Sustainability Sells
Masters project
— 2023
This project was chosen as a finalist for the AGDA 2023 awards, in the Student Brand and Identity category
Sustainability Sells is a discursive design project; exploring greenwashing and the intersections between ethics, responsibility, and design. This research looks at how commercial design is contributing to the climate crisis and explores how it can also be used as a tool to combat this. I argue that large corporations are lying to individuals and have made it impossible for consumers to make sustainable purchasing decisions.
The final outcome is an immersive and discursive design piece; a store called Goods that only stocks products marked with the official ‘Sustainability Sells’ certification. On the surface this store appears to be an environmentally conscious alternative to the traditional buying experience—but it doesn’t take long to realise that this is not at all the case. With prices listed in CO2 emissions and informative packaging, Sustainability Sells forces people to reconsider what sustainability really means. It highlights the buzzword nature of this word and educates people on the false claims being made on the products they’re buying. Centred around the theme of responsible consumption and production, this project is designed for the consumer, but is in no way a criticism of the consumer themselves.
Goods store branding and concept
The Goods store is an immersive and discursive design piece; stocking only products marked with the official ‘Sustainability Sells’ certification. On the surface this store appears to be an environmentally conscious alternative to the traditional buying experience—but it doesn’t take long to realise that this is not at all the case. Prices are listed in CO2 emissions and the product packaging calls companies out for greenwashing.
The typography used in the Goods logo has been custom made for this project.
Sketch of concept
The colours
The Goods colours have been inspired by cleaning products, commenting on this idea of companies ‘washing’ their product packaging design to make them sound more environmentally friendly.
Sustainability Sells certification
Inspired by the fake and controversial environmental certifications that I came across in my research, I wanted to create my own certification—certified greenwashed.
Sustainability sells design process
Products
As part of this project I designed a series of products, all inspired by real-world brands guilty of greenwashing. Company ‘sustainability’ statistics have replaced the traditional nutritional chart, and information about how each company is contributing to the global climate crisis is also shown.
