Going Green has become in thing these days. A new vocabulary
where green is used as an adjective as well as a verb to show compassion to
environment has emerged. It represents a wide and loosely defined spectrum of
thought, attitude, philosophy and practice centered around the concern for the
environment. We have green resources, products and processes like green energy,
green buildings, green agriculture, green transport, green cities, green
electronics, green computing, green chemistry, green pharmaceuticals, green
fabrics to name a few.
Any product or process is ‘green’ if the emission of carbon
dioxide which is a greenhouse gas is minimal during its fabrication and usage,
it has consumed minimum of non renewable resources including energy and water,
it has been made of recycled materials, it is recyclable after its useful life,
it has utilized local resources, it respects other forms of life during its
formation, usage and disposal. Going by
this definition, there are shades of ‘green’ or degree of greenness. Getting
completely green product or process is a mirage. A glossary of common green vocabulary
is as follows.
A green economy is
one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while
significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. The three
pillars of a green economy are reduction in carbon emissions, improvement in resource
efficiency and social equity.
Employment in low carbon sector is termed as green jobs.
Green sources of energy are those which are relatively free from the emissions of Greenhouse
gases like carbon dioxide. The emission of carbon dioxide is negligible for
renewable sources of energy like hydro, wind or Solar as well as for Nuclear
energy. It is however to be noted that
renewable sources of energy are not fully green. The devices and technologies
like water turbine, wind electric generator, solar cells etc. which are used to
harness renewable energy, consume lots of conventional energy while fabrication
and installation. This is known as their embodied energy. They become green
only when they payback this energy. The issue of hazardous wastes makes Nuclear
energy less green.
A green building
depletes the natural resources to a minimum during its construction and operation.
Green architecture is a wide ranging concept including solar passive design to
minimize HVAC load, utilization of building materials having low embodied
energy, recycled material and efficient water, waste and energy management
during entire useful life of the building.
Green transport
encompasses improving public transport system, running trains and other
vehicles on biodiesel and ethanol, promotion of solar cars and battery operated
vehicles and promotion of non-motorized transport like pedal bicycles. The
ultimate green transport could be vehicles run on hydrogen as it produces water
on combustion instead of carbon dioxide.
Green buildings and green transport leads to green cities. The main features of a
green city are that each house is to be built or retrofitted on solar passive
concepts, is to be provided with solar water heaters, has renewable energy based power generation
plants, harvests rainwater, resorts to wastewater recycling etc. A green city
has well developed rapid mass transport system and cycling and pedestrian tracks.
The green city also has efficient waste collection and utilization system. The
waste is segregated as biodegradable, non-biodegradable and toxic at household
level and collected and disposed or reused likewise.
Green agriculture
focuses on no-till farming, organic fertilizers, natural pesticides, rain water
harvesting and drip irrigation.
Green Chemistry is the design of
chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use and generation
of hazardous substances. It is an emerging philosophy which aims to protect
environment by inventing new chemical processes that do not pollute. Anastas
and Warner have proposed twelve principles of Green Chemistry which are now
seen as a precursor to clean and green Pharmaceuticals.
Green engineering
could be thought of as the transformation of existing engineering disciplines
and practices to those that lead to sustainability The basic principles of
green engineering include life cycle thinking in designing engineering
products, minimization of depletion of resources including energy, proper
handling of waste etc.
Green technology
is intended to solve some of the environmental problem or at least should
perform better than alternative ‘nongreen’ technologies. Nanotechnologies for
providing energy, clean water and a good environment in a sustainable way are
termed as Green nanotechnology.
Green electronics
means design of energy efficient, safer electronic products with longer
lifespan and recyclability potential.
Green washing is the practice of making an
unsubstantiated or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a
product, service, technology or company practice. So beware of green wash.
