In The Ups and Downs of Going Green, author Jeremy Lehrer discusses a design round table he attended where sustainable design was the topic. According to Lehrer, the designers gathered at the talk were an eclectic bunch, and some seemed better versed than others in green design. Lehrer asked several of the designers: Why is green design so important, and what challenges are involved? Tina Chang, partner in Little Fury and Start Here, talked about working with printers and printing to create and deliver green design:

The printing field is a whole other industry that’s changing all the time, too, and it’s daunting as a designer to constantly be up to date on that. But if you’re working with people who already have that concern and it’s their industry - if we’re concerned about our part of it in our industry and then you work with a printer who’s concerned about it in their industry, it’s the perfect marriage. And if you get the printers involved early on, too, I also think that that’s a really great way of increasing your green factor. Because they can really tell you, “Oh, if you could make this brochure 16 pages, that would be better because it’s gaining up on this one sheet.” You know, you’re creating less waste. There are so many technical things that they have expertise on, that instead of using them towards the end of a process, if you use them towards the beginning of the process, I find that they can be tremendously helpful in really honing your design to its ideal form.

Read the entire piece and get an insight into how designers view sustainability AND working with green printers.