What is green business?

The term “green business” is used in discussions of businesses and business practices which are viewed to be environmentally sound. In the early 21st century, many companies began capitalizing on growing consumer desire for sustainable business by “greening” their practices to make them more environmentally friendly, and a number of entrepreneurs sometimes known as ecopreneurs opened businesses with a green slant. Today, green business is an extremely profitable branch of the business world, and it hosts a range of companies, from prestigious multinational companies to small, locally based companies.
A sustainable 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.” It is the process of assessing how to design products that will take advantage of the current environmental situation and how well a company’s products perform with renewable resources
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.
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 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.
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. [Sources: www.wikipedia.org, www.wisegeek.com, www.sempergreen.com]