Beware of greenwash! Be aware of 'Green'

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.