As green terms such as Sustainability, Eco Friendly Products , Ethically Made, and even the word green itself, become more and more common, so does their misuse. Depending on the brand, when used, these words can mean a whole lot or not a lot at all - so you can understand why they’re creating a bit of confusion amongst consumers and small business owners wanting to do the right thing.
Many of the terms we’ve listed in this post don’t actually have strict legal definitions or requirements for use, so technically, you and your small business can use them without any proof of green business practices. However, if you are wanting to create a brand that is transparent and honest, you must not only commit to one or several of these terms through your business practices - usually within your product’s life cycle (which you can read more about here), but you must also communicate your sustainability efforts correctly and effectively to avoid green washing. In this post we’ll break down the most common terms used within the green and eco-friendly space to help you not only understand what they all mean, but to also help increase your brand authority and trust amongst consumers.
WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY & WHAT IS A SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT?
Although there are many different views on what it is and how it can be achieved, Sustainability can be simply defined as the ability to maintain healthy environment, social and economic systems indefinitely, on a local and global scale. It is argued the economy and society are unable to exist without the environment and therefore are entirely dependent on environmental conditions. So, the ultimate goal is to achieve an environmentally sustainable product. However, the terms Sustainability and Sustainable are not interchangeable as they mean slightly different things. Sustainable products are those that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while also minimising impacts on these systems throughout its whole life cycle, from extraction of raw materials to the product’s end of life - in order to achieve overall Sustainability (the concept).
GREEN VS ECO-FRIENDLY
While Green and Eco-friendly have very similar meanings, on one hand, Green is widely used to explain basically anything that is benefits the environment, from business practices to design and products. However, Eco-friendly or Environmentally Friendly is not so broad and means something that does not harm the planet.
