stand in terms of the environmental movement?

Traditionally the sign industry is not on the cutting edge of technology nor is the industry as whole excepting of change, especially in cases like LEED which has virtually no requirement for signage. This however can be a good thing, an opportunity for the leaders in sign industry to adopt the principals of green building and apply them to the manufacturing, installation and disposal if signage. What a great opportunity for the sign industry to become a leader in a movement that is gaining credence everyday while making signs something that is no longer an “afterthought” in the building process.

There are already many changes that are occurring in both the design and fabrication of signage. ASI Modulex and Apco Graphics exhibited at Greenbuild in Boston, MA this past November. The SEGD developed a Green Paper and has hosted lectures on Green Methodology for several years now. Many sign fabricators are developing new products and marketing the environmental attributes of their products and companies. Meanwhile, product manufactures are realizing profitability gains in efficiencies while capitalizing on the ability to gain market share over competition through marketing their environmental practices. This past spring the ISA hosted their annual suppliers and distributors conference which focused heavily on environmental issues concerning signage.

The economy may be shaky going into 2009 but the prospect for us as an industry has never been better. Have a happy and prosperous New Year!

Green: What does it Mean?

If you polled a dozen people about what Green means you'd most likely get as many different responses. Not even Google can produce a definitive answer. The term clearly means something different to everyone in every industry. In a general sense, Green refers to sustainability, environmental consciousness and the fundamental way you live your life.

So, what does Green really mean?

The United Stated Green Building Council http://usgbc.org/ has done a great job defining what Green means for buildings with the LEED rating system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). LEED focuses on five area; site planning, water management, energy, material use and indoor environmental quality. You can quickly see how LEED has a specific focus creating a foundation to compare and rate buildings against each other in terms of environmental efficiencies and the like.

While LEED is a fantastic rating system, it does not necessarily correlate specifically to other sectors of business and/or life. The take away from LEED is that there is the ability to create environmentally conscious ways of designing and building products that are specific to each industry and company. Everything is different in it's own unique way.

The common bond here is to be aware of the impact we have on our surroundings and try to be responsible about the ways we go about our lives and business. Not everything works universally and effectively. As long as the common goal of environmental responsibility remains constant, a difference can be made.

So, what does Green mean to you and how can you make a difference buy implementing this in your life?