Sustainable products are those products that provide environmental, social and economic benefits while protecting public health and environment over their whole life cycle, from the extraction of raw materials until the final disposal.
According to Belz, Frank-Martin., the definition of sustainable product has six characteristics:
Customer satisfaction: any products or services that do not meet customer needs will not survive in the market in a long term.
Dual focus: compared with purely environmental products, sustainable products focus both on ecological and social significance.
Life-cycle orientation: sustainable products are environmentally-friendly throughout their entire life. That is, from the moment the raw materials are extracted to the moment the final product is disposed of, there must be no permanent damage to the environment.
Significant improvements: sustainable products contribute to dealing with socio-ecological problems on a global level, or provide measurable improvements in socio-ecological product performance.
Continuous improvement: as the state of knowledge, technologies and societal expectation continually develop, sustainable products should also continuously improve with regard to social and environmental variation.
Competing offers: sustainable products may still lag behind competing offers, therefore, the competing offers may serve as a benchmark regarding social and ecological performance.
Michael Braungart and William McDonough's book Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things expands on the life-cycle part of this definition. They suggest that every material and product should be made in a manner that when its useful life is over, all the materials of which it is made can be returned to the Earth after composting, or endlessly recycled as raw materials.
Product information can enable, facilitate, require or support consumers or other buyers and importers to identify sustainable products or sustainability of products.
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Green brands are those brands that consumers associate with environmental conservation and sustainable business practices. Such brands appeal to consumers who are becoming more aware of the need to protect the environment. A green brand can add a unique selling point to a product and can boost . However, if a company is found or perceived to overstate its green practices its green brand may be criticised as greenwash. Ethical consumerism has led to an increase in green brands.
Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that claim reduced, minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment. Companies use these ambiguous terms to promote goods and services, sometimes with additional, more specific certifications, such as ecolabels. Their overuse can be referred to as greenwashing.
Sustainable living describes a lifestyle that attempts to reduce the use of Earth's natural resources by an individual or society. Its practitioners often attempt to reduce their ecological footprint (including their carbon footprint) by altering their home designs and methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. Its proponents aim to conduct their lives in ways that are consistent with sustainability, naturally balanced, and respectful of humanity's symbiotic relationship with the Earth's natural ecology.
The first part of the course (~20%) is devoted to green chemistry and life cycle assessment.The remainder focuses on process intensification (fundamentals, detailed description of a few selected te
Le cours présente les enjeux liés à l'alimentation: production durable, sécurité alimentaire, sécurité sanitaire et liens entre alimentation et santé. L'approche interdisciplinaire intègre les SHS et
Le cours présente divers enjeux liés à l'alimentation: production durable, sécurité alimentaire, nutrition et santé, enjeux sociaux et culturels. L'approche interdisciplinaire intègre les SHS et les s
Covers the concept of Life Cycle Analysis, its importance in decision-making, environmental impacts, and sustainable production.
Explores greenwashing in plastic packaging on daily life products and the challenges in recycling plastic waste.
By Prof. Julia Steinberger delves into the socio-political aspects of energy transition, discussing sustainable consumption, human needs satisfaction, and rebound effects.
In transitioning toward a sustainable economy, mycelial materials are recognized for their adaptability, biocompatibility, and eco-friendliness. This paper updates the exploration of mycelial materials, defining their scope and emphasizing the need for pre ...
Aip Publishing2024
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This paper presents a geometry-driven approach to form-finding with reused stock elements. Our proposed workflow uses a K-mean algorithm to cluster stock elements and incorporate their geometrical values early in the form-finding process. A feedback loop i ...
Springer2024
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Advancing towards alternative technologies for the sustainable production of hydrogen is a necessity for the successful integration of this potentially green fuel in the future. Photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting are promising concepts ...