What kind of a footprint do you want to leave on this planet? A key driver of businesses today is the environmental expectations of consumers, governments, the international markets, financial and risk management institutions and business-to-business purchasing expectations.

Seater Design is committed to responsible design that conforms to government and industry environmental standards.

We are committed to educating and advising our clients and colleagues about the best practice design ideas and printed material. We design brand imagery, logos, web, multimedia and printed material, utilising the most responsible environmental choices.

This includes the type of paper stock we source, the type of post treatment methods we use, and the type of inks we use on the paper stock or packaging.

We are accredited to use the internationally recognised Good Environment Choice label (GECA). This means that we know what we are doing when we say we say we are experts at designing marketing and creative solutions for our clients with little or no impact to the environment. Our design skills help to establish market credibility for our clients who adopt more environmentally friendly designs and marketing material.

GECA is the national eco-lable for Australia, the Australian member of the Global Ecolabeling Network (GEN). This body represent 28 such programs around the world. The objectives of the program are to:

1. Provide market incentives for suppliers to reduce the environmental impacts of products sold in Australia;
   
   
2. Provide a clear, credible and independent guide to consumers wishing to take account of environmental factors in their purchasing decisions;
   
   
3. Encourage consumers to purchase products which have lower environmental impacts;
4. Recognise genuine moves by companies to reduce the adverse environmental impacts of their products;
   
   
5. Aim ultimately to improve the quality of the environment and to encourage the sustainable management of resources.

GECA is the only environmental labelling program in Australia, which indicates the environmental performance of a product from a whole of product life perspective for consumer goods. The program is internationally recognised and growing in demand and awareness throughout different industries.
GECA is the Australian verification office and has mutual recognition arrangements with the following national ecolabelling programs: Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, China, USA, Global Ecolabelling Network. To find out more about GECA visit www.aela.org.au

 GECA develops standards of minimum environmental performance for various products and services, manufactures or service providers apply to be assessed against these. Following an assessment process products and services that comply with the standards requirements are licenced to use the GECA label.
The following environmental attributes are addressed by the GECA 21-2004 publishers and published matter standard:

• The reduction of discharges of certain toxic or otherwise polluting substances into waters,
  
  
• The reduction of environmental damage or risks related to the use of energy (global warming,
  acidification, ozone depletion, depletion of non-renewable resources) by reducing energy consumption and related emissions to air,
  
  
• The reduction of environmental damage or risks related to the use of hazardous chemicals; and
  
  
• The application of sustainable management principles in order to safeguard forests.

Encourage your local or national government officials to introduce legislation requiring manufactures to take back the packaging waster from their products.

© SEATER DESIGN 2007