The presentation by Independent printers was pretty impressive, so far it seems like Independent is the best model to base what we should be striving for to improve the environmental awareness in larger production companies like in printing. It is commendable that they are trying to lower their impact on the environment in every aspect of there company. It isn’t like other companies who claim to be environmentally friendly but produce an absurd amount of waste both in production and distribution of its products. Independent really seems to have looked at and considered every thing that makes up their company and tried to make it sustainable. The starch peanuts are a great idea and it is surprising everyone isn’t using those for shipping.

The presentation about GIS and GPS mapping intrigued me because I am interested in visual communication and that’s essentially what she was showing us, the ability to use maps and graphs to explain the data that was collected to people who are not experts in the subject. Before this class I did not have any experience with environmental issues and I felt as if the material we were covering did not really sink in because I couldn’t really see it affecting my life. But seeing maps of the greater Chicago area and watching how over the years the amount of forest and nature preserves have shrunken substantially it makes a bigger impact on me. I think information is more dramatic when presented visually, especially to people who are uneducated in the subject.