Concerns about sustainability aren’t going away any time soon, so it’s important to adapt sooner rather than later. There are a number of things to think about when designing wayfinding with sustainability in mind, but once you understand them, you’ll have no trouble incorporating them into your strategy.
Some might already be obvious to those with a tertiary understanding of the environment, while others are a little more obscure. All, however, are important in designing a sustainable strategy.
When considering how to adapt wayfinding for sustainability, the materials used is likely the first thing you thought of. Making use of recycled materials is a fantastic way to be more sustainable within any industry, and it’s also important to ensure that materials can again be recycled at the end of their use. This doesn’t just mean breaking the entire thing down so it can become something else, but also reusing signage components in other projects, so they can find a new life elsewhere.
The materials used to print signage are also important. Flatbed printing, for example, is sustainable because it produces fewer waste cartridges and less indoor pollution compared to conventional methods. As well as this it makes use of inks with less harmful chemicals and can print on virtually any material. There are plenty of other sustainable alternatives that you can make use of throughout the production process too, so be mindful of when you have the opportunity to incorporate them into your work.
No matter the quality of material you use, chances are you’ll be importing them from somewhere else. Materials tend to go on a journey, from the site of origin, to the processor, to the fabricator and onward to the site of installation. Depending on where your materials come from, transporting them can result in significant emissions and pollution. To combat this, it’s important to procure your materials from local sources to keep these emissions down.
It’s even better if the sources you use prioritise recycled materials and sustainable practices as well. When selecting materials, carefully consider the process taken to create them, and elect for the ones that result in the least pollution. Depending on the location, it can be difficult to prioritise these aspects, and so a balance should be found between sustainable business practices and the distance you are importing from.
During production and maintenance, thinking about power sources is important too. Electricity fuels much of the construction process, while many modern signs themselves require it to function as intended. You should therefore be mindful of the power sources fueling these processes. Renewable sources such as solar and wind are much more preferable to that of coal and oil, so you should option for the former when possible. Again, sometimes you must compromise between renewable energy and local sourcing, so it can be difficult to figure out which is the most sustainable route.
It’s counterproductive to go through all that effort for a wayfinding strategy that will just end up being torn down shortly. A long-lasting system is much better for sustainability than a short-lasting one, since more environmental impact is concentrated in production rather than
maintenance. In ensuring a wayfinding strategy survives longer, quality materials are important, since they are less prone to wear. Making use of modular products is useful too, since they are easily up-cyclable and up-gradable, thus they can be sustainably replaced.
Ensuring the quality of your overall wayfinding strategy is crucial to sustainability too. If a strategy is poor, more signage can be created than necessary, which can result in greater emissions in the production process. As well as this, the strategy might be changed or altered too often, which has the same effect. Therefore, it’s important to make a strategy that is cohesive from the start, with the intent of having it last a long while.
There is lots to think about in regards to a sustainable wayfinding strategy, but hopefully this blog has given a strong insight into the topic. If you need a coherent wayfinding strategy designed with sustainability in mind, then why not consider Design JD? We’d be happy to help.