GREEN
ECONOMY
The
green economy is one that results in improved human well-being and social
equity,
while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. Green
economy is an economy or economic development model based on sustainable development and a knowledge of ecological economics.[1]
A
feature distinguishing it from prior economic regimes is the direct valuation
of natural capital and ecological services as having economic value (see The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity and Bank of Natural Capital) and a full cost accounting regime in which costs externalized
onto society via ecosystems are reliably traced back to, and accounted for as
liabilities of, the entity that does the harm or neglects an asset.[citation needed]
What
is a Green Economy?
A
Green Economy can be thought of as an alternative vision for growth and
development; one that can generate growth and improvements in people’s lives in
ways consistent with sustainable development. A Green Economy promotes a triple
bottom line: sustaining and advancing economic, environmental and social
well-being.
The
prevailing economic growth model is focused on increasing GDP above all other
goals. While this system has improved incomes and reduced poverty for hundreds
of millions, it comes with significant and potentially irreversible social,
environmental and economic costs. Poverty persists for as many as two and a half billion people, and the natural
wealth of the planet is rapidly being drawn down. In a recent global assessment, approximately 60
percent of the world’s ecosystem services were found to be degraded or used
unsustainably. The gap between the rich and poor is also increasing – between
1990 and 2005, income inequality (measured by the gap
between the highest and lowest income earners) rose in more than two thirds of
countries.
While
the prevailing economic growth model focuses on increasing GDP above all other
goals, a Green Economy promotes a triple bottom line: sustaining and advancing
economic, environmental and social well-being. Photo credit: flickr/Yodel
Anecdotal.
The
persistence of poverty and degradation of the environment can be traced to a
series of market and institutional failures that make the prevailing economic
model far less effective than it otherwise would be in advancing sustainable
development goals. These market and institutional failures are well known to
economists, but little progress has been made to address them. For example,
there are not sufficient mechanisms to ensure that polluters pay the full cost
of their pollution. There are “missing markets” – meaning that markets do not
systematically account for the inherent value of services provided by nature,
like water filtration or coastal protection. A “market economy” alone cannot
provide public goods, like efficient electricity grids, sanitation or public
transportation. And economic policy is often shaped by those who wield power,
with strong vested interests, and rarely captures the voice and perspectives of
those most at risk.
A
Green Economy attempts to remedy these problems through a variety of
institutional reforms and regulatory, tax, and expenditure-based economic
policies and tools.
Definition of a green
economy
Karl
Burkart defines a green economy as based on six main sectors:[4]
- Renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal, marine including wave, biogas, and fuel cell)
- Green buildings (green retrofits for energy and water efficiency, residential and commercial assessment; green products and materials, and LEED construction)
- Clean transportation (alternative fuels, public transit, hybrid and electric vehicles, carsharing and carpooling programs)
- Water management (Water reclamation, greywater and rainwater systems, low-water landscaping, water purification, stormwater management)
- Waste management (recycling, municipal solid waste salvage, brownfield land remediation, Superfund cleanup, sustainable packaging)
- Land management (organic agriculture, habitat conservation and restoration; urban forestry and parks, reforestation and afforestation and soil stabilization)
GREEN TECHNOLOGY
The term "technology"
refers to the application of knowledge for practical purposes.
The field of "green
technology" encompasses a continuously evolving group of methods and
materials, from techniques for generating energy to non-toxic cleaning
products.
The present expectation is that this
field will bring innovation and changes in daily life of similar magnitude to
the "information technology" explosion over the last two decades. In
these early stages, it is impossible to predict what "green
technology" may eventually encompass.
The goals that inform developments
in this rapidly growing field include:
Sustainability - meeting the needs of society in ways that can continue
indefinitely into the future without damaging or depleting natural resources.
In short, meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs.
"Cradle to
cradle" design - ending the "cradle to
grave" cycle of manufactured products, by creating products that can be
fully reclaimed or re-used.
Source reduction - reducing waste and pollution by changing patterns of
production and consumption.
Innovation - developing alternatives to technologies - whether fossil
fuel or chemical intensive agriculture - that have been demonstrated to damage
health and the environment.
Viability - creating a center of economic activity around technologies
and products that benefit the environment, speeding their implementation and
creating new careers that truly protect the planet.
Examples of green technology subject
areas
Energy
Perhaps the most urgent issue for
green technology, this includes the development of alternative fuels, new means
of generating energy and energy efficiency.
Green building
Green building encompasses everything
from the choice of building materials to where a building is located.
Environmentally
preferred purchasing
This government innovation involves
the search for products whose contents and methods of production have the
smallest possible impact on the environment, and mandates that these be the
preferred products for government purchasing.
Green chemistry
The invention, design and
application of chemical products and processes to reduce or to eliminate the
use and generation of hazardous substances.
