Green:
Qualities or actions that have little or no negative effect on the natural environment and usually have a positive effect on the environment.
Recycled:
Manufactured from used or waste materials that have been processed for further use.
Alternative or Renewable Energy:
Sources of energy that cannot be used up and usually contribute little to greenhouse gases. This includes solar, wind, geothermal, biomass (plants) and photovoltaic conversion systems. This excludes fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum.
Biofuels:
Motor fuels made primarily of recently-dead plant material harvested for the purpose. This is different from fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, which are derived from long-dead biological material. Biofuels can reduce carbon in our atmosphere, thus helping counter climate change.
Greenwashing:
Greenwashing is a term that is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices.
Fair Trade:
An organized social movement that promotes the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods.
It’s simple. No one human becomes obscenely rich by making another human disgracefully poor.
Fair trade advocates create opportunities for economically disadvantaged producers- they generate payment of a fair price, enforce gender equality where men and women are properly valued and rewarded, implement safe and healthy working environments for producers, and are required to follow environmental protection guidelines.
Composting: Biological decomposition of organic materials such as leaves, fruit and vegetable peelings, etc. by bacteria, fungi, and other organisms into a soil-like substance used to enrich garden soils. This enrichment nourishes the soil and helps increase moisture retention, thus reducing the need for more water. REC or Green Tag: Source: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Unfortunately, the benefits of fair trade are not reaching all fair trade farmers because of insufficient demand for their crops. Producers sell an average of 20% of their crop at fair trade terms; the rest goes through the world market at much lower prices. That is why we need to build a market for fair trade in the U.S.
For an item to be considered fair trade certified in the U.S., a certification system was designed to allow consumers to easily identify goods which meet those standards. Products that bear the "Fair Trade Certified" label, like our Peace Coffee, guarantee that every step of the product's production has followed the international fair trade criteria.
Organic:
Foods raised without the use of artificial input such as synthetic pesticides and fertilizers, antibiotics, animal byproducts and sewage sludge. Regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
REC is an acronym for Renewable Energy Certificate. When electricity is generated using renewable resources instead of fossil fuels, REC's (Wind and Solar) can be sold separately from electricity so consumers use more "green" energy.
Carbon Footprint:
An estimate of how much carbon dioxide an entity (person, family, building) produces and releases into the atmosphere.
Carbon Offsetting:
Activities that help offset or make up for the production of carbon dioxide.
Ecological Footprint:
Is the measurement of the human demand on nature, such as human consumption of natural resources compared to the ability to reproduce or replace some of those resources.