AIGA/NY & Spark present: How to Lead Clients Towards Being Green

Do you wish your clients thought more about the impact their materials have on the earth? Would you like to introduce them to more responsible, sustainable solutions but don’t know how to begin the conversation? Or perhaps you have approached the subject and were met with budget concerns?

This lively panel will discuss strategies from principals of design firms on how they lead even the most unexpected of clients towards the benefits of going green right from the start. 

Panelists: 

Don Carli is Senior Research Fellow with nonprofit Institute for Sustainable Communication (ISC) where he is director of The Sustainable Advertising Partnership and other programs addressing sustainable marketing, advertising, corporate social responsibility, life cycle assessment, design for sustainability, innovation and sustainable sourcing. He is also Sustainability Editor for Graphic Arts Monthly Magazine and Sustainability Editor of Aktuell Grafisk Information magazine in Sweden. Don is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Studies Program Affiliate Scholar and has lectured at NYU, MIT, Columbia University, California Polytechnic University, Clemson University  and The City University of New York. He is a member of the board of advisors of the AIGA Center for Sustainable Design, a member of The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), a member of the Institute for Supply Management and recipient of the P3 Foundation “Luminaire Award.”

Cheryl Heller believes that communication design has an vital role to play in the creation of a sustainable future, and is determined to prove it. She is the CEO of Heller Communication Design in Manhattan and Norfolk Connecticut. Cheryl has developed transformational work for corporations of every size and industry, helped leading non-profits fulfill their mission, trains social entrepreneurs in how to communicate and teaches students how do Design for Good. She is on the board of Pop!Tech, The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education, and Wings World Quest. She has won countless awards for her work as a designer.

Hugh Hough decided to apply his talents toward a higher purpose, and in 1993 founded Green Team, New York's first (and only) environmental advertising agency. An art director by trade, Hugh today comfortably straddles the worlds of major corporations, international NGOs and all aspects of the sustainability issue. Hugh was recently selected by Al Gore and The Climate Project to be one of 2,500 individuals chosen to present a modified version of Gore's presentation about global warming, chronicled in the film, An Inconvenient Truth.

Moderator:  Sheri L Koetting is the Co-Founder and CEO of MSLK, a boutique marketing and design agency based in NYC. MSLK seeks to create design solutions that produce maximum results for brands yet leave a minimal impact on the environment. In addition, Sheri is Co-Founder and President of Spark and serves as the Director of Outreach for AIGA's Center for Sustainable Design.