agency spotlight: scott design

How one agency uses Workamajig in their efforts of going green.
When California-based agency Scott Design Inc. started using Workamajig (then Creative Manager Pro) in 2005, the agency never thought that this would help in its efforts of promoting green practices. As a member of The Designers Accord and a Monterey Bay Area Green Business, Scott Design operates in an environmentally friendly manner by reducing paper usage, both in-house and with clients. Using two simple Workamajig functions, Scott Design was able to cut their paper consumption by an amazing 85 percent! Workamajig asked Kirsti Scott, creative director of Scott Design, to explain how:

PDF File Creation: “All of our estimates, POs, invoices and schedules are created in Workamajig as PDF files and are emailed to our clients. We encourage our clients to use Adobe Acrobat to sign and return the estimates via email. We send all our financial information to our accountant in PDF form.”

Project Diary: “We store a copy of each of the estimates, POs, invoices, schedules and any important emails from our clients in each project’s diary. We also include a PDF of the final piece in the diary for future reference.”

“Because of Workamajig, we went from 20 filing cabinets filled with paper down to three! The rest of the paper-work that generated before using Workamjig is now in storage where hopefully it will sleep peacefully until it’s time for it to get shredded!”

Transitioning from Creative Manager Pro to Workamajig didn’t slow down Scott Design’s ability to practice their environmentally friendly work habits, either.

“It took about a week to feel completely comfortable with the new product, and after a few days we all realized that everything we loved about Creative Manager Pro was still there, it just looked a lot better,” said Kirsti. “We concentrated first on being able to do everything we’ve always done. Then, we took a look at parts of the program that were new in Workamajig and incorporated them into our green workflow.”

Read the full workamjig newsletter online.

Read more about Scott Design’s environmental commitment.

Scott Design is proud to have received certification as a Monterey Bay Area Green Business for taking steps to ensure that our business

We have adopted policies to ensure that we:
- Reduce, reuse, recycle
- Reduce toxics
- Purchase environmentally responsible products
- Conserve resources
- Educate our employees and clients about sustainability

Scott Design Inc. is committed to creating a positive environmental and social impact by incorporating sustainable design practices into all of our work. We work with our clients to ensure that projects are environmentally and socially responsible, as well as profitable. We hope to help advance the understanding of sustainability issues, and we ask all of our employees to engage in conversation with every client and co-vendor about integrating sustainable alternatives in their work.

The Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program is a successful partnership of environmental agencies, utilities, and nonprofit organizations that assist, recognize, and promote businesses and government agencies that volunteer to operate in a more environmentally responsible way. To be certified “green,” participants must be in compliance with all regulations and meet program standards for conserving resources, preventing pollution, and minimizing waste. The program offers motivated businesses and agencies an easy-to-use framework for improving environmental performance. For more information, visit the Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program website. Scott Design and 37 other Santa Cruz businesses were recognized by the Santa Cruz County Supervisors for going green.

Scott Design is also a member of The Designers Accord and Design Can Change, both dedicated to helping designers promote sustainability practices. You can read more about our environmental commitment and Scott Design’s Designers Accord membership.

One of the main messages at last weekend’s Compostmodern conference on sustainable design was that designers must help make changes to lessen the human impact on the environment through incremental changes as well as systematic changes. These two tactics are comparable to treating the symptoms of a disease and finding a cure. One addresses short-term changes to reduce discomfort, and one removes the problem altogether. Treating the symptoms is valuable, finding the cure is priceless. In this article, I’m going to offer a few ideas about how designers can work to create the cures for some of our environmental problems.

Creativity is a renewable resource.

As designers, we have the power to help those around us find better ways to do things. We are, by nature, creative problem-solvers. We must apply our brain power to finding ways to change perceptions, get things done in ways that do less harm to the environment, and find new ways of doing the things we already do.

John Bielenberg, founder of Project M, likes to encourage companies and individuals to consider whole new “wrong” ways of thinking about solutions. Don’t limit yourself to the first idea that comes to your mind, but instead, keep thinking until you come up with something that is revolutionary. John wears a “LIVEWRONG” bracelet to remind himself to think beyond the first solutions that come to him.

Do it differently.

One of the great examples of a systematic change has been with respect to printing. Designers can now specify recycled or bamboo paper, soy inks, and water-based coatings, and use only printers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. You can even use EcoFont, which uses 20% less ink and toner to reduce the impact of your printed piece. These all reduce the symptoms of printing’s effect on the environment.

