Sustainability

For Manoverboard, sustainability is baked into our practice, our work habits and workspaces, our designs, and our aspirations for ourselves, our clients, and our planet. While far from perfect, we aspire to do what’s right for the place we call home.

Work

While the pace of work has dramatically increased over the past 20 years, we seek to work in a sane and productive environment. We don’t pull all-nighters and we typically do not respond to 24-hour deadlines. We believe in thoughtful, careful planning and strategic thinking and we respect our clients, colleagues, and partners; we believe that this is the only way that humanity can live sustainably and healthfully. We also demand excellence of ourselves in everything we do, including the delivery and quality of our services and products.

Office

The office in which we work was originally a large garage built to repair vehicles in the early 1900s. Sitting in disrepair for many years, our developer took a one-story structure and built a two-story office building that houses five spaces. The office structure is built with the worlds most recyclable natural resource—wood. It offers an on-demand hot water system, a high-efficiency electric boiler (rated near 100%) and the building is warmed by radiant heat supplemented by a heated thermal mass at the building’s core. The timber-framed building is warm, comfortable and giving.

Commute

It took nearly two years to develop our office space and the wait was worth every minute. Living within walking distance of the office, our commute is less than ten minutes. When we do drive—it is, after all, sometimes cold in Canada—the amount of carbon expended is minimal.

Access

Since the founding of Manoverboard, nearly every website we’ve designed is fundamentally accessible to those with disabilities. Accessibility is not a direct correlative of sustainability yet, it is a critical component of creating a more inclusive, equal, and transparent world.

Paper

Whenever possible, we source all of our paper products from companies that provide FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification. This ensures that our designs are printed on paper derived from sustainable forests and healthy communities. We also prefer soy-based inks (for printing).

Giving Back

We selectively take on nonprofit projects on a pro bono basis. For small nonprofits, we often provide cost-free design services, inexpensive or free website hosting, and website updates gratis.