It’s no secret that green is our favourite colour as visitors to our studio will testify. DSD has promised to plant five trees for every new client in 2022 and beyond. In this post our guest author, David Kightley, delves a bit deeper into the wider issues of going green.
DSD’s twin Pantone colours have become the hallmark of our green identity since our foundation in 2009. Since then, awareness and attitudes towards global warming, green energy, electric vehicles and carbon neutral ambitions have come on apace. When examined in depth, though, there are various aspects of this broad spectrum calling for closer scrutiny that reveal some inconvenient truths and something of a reality check!
Grey Squirrels to bite the dust – not the bark!
A fully-grown tree can absorb around 20 kilograms of carbon dioxide a year, saplings significantly less. That’s around 1200kg over a lifetime of 60 years. The biggest danger facing our native broad leaf trees comes from American grey squirrels imported to the UK in the Victorian era as curiosities and now common with the exception of parts of Scotland and some islands. An invasive specimen, they cause £37million worth of damage each year. By stripping off the bark they kill both mature and young trees. In fairness, they bury their nuts at the edge of the forest and those going unclaimed hence spread the forest. Methods to control their number include authorised culling, oral contraception in food and genetic modification to breed only single-sex offspring.
With a government target to forest 30,000 hectares in ten years their eradication is vital to protect trees – even at the risk of upsetting many people who love those cuddly greys. Maybe one day we’ll get our non-bark-eating native red squirrels back!
Trains and Boats and Planes…and Rockets
When Burt Bacharach penned his chart hit in 1965 he had no idea that transport would be responsible for 37% of all carbon emissions worldwide. Global travel for the masses was just taking off and the prospect of sub-orbital tourism was a pipe dream for the likes of Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos. CO₂ emissions for the four or so tourists on a space flight will be between 50 and 100 times more per passenger than on a long-haul flight. When the NASA Artemis unmanned moon mission finally gets off the ground, standing 98m/322ft tall the most powerful rocket ever built requiring 750,000 gallons of supercool liquid oxygen and hydrogen rocket fuel, it’s likely to release over 300 tons of carbon dioxide into the upper atmosphere where it can remain for many years. On the ground, some 400,000 people are expected to drive to the launch site!
There’s no denying that air travel is carbon intensive, but the impact could be drastically reduced by simply switching airlines, even for short haul the differences are vast whether it’s Corfu or Glasgow. There are plenty of carbon calculators that ask you to input your flight details. Look out for newer, more fuel-efficient models, such as the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and Airbus A350-900 and A320neo.
Budget airlines tend to cram their planes with passengers, leading to an overall reduction in CO2 per person, and don’t carry business or first class passengers who are responsible for up to four times more carbon per person because of the space they take up in the cabin. But no-frills carriers are by no means blameless. Their low-cost fares arguably encourage binge flying, which has had a disastrous effect on the planet.
Why not let the train take the strain for short-haul journeys to the near-continent? Eurostar emits around 90% less carbon than the equivalent flight! One day, all cross-channel ferries might emulate the Victoria of Wight IOW ferry that works much like a hybrid energy car, allowing her to run partly on electricity when required and the warmth generated by her engines heats the on-board water supply!
Green Energy – Inconvenient Truths
The global pandemic may well have curtailed all forms of transport in the short term, but longer term there has to be change in how we fuel our trains, boats and planes. Automobiles are one of the greatest challenges. The rapid growth in electric vehicles is staggering despite their relatively high prices, low mileage ranges and still too few charging points. They cost appreciably more and divide opinions yet manufacturers race to bring new models to market. Good performance coupled with innovative styling, but are they as green as they seem? What about the cobalt needed for batteries, mostly mined in the unregulated Congo and the required lithium extracted from the ground in northern Chile.
Maybe the government’s headline target to end sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 will be met after all. Still no universal guidelines though as to the eventual replacement costs and energy-intensive disposal of dead EV batteries. No longer a case of popping down to Halfords for a new one that’s for sure!
Action stations to protect our green and pleasant land!
As the biggest plants on the planet, trees are nature’s very own air-conditioning units by storing carbon, pumping out oxygen and stabilising the soil. They cast welcome shade and well managed they give us materials for household goods, construction and tools! The pros & cons of domestic log burners are best left for another day!
Britain may just be a pimple off the coast of Europe, but we continue to stand tall on the world stage and punch well above our weight. It’s vital that we continue to drive forward progress in combating climate change and whether as businesses or individuals we all need to do our bit!
It’s going to take a Churchillian effort to turn things around. Individually though, we can each do that little bit by supporting businesses who have pledged to leave a legacy for future generations. When the time comes to create or refresh your business’s brand you can do no better than select a proven creative design agency with a visible record of creating desirable and effective brands, coupled with a promise to plant five trees for every new client upon completion of your brief.
DSD is a veritable oasis of green in everything but name. Help the growth of our business and we in turn will fulfil our promise. For every hour that passes another day slips by, so do it now and give our founder Dan Summers a call on 01245 890238.
Check out our affiliation with More Trees, a tree-planting platform, on our dedicated web page https://dansummersdesign.co.uk/plant-trees-with-dsd/