Green nanotechnology
Nanotechnology involves the
manipulation of materials at the scale of the nanometer, one billionth of a
meter. Some scientists believe that mastery of this subject is forthcoming that
will transform the way that everything in the world is manufactured.
"Green nanotechnology" is the application of green chemistry and
green engineering principles to this field.
GREEN MARKETING
What is green marketing? Green
marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on
their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally
friendly in itself or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly
way.
The obvious assumption of green
marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service's "greenness"
as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious
assumption of green marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more for
green products than they would for a less-green comparable alternative product
- an assumption that, in my opinion, has not been proven conclusively.
While green marketing is growing
greatly as increasing numbers of consumers are willing to back their
environmental consciousnesses with their dollars, it can be dangerous. The
public tends to be skeptical of green claims to begin with and companies can
seriously damage their brands and their sales if a green claim is discovered to
be false or contradicted by a company's other products or practices. Presenting
a product or service as green when it's not is called greenwashing.
Green marketing can be a very
powerful marketing strategy though when it's done right. See Three Keys to Successful Green Marketing.
Promotion
of environmentally safe or beneficial products. Green marketing began in Europe
in the early 1980s when certain products were found to be harmful to the
earth's atmosphere. Consequently new types of products were created, called
"green" products, that would cause less damage to the environment.
The movement quickly caught on in the United States and has been growing
steadily ever since. The development of ecologically safer products, recyclable
and biodegradable packaging, energy-efficient operations, and better pollution
controls are all aspects of green marketing. Green marketing has produced
advances such as packages using recycled paper, phosphate-free detergents,
refill containers for cleaning products, and bottles using less plastic.
According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe.[1] Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term.[1] Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing.
Green, environmental and
eco-marketing are part of the new marketing approaches which do not just
refocus, adjust or enhance existing marketing thinking and practice, but seek
to challenge those approaches and provide a substantially different
perspective. In more detail green, environmental and eco-marketing belong to
the group of approaches which seek to address the lack of fit between marketing
as it is currently practiced and the ecological and social realities of the
wider marketing environment.[2]
The legal implications of marketing
claims call for caution. Misleading or overstated claims can lead to regulatory
or civil challenges. In the USA, the [Federal Trade Commission] provides some
guidance on environmental marketing claims.[3] This Commission is expected to do an overall
review of this guidance, and the legal standards it contains, in 2011.[4]
History
The term Green Marketing came into
prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s.[5] The American Marketing Association (AMA) held
the first workshop on "Ecological Marketing" in 1975.[6] The proceedings of this workshop resulted in
one of the first books on green marketing entitled "Ecological
Marketing".[7]
The Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) Reports started with the ice cream seller Ben & Jerry's where the
financial report was supplemented by a greater view on the company's
environmental impact. In 1987 a document prepared by the World Commission on
Environment and Development defined sustainable development
as meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own need”, this became known as the Brundtland Report
and was another step towards widespread thinking on sustainability in everyday
activity. Two tangible milestones for wave 1 of green marketing came in the
form of published books, both of which were called Green Marketing. They were
by Ken Peattie (1992) in the United Kingdom and by Jacquelyn Ottman (1993) in the United States of America.[8]
According to Jacquelyn Ottman, (author of "The New Rules of
Green Marketing: Strategies, Tools, and Inspiration for Sustainable
Branding" (Greenleaf Publishing[9] and Berrett-Koehler Publishers,
February 2011)) from an organizational standpoint, environmental considerations
should be integrated into all aspects of marketing — new product development and communications
and all points in between.[10] The holistic nature of green also suggests that besides
suppliers and retailers new stakeholders be enlisted, including educators,
members of the community, regulators, and NGOs. Environmental issues
should be balanced with primary customer needs.[citation needed]
The past
decade has shown that harnessing consumer power to effect positive environmental change
is far easier said than done. The so-called "green
consumer" movements in the U.S. and other countries have
struggled to reach critical mass and to remain in the forefront of shoppers'
minds.[11] While public opinion polls taken since the
late 1980s have shown consistently that a significant percentage of consumers
in the U.S. and elsewhere profess a strong willingness to favor environmentally
conscious products and companies, consumers' efforts to do so in real life have
remained sketchy at best.[1] One of green marketing's challenges is the
lack of standards or public consensus about what constitutes "green,"
according to Joel Makower, a
writer on green marketing.[citation
needed] In essence, there is no definition of
"how good is good enough" when it comes to a product or company
making green marketing claims. This lack of consensus—by consumers, marketers,
activists, regulators, and influential people—has slowed the growth of green
products, says Makower, because companies are often reluctant to promote their
green attributes, and consumers are often skeptical about claims.[citation needed]
Despite these challenges, green
