AIGA and Domtar join forces on social and environmental sustainability

NEW YORK, February 21, 2007. AIGA, the professional association for design, is pleased to announce a new partnership with Domtar EarthChoice®, the Official AIGA Sponsor for Sustainable Design. Given their mutual commitments to sustainability, Domtar and AIGA will work together to foster sustainable thinking in the design profession through AIGA’s new Center for Sustainable Design website.

The AIGA Center for Sustainable Design is dedicated to providing designers with a wide range of information regarding sustainable business practice. Through case studies, interviews, resources and discourse, the site supports designers as they incorporate sustainable thinking into their professional lives. It encourages designers to consider the effects that general business practices, such as paper usage and printing, have on a global scale, and explains how they can reduce those impacts on society and the environment.

“Sustainability has become a term-of-art for advancing economic activity while ensuring that we can sustain our initiatives in a sometimes fragile world without harming the future’s potential,” said Richard Grefé, executive director of AIGA.

AIGA’s Center for Sustainable Design and Domtar EarthChoice’s involvement in its development stem from a growing awareness and concern about sustainability issues within the design community. “Designers can have a positive impact on the environment by demanding socially, environmentally and economically sustainable materials,” said Lewis Fix, director of business development for Domtar EarthChoice. “The Domtar EarthChoice family of environmentally responsible papers directly responds to designers' concerns by offering the most comprehensive line of papers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as coming from well-managed forests and supported by major environmental groups.”

Through the new Center for Sustainable Design, Domtar EarthChoice and AIGA aim to improve the future of both the environment and the design profession. By examining the materials endemic to their work and incorporating sustainable design into their day-to-day practice, creative professionals can make a difference today and for the long term.

Domtar EarthChoice and AIGA Design Archives
Domtar EarthChoice’s collaboration with AIGA is also focused on the sustainable preservation of the history of the design profession. Domtar EarthChoice’s role in sponsoring the online portion of AIGA’s Design Archives will ensure that the most exemplary design work will be cataloged so that it will serve as a valuable source for research material and inspiration for future generations of designers. Design projects dating back to 1979 are now being added to the archives; once completed, the online Archives will include more than 12,000 items. The actual design artifacts have been donated to the Denver Art Museum, to be included as part of the permanent AIGA American Design Archives.

About AIGA
AIGA, the professional association for design, is the oldest and largest membership association for design professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing. AIGA’s mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force. www.aiga.org

Founded in 1914, AIGA is the pre-eminent professional association for communication designers, broadly defined. In the past decade, designers have increasingly been involved in creating value for clients (whether public or business) through applying design thinking to complex problems, even when the outcomes may be more strategic, multi-dimensional and conceptual than what most would consider traditional communication design. AIGA now represents more than 18,000 designers of all disciplines through national activities and local programs developed by 57 chapters and 200 student groups

AIGA supports the interests of professionals, educators and students who are engaged in the process of designing. The association is committed to stimulating thinking about design, demonstrating the value of design and empowering success for designers throughout the arc of their careers.

For more information about AIGA’s commitment to sustainability, contact Maria Emmighausen (212 710 3121 or maria_emmighausen@aiga.org). AIGA’s Center for Sustainable Design website can be found at sustainability.aiga.org.

The AIGA Design Archives can be viewed at designarchives.aiga.org.

About Domtar and Domtar EarthChoice
Domtar is the third largest producer of uncoated free sheet paper in North America. It is also a leading manufacturer of business papers, commercial printing and publication papers, and technical and specialty papers. Domtar manages, according to internationally recognized standards, 18 million acres of forestland in Canada and the United States, and produces lumber and other wood products.

Domtar Earth Choice is the most extensive line of socially and environmentally responsible papers and is supported by leading environmental groups, including the Rainforest Alliance and WWF-Canada. Domtar EarthChoice is an ethical choice for anyone involved in concept and design, offering designers and businesses a tangible way to put their commitment to sustainability on paper.

For more information about Domtar and its EarthChoice line of papers, please contact Domtar Marketing Services (1 888 Echoice).