Glossary of Green Words and Phrases - Green marketing

Here are 10 steps you can implement to green your mailings to reduce waste, while improving deliverability, effectiveness and response.

Carbon footprint

A measurement of the effect an action has on the climate in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases it produces. Greenhouse gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorocarbons, directly contribute to the global warming effect. On average, each American sends 20 tons (40,000 pounds) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year.

According to environmental scientists, the world population collectively needs to reduce their carbon footprint by 60 percent to 80 percent to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations to halt the environmental chaos that is now beginning to occur because of global warming.
 

Carbon offsets

These are measures (like tree planting or investing in wind farms or geothermal energy markets) sold to companies and individuals to balance out the carbon dioxide their actions have let loose into the atmosphere. Find out more at www.carbonfund.org. 
 

Carbon tax

A proposed venture that would charge a tax on carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels, including gas for driving and fuel for air travel. So far, this is just an idea proposed by various environmental advocates. More information can be found at www.carbontax.org. 
 

Carbon Neutral:

Reducing energy use and compensating for the amount of carbon dioxide an entity generates through either obtaining energy from renewable sources or offsetting.
 

Zero-Carbon Buildings:

There are no emissions of carbon dioxide at all from any of the systems and appliances in these structures.
 

Zero-Energy Buildings:

These structures incorporate systems to both generate and conserve energy, so net energy consumption over a period of a year is zero.
 

Sustainability

This concept concerns how we should live now to preserve the world’s resources for the generations after us. This means using methods of farming, home building, and generating electricity that don’t rely on exhaustible resources — like coal or oil — and can be used endlessly into the future.