But how about if you don’t print your client’s piece at all? Instead, you can post a PDF file with the same information, send an e-mail instead of a postcard, create a banner ad instead of a print ad, or put the information in a blog post. These options represent an entirely new system of “dematerializing” these pieces of information so they have virtually no impact on our environment. They’re a cure for all the ills of printing, such as the negative impact on forests, water usage, and the waste products of printing.

Sit. Stay.

We create much of the carbon in the air by traveling around. Great ways to reduce the amount of carbon your activities create include using a more efficient or hybrid car, carpooling, riding your bike, walking, or buying carbon offsets for travel.

But, how about no traveling in the first place? Technology now makes it possible to work from home, attend a webinar or webcast instead of attending an event in person, and hold video conferences instead of traveling to a meeting. To encourage your clients not to require in-person presentations, you can even add a line item to your invoices for carbon offsets they’ll have to purchase to offset everyone’s travel to the meeting. It may just make them think before scheduling another meeting.

Speed it up.

Great design can help people find the information they need more quickly. Consider the signage at a drive-through window at a fast-food place. If the sign is well-designed, someone can find what they want quickly and spend less time idling in line while they look for what they want and get out of their pollution-producing car more quickly.

But, what if they didn’t have to sit in line in the first place? What if the restaurant had a website where you could order before leaving home and just sail to a pre-order window to pick up your meal? Designers should be looking for opportunities to help their clients improve in ways they might never have considered.

How else can graphic designers help?

Scott Design is also a member of The Designers Accord, Design Can Change, and The Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program, all dedicated to helping designers and companies promote sustainability practices. Check out their websites for more ideas on going green, and find out if there’s a local green certification program in your area.

The McKinsey Quarterly released a report encouraging businesses to help customers make “green” choices when making purchases. Many people want to make green choices, but don’t know which ones make the biggest impact on the environment. For more information, read the full article, “Helping Green Products Grow.”

I’d love to hear other ideas about how designers can move us closer to a sustainable society. What ideas do you have? Leave a comment or share this article with your fellow designers to keep the sustainability conversation going.

I had the privilege of attending the Compostmodern conference in San Francisco this past weekend. Compostmodern, a product of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design (CFSD), was a great opportunity to explore the range of design thinking necessary to create a socially and ecologically responsible society. During the one-day conference, we were inspired to think about sustainability, bring about change and activism, fire our passion, and learn how to do something about it. Speakers from multiple design disciplines brought their takes on how designers can change the way our society uses diminishing natural resources, impressing a sense that designers can make a difference, but also, that there’s a sense of urgency about making these changes.

Some designers at a lunch workshop I attended expressed frustration about how graphic designers face in bringing about change because of limits imposed by clients. Allan Chochinov, an evangelist for sustainability in industrial design, offered that designers should acknowledge that we do have the power to change things, that there are consequences (good and bad) associated with what we design, and that we should take the initiative to make changes where we can, without waiting for permission from our clients. As Allan said in the question and answer session after his presentation, “You’re on this planet and it’s falling apart: You have permission.”

Inventor Saul Griffith showed during his presentation how we can’t possibly create enough energy capacity with renewables to replace the energy we currently get from oil, gas, and coal. So what’s the solution? Get people to use less energy. We must help turn the world from waste, design our way out of problems we’ve created, and increase awareness of how every consumer can make changes to turn us away from unsustainable lifestyles.

The conference was a great chance to take time out to work on design thinking. And, after an energizing day, I’m ready to fire up my passion for the environment and do something about it.

Scott Design recently joined The Designers Accord, a global coalition of designers, educators, researchers, engineers, and corporate leaders, working together to create positive environmental and social impact. There are now more than 100,000 members representing 100 countries.

As a Design Accord Adopter, Scott Design is looking forward to working with our clients to ensure that our projects are environmentally and socially responsible, as well as profitable. We’re hoping we can be take part in advancing the understanding of environmental and social issues from a design perspective through our participation in this vibrant organization.

If you’re interested in learning more, visit The Designers Accord website.

Scott Design is also a member of The Monterey Bay Area Green Business Program and Design Can Change, both dedicated to helping companies promote sustainability practices. You can read more about our environmental commitment to sustainable graphic design and Scott Design’s Monterey Bay Area Green Business certification.

The report stresses that although it can be challenging to cultivate green customers and still remain competitive, the long run benefits are worth it. As customers become more savvy, sales of green products could skyrocket. And, your company’s eco-friendly reputation can inspire more loyalty with your customers. For more information, read the full article, “Helping Green Products Grow.”