Background
Green business is an enterprise that has minimal negative impact on the global or local environment, community, society, or economy. It is the business that strives to meet the triple bottom line which is called the three Ps: people, planet, and profit.
A green business is any organization that participates in environmentally friendly or green activities to ensure that all processes, products, and manufacturing activities adequately address current environmental concerns while maintaining a profit. In other words, it is a business that “meets the needs of the present world without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.”
In order to be considered a green business, a company must use practices which are viewed as sustainable and environmentally friendly. These practices might include the use of organic and natural products to build its factories, tighter protections against emissions, and environmentally responsible sourcing of supplies. For example, a green clothing business would seek out organic, fair-trade cotton to promote an environmentally friendly image, and it might have a factory with a living roof, or power gained from solar panels. Many green businesses are also concerned about human and animal exploitation, and they make an attempt to create cruelty free products and to pay their workers well in addition to providing them with benefits.
The goal of a green business is to keep its environmental footprint small, reducing waste and reusing materials as much as possible. Many use innovative building techniques for their facilities which are designed to promote energy efficiency, along with building materials which are environmentally friendly like panels fabricated from recycled materials. These companies also encourage their workers to think about the environment when they generate printed material and think about new products.
A green business can sell all sorts of things. Many car manufacturers, for example, have green model factories and offices to convince their target consumers that they are concerned about the environment. Many green businesses also offer green products, ranging from composting toilets to green architecture. When a company offers environmentally products, many consumers also assume that the company itself is environmentally responsible, as its products reflect a concern about the environment.
Businesses take a wide range of green initiatives. One of the most common examples is the act of "going paperless" or sending electronic correspondence in lieu of paper when possible. On a higher level, examples of sustainable business practices include: refurbishing used products (e.g., tuning up lightly used commercial fitness equipment for resale); revising production processes in order to eliminate waste (such as using a more accurate template to cut out designs); and choosing nontoxic raw materials and processes.
In general, business is described as green if it matches the following four criteria:
1. It incorporates principles of sustainability into each of its business decisions.
2. It supplies environmentally friendly products or services that replace demand for non-green products and/or services.
3. It is greener than traditional competition.
4. It has made an enduring commitment to environmental principles in its business operations.
The success of green business has shown that it is economically feasible and in fact very sensible to do business in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way. It has also encouraged the growth of initiatives which are designed to benefit the environment, from carbon trading to tax breaks for people who make energy-efficient modifications to their homes.