While I’m reading through some “green” articles lately, I’ve come upon some new words or terms. In this post, I’m attempting to add clarity by defining trending green words and terms.
This page will be a living document, meaning that as I come across new or trending green words or terms, I will add them here.
Biodegradable
Biodegradable and compostable are similar and often used interchangeably. However, these two words don’t exactly mean the same thing. Biodegradable is the natural break down of organic matter by micro-organisms. See “compostable” further down this list.
Circular Economy
This Circular Economy concept is new to me. A circular business model is one whose goal is to reduce waste and pollution. It’s a business model that employs the “reduce, reuse, recycle” concept.
Compostable
We covered biodegradable a few words up. Compostable is human-led biodegradation.
I’m linking to an interesting article by Citzensustainable that covers the compostable vs biodegradable very thoroughly. You might find it interesting.
Greenwashing
The term Greenwashing is a popular one lately. Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing scheme used to push products that seem to be green or eco-friendly but are not. Buyer beware!
Fairtrade
Fairtrade is a movement that aims at improving social and environmental standards while obtaining fair prices for producers in developing countries. Look for fairtrade marks on chocolate bars, coffee and even bananas.
Organic
The word organic is overused. It can mean so many things. From someone who comes from a science background, I always thought of the word “organic” as something that could decay, as in “organic matter”.
Organic also refers to farming practices. In this case, they refer to a standard of farming that doesn’t utilize pesticides and other harmful chemicals. You’ll see vegetables, fruit, wine and even clothing labelled as “organic” therefore referencing the farming practice.
The word organic is attributed to so many other non-green terms as well, such as organic traffic (google analytics), organic shapes (art), or even referring to organs.
Restoration
I put Restoration as a word in on this page because it’s something I actually studied, Ecosystem restoration. The word restoration can refer to restoring furniture, which would be essentially bringing a piece back to its former glory.
When you think in terms of ecosystem restoration, the pure form of the meaning would be to restoring it to its initial state. The less pure sense of Ecosystem Restoration would be to bring it back to a stable, eco-balanced state, to conserve it or even to protect it from further damage.
Sustainable Fashion
Sustainable fashion and slow fashion are synonymous. I have a whole post dedicated to what is sustainable fashion and why you should care.
To sum up the post, sustainable fashion is not buying into the latest fads, considering the source of the materials that make up the garments, buying what you need only, buying second hand when you can, mending what’s torn and taking care of your garments.
Upcycle
Upcycling is the art of turning waste, something old or useless into something new and purposeful.
Wellness
Wellness is synonymous with health and fitness. It’s about feeling good, or being in good health. But for me, wellness can be broader than physical health, it can mean financial well being and good mental health as well.
Sources: wikipedia.org, https://www.merriam-webster.com/ , https://citizensustainable.com/biodegradable-vs-compostable-examples/
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