marketing has continued to gain adherents, particularly in light of growing
global concern about climate change. This concern has led more companies to advertise
their commitment to reduce their climate impacts, and the effect this is having
on their products and services.[12][13]
Greenhouse gas reduction market
The emerging greenhouse gas
reduction market can potentially catalyze projects with important local
environmental, economic, and quality-of-life benefits. The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM),
for example, enables trading between industrial and developing nations,
providing a framework that can result in capital flows to environmentally
beneficial development activities. Although the United States is not
participating in the Kyoto Protocol, several US programs enable similar
transactions on a voluntary and regulatory basis.[1]
While international trade in greenhouse gas[14] reductions holds substantial promise as a
source of new funding for sustainable development,
this market can be largely inaccessible to many smaller-scale projects, remote
communities, and least developed localities. To facilitate participation and
broaden the benefits, several barriers must be overcome, including: a lack of
market awareness among stakeholders and prospective participants; specialized,
somewhat complicated participation rules; and the need for simplified
participation mechanisms for small projects, without which transaction costs
can overwhelm the financial benefits of participation. If the barriers are
adequately addressed, greenhouse gas trading
can play an important role supporting activities that benefit people’s
lives and the environment.[1]
GREEN AGENDA
Green
Agenda is a participatory method for developing and implementing local
sustainable development strategies and plans with active involvement of the
different sectors in the local community where the process is conducted. The
method is special, compared to other processes with similar aims, in at least 3
main aspects: the process starts out by identifying local values rather than
problems; participation in the process is not limited to experts or certain
stakeholder groups but is wide and open to all; and as a result the process and
its results are genuinely owned by the local people.
values
At
the start of the work in the community local stakeholders identify the values
of their community. The main idea is to focus on things local people are proud
of, instead of focusing on problems. Examples of values are local water
resources (lake, river, drinking water supply) and cultural heritage (ruins
from the Roman times, museums, local food and songs). Of course the values can
be in bad shape, which could be remedied in the frame of further Green Agenda
steps.
wide
participation
The
Green Agenda process is open for all those who are interested, whether they are
recognized experts or not. We believe that everyone who is committed to their
community can contribute to the success of the process and its outcome, and
should be enabled to do so. This implies that we pay special attention to local
capacity building with a view to providing the local population with the tools
to effectively take part in the process and in the implementation of actions.
Green agenda is a political ideology
that aims for the creation of an ecologically sustainable society rooted in environmentalism, social liberalism, and grassroots democracy.[1] It began taking shape in the western world in
the 1970s; since then Green parties have developed and established themselves
in many countries across the globe, and have achieved some electoral success.
The political term Green, a
translation of the German Grün, was coined by die Grünen, a Green
party formed in the late 1970s. The term political ecology is sometimes used in Europe and in
academic circles, but in the latter has come to represent an interdisciplinary
field of study.
Supporters of Green agenda, called
Greens, share many ideas with the ecology, conservation, environmentalism, feminism, and peace movements. In addition to democracy and ecological
issues, green agenda is concerned with civil liberties, social justice, nonviolence and tends to support social progressivism.
The party's platform is largely considered left in the
political spectrum. However, as the 'Green' ideology expanded, there also came
into separate existence green movements on the political right in the form of green conservatism
and eco-capitalism.
The Green ideology has connections
with various other ecocentric political ideologies, including ecosocialism, ecoanarchism, ecofeminism and ecofascism, but to what extent these can be seen as
forms of Green agenda is a matter of debate.[
GREEN EVOLUTION
Green
Evolution was created in the midst of the climate change era to promote and
strengthen our sustainable development. Through innovative technical &
financial services, Green Evolution’s vision is to help in the creation of a
sustainable and secure future based on a carbon-neutral model where individuals
and firms make their own contribution.
Great increase in production of food
grains (especially wheat and rice)
that resulted in large part from the introduction into developing countries of
new, high-yielding varieties, beginning in the mid-20th century. Its early
dramatic successes were in Mexico and the Indian subcontinent. The new
varieties require large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to
produce their high yields, raising concerns about cost and potentially harmful
environmental effects. Poor farmers, unable to afford the fertilizers and
pesticides, have often reaped even lower yields with these grains than with the
older strains, which were better adapted to local conditions and had some
resistance to pests and diseases. We believe that this will be based on
innovation, co-operation and knowledge transfer from the research community to
the fast-changing-economy industries engaged in low-carbon technologies and
innovative transactions. Our mission is to facilitate and advise all levels of
government and private sector companies (from small start-ups to transnational
corporations) in their efforts to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions
(ghg) and mitigate climate change. We welcome the challenge of reducing GHG
emissions and see it as an opportunity for innovation and sustainable
development. We provide solutions with insight for minimal risk and know-how to
develop and maximize opportunities.
