My first attempts were very typical - unsophisticated fashion magazine re-creations glued to a piece of bleached white poster board.When the Vision faded a few months later, these disposable collages traveled from my wall to my trash can. Quickly, the waste associated with that type of Board started to bother me. My eco-angst didn’t stop the Vision Boarding, but it did inspire me to start innovating!
There were experiments with sticky media –
glue(s), gum (ewwww!), wax, rubber cement, tape(s), Quakehold putty, and push pins.
There were experiments with hanging media – the aforementioned white poster
boards quickly disappeared, and were followed by card board (boxes), Styrofoam,
and a standard cork pin board. By taping or pinning my Vision to my ancient cork
board (I’ve owned it since elementary school), I have been able to re-use
images and words over and over and over again… if I feel so called. (I have this amazing image of muddy steel toe
work boots next to a pristine leather briefcase – the perfect balance of field
and professional work – that will never leave my Boards since I have
everything to say about it!) I source my magazines second hand from friends, family,
co-workers, even other Vision Boarders… and about three months ago I discovered my best source yet - the library re-sale shop. There one can find a diverse
selection of media for $0.25 a piece (cheap!), my donations benefited a
fantastic community resource (awesome!), and for magazines where I only used
one or two and I was careful with page removal, I could close the loop and
re-donate back to the store (recycling!). It has truly turned out to be a triple
win. Given that Boarding involves cutting up a lot of paper, my methods seem about as eco-friendly as feasible... Right?
Perhaps/Perhaps not. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Paper Task Force have collaboratively developed a neat comparative calculator that looks at the environmental impacts of different types of paper. I tested the calculator to guesstimate the eco-footprint of one year of Vision Boarding (assumptions: 4x/year using 1 package of 0.5 lb of "Solid Bleached Sulfate paperboard" and 10 "Coated groundwood" magazines per Board). Of course the proposed Vision Boarding activity is of such a small scale that it didn't register for most of the enviromental impacts (tree cutting, waste byproducts, pollutant loads associated with erosion), but the calculator did project an equivalent of 45 pounds of Carbon production and 160 gallons of water use. In constrast, an equivalent volume of 100% recycled "Paperboard: Coated Recycled Board (CRB)" would use about 20 gallons of water and produce 22 pounds of Carbon.
There is definitely a benefit to recycling, but source seems to be the main problem. In 2007, Web Leads, Print Pubs Improve Environmental Impact identified 100 of the 18,000 magazines in print that used some recycled paper content or used responsibly sourced virgin fiber. At the equivalent source website, I identified 119 magazine options. Only a few of these magazines are within my regional readership (key exceptions include: Cottage Life; MAKE; Ms.; SURFER; Whole Foods Market Magazine; and Yoga Journal). While I am sure there are many other eco-friendly magazine options available, the fact remains that the industry tends to lag behind newpaper and book publishers in the recyled-material revolution because of cost and appear/quality. Like so many other things, knowing who to support for being green and who to criticize for occasionally "green-washing" parts of publications, will fall to the already overwhelmed consumer.
There is also the possibility of going paperless and wireless all together (i.e., VisionBoardSite.com, www.mapourlives.com, digitaldreamboard.com, http://www.visionboardinstitute.com, etc). But as someone who is computer-bound 8+ hours/day at work, I am not looking for more computer time. Access to a plethora of Google images does not offset my eye strain and headaches. Besides, an on-line solution may not be the best solution. In Web Leads, Print Pubs Improve Environmental Impact, Mark Glaser frames the eco- and econo- arguments to going wireless and highlights possible hidden costs - what about the impact of electronic themselves as they are “recycled”or otherwise discarded? What about the carbon footprint of electricity and power used for server farms?
The last possibility is to toss the Vision Board process all together, as suggested by Neil Farber, M.D., Ph.D. His critique focuses on the possibility for the Boarder to focus on Dreaming rather than Action. Dr. Farber uses five interesting case studies conducted at universities across the United States to support his hypothesis. He has a point. In 2011, I spent a lot of time and energy constructing Vision Boards that did not take shape. The visions that were realized still blow my mind. Remember my favorite work boots/brief case image? After three years of trying to position myself for an emergency response effort, my company deployed me for the Joplin tornado effort... after Vision Boarding with that image for the first time. After I pasted the Great Wall of China on my Vision Board, I heard my supervisor and a project manager discussing staffing conflicts for a conference and a nameless river project. I stepped up to volunteer for the conference, and the project manager asked me if I wanted to go to Zhuzhou City, China for a river assessment effort.
Coincidence or Visioning? I choose not to say. But I do believe that my goal setting brain has been opened to include possibilities I would've never imagine without the stimulation of this process. Sorry Dr. Farber, I will be Vision Boarding into the future no matter what your professional opinion... I just may be testing online tools and using recycled paper magazines more often than I do now.
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| Spring 2011 - see the boots? |
Perhaps/Perhaps not. The Environmental Defense Fund and the Paper Task Force have collaboratively developed a neat comparative calculator that looks at the environmental impacts of different types of paper. I tested the calculator to guesstimate the eco-footprint of one year of Vision Boarding (assumptions: 4x/year using 1 package of 0.5 lb of "Solid Bleached Sulfate paperboard" and 10 "Coated groundwood" magazines per Board). Of course the proposed Vision Boarding activity is of such a small scale that it didn't register for most of the enviromental impacts (tree cutting, waste byproducts, pollutant loads associated with erosion), but the calculator did project an equivalent of 45 pounds of Carbon production and 160 gallons of water use. In constrast, an equivalent volume of 100% recycled "Paperboard: Coated Recycled Board (CRB)" would use about 20 gallons of water and produce 22 pounds of Carbon.
There is definitely a benefit to recycling, but source seems to be the main problem. In 2007, Web Leads, Print Pubs Improve Environmental Impact identified 100 of the 18,000 magazines in print that used some recycled paper content or used responsibly sourced virgin fiber. At the equivalent source website, I identified 119 magazine options. Only a few of these magazines are within my regional readership (key exceptions include: Cottage Life; MAKE; Ms.; SURFER; Whole Foods Market Magazine; and Yoga Journal). While I am sure there are many other eco-friendly magazine options available, the fact remains that the industry tends to lag behind newpaper and book publishers in the recyled-material revolution because of cost and appear/quality. Like so many other things, knowing who to support for being green and who to criticize for occasionally "green-washing" parts of publications, will fall to the already overwhelmed consumer.
There is also the possibility of going paperless and wireless all together (i.e., VisionBoardSite.com, www.mapourlives.com, digitaldreamboard.com, http://www.visionboardinstitute.com, etc). But as someone who is computer-bound 8+ hours/day at work, I am not looking for more computer time. Access to a plethora of Google images does not offset my eye strain and headaches. Besides, an on-line solution may not be the best solution. In Web Leads, Print Pubs Improve Environmental Impact, Mark Glaser frames the eco- and econo- arguments to going wireless and highlights possible hidden costs - what about the impact of electronic themselves as they are “recycled”or otherwise discarded? What about the carbon footprint of electricity and power used for server farms?
 |
| September 2011 - see the Wall of China? |
Coincidence or Visioning? I choose not to say. But I do believe that my goal setting brain has been opened to include possibilities I would've never imagine without the stimulation of this process. Sorry Dr. Farber, I will be Vision Boarding into the future no matter what your professional opinion... I just may be testing online tools and using recycled paper magazines more often than I do now.
