What Does it Mean to Shop Green?

Shop green. Build green. Heat green. Use green energy. Give green gifts. What exactly does it mean to be green?

There are two important distinct aspects to being green and two distinct groups for whom being green is vitally important. As with many things, the aspects and groups are not necessarily mutually inclusive at all times. The one aspect has to do with sustainability and the other with toxicity. The one group is those whose focus is the health of the planetary system, the other is individuals with health concerns.

Green is the contemporary term describing ecological awareness and pro-activism. Once, the vernacular for ecological living included words like subsistence, organic, the old stand-by recycling, conservation. Now these terms are mostly subsumed under the one term "green," which also encompasses a much wider array of concepts than was included before.

"Green" means the use of products and materials that originate from low-carbon impact, sustainable, cruelty-free, non-toxic sources. The objective is to leave the smallest footprint on the ecological systems that give us life, shelter, energy, productivity and enjoyment. The objective is also to quickly replenish the sources, or resources, in the ecological capital that we draw from so that the next and the next and the next, etc. generations of goods, energy and services are easily and readily sustained. Along with these objectives comes the concern, relatively new to main stream conservation thought, that the productivity and sustenance of our lives not come at the cost of cruelty to other lives, be it human or animal life.