I then read this: ‘Tough love for GM and Chrysler … new car purchases are likely to be put off as a needless luxury in the face of economic uncertainty’ and then this: ‘Detroit homes sell for $1 amid mortgage and car industry crisis’. In fact, almost every week since, I have read article after article speaking about the destruction of the US motor industry and, with it, the death of a city. One article suggested that unemployment in Detroit stood at between 28% and 32%. I’ve seen other statistics saying closer to 35%.

It’s obviously not just a collective American concern for the environment that has led to the demise of Detroit. The combination of the GFC, cheaper and more efficient imports, lower exports and surging fuel prices (as high as $4 a gallon) have all contributed to America’s retreat from the car. But it did leave me thinking – what about Detroit? What happens when sustainable principles affect the sustainability of an entire industry, an entire city and, more importantly, the population working and living in it? What’s the answer then? Tough love?

Chris Raybould is Art Director at WellmarkPerspexa, which means he excels at finding strategic design solutions to the world’s problems.

Like an annual report, a sustainability report can, at its most basic level, serve the purpose of a compliance document (think the Form 10-K in the United States).  Mission accomplished? Well, sure, a compliance document will satisfy the analysts and regulators, but what does it say about your organisation? That you can comply, that’s all – which is important, of course, but hardly very inspiring stuff.  Should you not grasp this opportunity to communicate something more? After all, the contents of your sustainability report more often than not convey good news to stakeholders. It is a vehicle through which you can speak about progress within your business, connect with an ever more savvy (and, for want of a better word, ‘green’) audience, and build positive perceptions of your brand.

To that end, it is vital to present your key information and data in a compelling way:

• Be upfront about your organisation’s highlights and achievements; don’t bury them amid never-ending pages of dense, impenetrable copy
• Engage a designer who is used to working with text-heavy or highly technical data and thus knows how to design layouts that support clear messaging despite the plethora of mandatories required
• Ensure that you constantly link the different parts of your report back to your company’s overall strategic vision – like an engram, a recurring graphic device or umbrella theme can repeatedly cue the reader to recall your key stakeholder message
• Give your company a (human) face by quoting key leaders within the organisation throughout your report
• Bring your initiatives to life by using professional photography to capture uncontrived moments ‘from the field’.

Paying attention to these kinds of details will build trust with your audience by conveying what is often highly technical (even scientific) information in a wholly transparent, digestible and meaningful way.

If the visual style of your sustainability report reflects your brand image, your strategic messages are communicated clearly, and the key data (too often dense and opaque) are presented in an engaging and accessible manner, it will only enhance the perception of your brand. As David Stuart of UK agency The Partners writes in his book A smile in the mind: ‘What you’ve got to worry about is whether someone actually reads this … Someone who is intrigued will stay with the item until curiosity is satisfied’. It might sound like Marketing 101 but it resonates with me, because poor design – and thus communication – in the area of corporate reporting is a frustratingly common occurrence.

The sustainability report is a relatively new beast, but just as the annual report has adapted from a pure compliance document into an often visually compelling window into the state of a company’s strategic and financial health, so too are sustainability reports evolving. If presented in an engaging and accessible fashion, the sustainability report can similarly contribute to positive perceptions of an organisation in the workplace, market and broader community.

As WellmarkPerspexa’s Art Director, Chris Raybould has designed annual and sustainability reports for some of Australia’s leading corporate entities including Amcor, Santos, NAB, Coles Myer, Paperlinx, CentroProperty group, The Just Group and Melbourne Airport.

Whee…shteesh…shtup. Whee…shtesh…shtup. It’s the constant refrain from the corner of every office in Australia and (I hazard a guess) the world. Another sheet of paper. Another drain, however small, on our precious resources. But why? Didn’t the advent of the personal computer signal the demise of our reliance on paper in the office? I’m sure we were told it was so.

I wistfully remember my first lecture at art school after the delivery of our first Apple Macintosh. Our excited but clearly sceptical typography lecturer, Ernie Carr (a great man: I’m sure I’ll mention his name in future entries) trying desperately to expound the virtues of the new technology against his better judgment. For him, it flew in the face of 35 years in the printing industry. His fear of the death of our craft, the end of an era (one that had lasted four hundred years) was palpable. We, however, saw possibilities: instantly witnessing our thoughts become reality, and the freedom new technology would bring us. How exciting!

That was twenty years ago. During that period, leaps in technology and environmental awareness have ensured that paper is now a historical curiosity. Haven’t they?

Put your hand up if you’ve ever pressed print needlessly. Yep, thought so (and believe me, both my hands are firmly in the air). I have realised that I press print a lot – to the point that the command and P keys on my keyboard lost their identity long ago. Don’t get me wrong; I can justify it – to myself at least. As a designer, I pride myself on understanding typography. I need to see how that word looks. How it reads best, particularly as a headline.

Why? Haven’t I just spent a long time squinting at my enormous LCD screen making sure I have the spacing right between each and every letterform? The technology – far more accurate than my middle-aged eyes – tells me I have cracked it. Spot on. Yet I still need to make sure.

Am I desperate to see the fruits of my learning and labours in a physical form? Do I just love the feel of a piece of paper?

The short answer to those questions is yes. And while I only speak in respect of my own shortcomings within a creative agency, the impression I’ve gained of industries outside my own is that I am not alone in thinking this way. People seem to like having tangible evidence of their genius (or at least proof of their endeavours).

Hasn’t technology reached a point where we no longer need to have this kind of validation? Aren’t back-ups and systems capable of saving or holding to account (depending on your level of cynicism) everything we do? For the most part, in my experience anyway, yes they are. I don’t distrust technology, and I can count on one hand the times it has failed me in 20 years in the industry.

So is it a generational thing, perhaps? I am Gen X – and am living, breathing proof of the profile. And I, like my baby boomer boss, take nothing for granted. I believe I have embraced new technology as openly as any Gen Y or iPodder (if that is the correct moniker), but I still like a paper trail. I love my iPod, iPhone, iLife©®™ (and I don’t need to ask anyone how to use them), yet I need the paper proof, as it were. And, from what I’ve seen, so do the younger ‘uns. Are they following us, trying to impress us? Is it a vicious circle? I guess we’ll see.

It seems, in my case anyway, that the journey to a paperless office is as much an emotional one as a green one. I’ve heard loads of tips for going paperless – buy a scanner, read from the screen, sign up to an electronic fax service – but no one seems to be able to tell me how to get over my emotional attachment to paper. My sentimentality is betraying our workplace sustainability measures as much as my colleagues’ ignorance, laziness and bad habits. So does anyone have any tips for treating my addiction or any battles with green initiatives of their own they’d like to share to make me feel better?

P.S. While you’re busy doing that, I think I’ll just print a copy of this for my files. Whee…shteesh…shtup.

Chris Raybould is an Art Director at WellmarkPerspexa who is slowly realising that award-winning work doesn’t just look good on paper.