Rizco Design

Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean drinking water. That’s one in eight of us. charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations. 100% of public donations directly fund water projects.

Mohawk Fine Papers was one of the many amazing sponsors of last night’s, charity: water 2009 Charity: Ball, where 1,200 people gathered at the Metropolitan Pavilion in NYC with host, Adrian Grenier, to raise funds to provide clean drinking water to villages within Uganda, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. One of many highlights is the “Water Catwalk” where attendees were encourage to walk 52 feet carrying two jerry cans that weight 40 pounds each. Africans walk 300 times that distance daily (3 miles) to gather enough water for cooking, cleaning and drinking. Time spent on this daily task would prevent you from earning an income or getting an education. If you are a woman, it puts you at greater risk of rape and assault.

… So yes, I joined my Mohawk rep, Cindy Salant, in handing over our drinks, shoes and handbags, and walking barefoot in our semi-formal dresses – a minimal effort in comparison to the journey that Africans make. Our reward was to learn and experience how fortunate we are to have clean drinking water.

High compliments to Viktoria Alexeeva Harrison, Director of Design & Branding, for the incredible visual displays and to Founder, Scott Harrison for turning big ideas into actions that touch so many lives … and for being so humble along the way.

For more information and to donate visit www.charitywater.org.

Rizco Design was one of the first 100 people to participate in Toppan Printing Company’s Earth Day 2009: Where Green is the Color of Print Competition where end-users were encouraged to visit Toppan’s site and find a tree image after learning about Toppan’s valuable environmental certifications including ISO and FSC.

As a reward, ten native pine, fir and cedar trees will be planted by The Arbor Day Foundation in the Plumas National Forest in northern California. The trees will help repopulate the thousands of acres that have been destroyed by fire in recent years. These trees will clean the air, grip the soil and provide food and shelter for bears, bald eagles, lynx, gray wolves and many more threatened animals.

For more information about Toppan Printing visit www.ta.toppan.com and to donate to rebuilding the Plumas National Forest visit www.arborday.org/join/tictim/forests/plumas/

We thank Toppan for including Rizco Design in this effort to preserve and renew the environment.

Made From Recycled Banana and Palm Fibers

It’s often hard to appreciate the novelties of paper with the ever-present impacts of global deforestation looming overhead, but one reputable company, New Leaf Paper, helps simmer our conscious frets with their consistent creations of new paper products from eco-friendly sources.

Rizco Design was featured on the “HOW Magazine Blog”

Read how designers are taking small steps toward sustainable practices.

Posted by Patrick Kesler

Better Design for Social Causes Conference 2.28.09

Better is a design conference that brings together visionaries behind some of the world’s most celebrated designs and students from all over the nation to discuss the possibility for graphic design to serve as an agent of social change.

Posted by Patrick Kesler

This just announced, credited Uk.reuters.com

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan launched a satellite on Friday to monitor greenhouse gases around the world in the hope that the data it gathers will help global efforts to combat climate change.

The satellite, called “Ibuki” or “vitality” in Japanese, will enable scientists to measure densities of carbon dioxide and methane from 56,000 locations on the Earth’s surface, including the atmosphere over open seas.

That would compare with just 282 land-based observation sites as of last October, mostly of which are in the United States, Europe and other industrialized regions, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency has said.

Japanese officials hope the data will add credence to existing research on greenhouse gases, including reports by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of hundreds of scientists.

“It would contribute to raising certainties in IPCC research that greenhouse gases are increasing,” said Yasushi Tadami, deputy director of research and information at the Environment Ministry’s global environment bureau.

“It will also advance research on the mechanism of carbon cycles.”

Equipped with two sensors, the satellite will track infrared rays from the Earth, which will help calculate the densities of carbon dioxide and methane because these two greenhouse gases absorb the rays at certain wavelengths.

NASA is sponsoring its own Orbiting Carbon Observatory to be launched this year to collect measurements on carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Both satellites come as about 190 countries try to craft a broader climate treaty by December to replace the Kyoto Protocol that binds wealthy nations to emissions targets between 2008 and 2012.

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October 2008, Going Green issue.
Rizco Design speaks about how their green initiatives play a large role in their business goals.

Read all about it.