GREEN BUILDING
Green
building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to a
structure and using process that is environmentally responsible and
resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design,
construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires
close cooperation of the design team, the architects, the engineers, and the
client at all project stages.[1] The Green Building
practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of
economy, utility, durability, and comfort.[2]
Although
new technologies are constantly being developed to complement current practices
in creating greener structures, the common objective is that green buildings
are designed to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human
health and the natural environment by:
- Efficiently using energy, water, and other resources
- Protecting occupant health and improving employee productivity
- Reducing waste, pollution and environmental degradation[2]
A
similar concept is natural building, which is usually on
a smaller scale and tends to focus on the use of natural materials that are available
locally.[3] Other related topics
include sustainable design and green architecture. Sustainability may be defined as
meeting the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their needs.[4] Green building does
not specifically address the issue of the retrofitting existing homes.
A
2009 report by the U.S. General Services Administration found 12 sustainably
designed buildings cost less to operate and have excellent energy performance.
In addition, occupants were more satisfied with the overall building than those
in typical commercial buildings.[5]
Green
building practices aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings, and the very first rule
is, do not build in sprawl (spreading in disordered fashion). No matter how
much grass you put on your roof, no matter how many energy-efficient windows,
etc., you use, if you build in sprawl, you've just defeated your purpose.
Buildings account for a large amount of land. According to the National
Resources Inventory, approximately 107 million acres (430,000 km2)
of land in the United States are developed. The International Energy Agency released a
publication that estimated that existing buildings are responsible for more
than 40% of the world’s total primary energy consumption and for 24% of global
carbon dioxide emissions.[6]
The
concept of sustainable development can be traced to the energy (especially
fossil oil) crisis and the environment pollution concern in the 1970s.[7] The green building
movement in the U.S. originated from the need and desire for more energy
efficient and environmentally friendly construction practices. There are a
number of motives for building green, including environmental, economic, and
social benefits. However, modern sustainability initiatives call for an
integrated and synergistic design to both new construction and in the retrofitting of existing
structures. Also known as sustainable design, this approach integrates the building
life-cycle with each green practice employed with a design-purpose to create a
synergy among the practices used.
Green
building brings together a vast array of practices, techniques, and skills to
reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and
human health. It often emphasizes taking advantage of renewable resources, e.g., using sunlight through passive
solar,
active solar, and photovoltaic techniques and using
plants and trees through green roofs, rain
gardens,
and reduction of rainwater run-off. Many other techniques are used, such as
using wood as a building material, or using packed gravel or permeable concrete
instead of conventional concrete or asphalt to enhance replenishment of ground
water.
While
the practices, or technologies, employed in green building are constantly
evolving and may differ from region to region, fundamental principles persist
from which the method is derived: Siting
and Structure Design Efficiency, Energy
Efficiency,
Water
Efficiency,
Materials
Efficiency,
Indoor
Environmental Quality Enhancement, Operations
and Maintenance Optimization, and Waste
and Toxics Reduction.[8][9] The essence of green
building is an optimization of one or more of these principles. Also, with the
proper synergistic design, individual green building technologies may work
together to produce a greater cumulative effect.
On
the aesthetic side of green architecture or sustainable design is the philosophy of designing a
building that is in harmony with the natural features and resources surrounding
the site. There are several key steps in designing sustainable buildings:
specify 'green' building materials from local sources, reduce loads, optimize systems,
and generate on-site renewable energy.
REFERENCES
· ^ Yan Ji and Stellios Plainiotis (2006): Design
for Sustainability. Beijing: China Architecture and Building Press. ISBN 7-112-08390-7
· ^ a b U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. (October 28, 2009). Green Building Basic Information.
Retrieved Decem\ ber 10, 2009, from http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/pubs/about.htm
· ^ Allen & Iano, 2008[Allen, E, & Iano, J.
(2008). Fundamentals of building construction: materials and methods. Hoboken,
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
· ^ Mao, X., Lu, H., & Li, Q. (2009). International
Conference on Management and Service Science, 2009. MASS '09., 1-5. doi:10.1109/ICMSS.2009.5303546
· ^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (October
28, 2010). Green Building Home. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from http://www.epa.gov/greenbuilding/pubs/components.htm
· ^ WBDG Sustainable Committee. (August 18, 2009).
Sustainable. Retrieved November 28, 2009, from http://www.wbdg.org/designsustainable.php
· ^ Hegazy, T. (2002). Life-cycle stages of
projects. Computer-Based Construction Project Management, 8.
· ^ Pushkar, S., Becker, R., & Katz, A.(2005).
A methodology for design of environmentally optimal buildings by variable
grouping. Building and Environment, 40. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.09.004
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