Ideally, a zero-waste supply chain that completely reuses, recycles, or composts all materials. However, the term can also be used to refer to corporate take-back programs, where companies that produce a good are also responsible for its disposal.

The goal of developing products and services, managing their use and deployment, and creating recycling systems and markets in order to eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials and conserve and recover all resources. Implementing zero waste eliminates all discharges to land, water, or air that may be a threat to planetary, human, [...]

The process of satisfying the benefits of a product with a service. Often, services can offer the same activities to customers as some products. Transmaterialization requires the rethinking of business goals and objectives in order to envision new market opportunities. However, some customer sectors may not be ready or willing to accept new solutions (such [...]

A term used to illustrate the conflict between individual interests and the common good, based on the assumption that when individuals use a public good, they do not consider the impact – or externalities – of their use on the good itself; as a result, public resources become overexploited. The term was popularized by Garrett [...]

A way of looking at the way change happens in the world, put forth by Malcolm Gladwell in his bestselling book, The Tipping Point . The book contends that ideas, behaviors, messages, and products spread through society similar to disease, and that societal changes are like epidemics: a tiny force can cause enormous shifts. The “tipping point” [...]

A global water circulation system driven by water temperature and salt-density that distributes water between the Earth’s oceans. Warmer water closer to the ocean’s surface travels from the northern Pacific Ocean, south through the Indian Ocean (where it is joined by more warm water), around the southern tip of Africa, and up to the northern Atlantic [...]

Made of highly stable materials which can be used again and again, technical nutrients are designed to be retrieved and reused within the closed-loop cycle of sustainable manufacturing.

A network of individuals or organizations that performs the functions of procurement of materials; transformation of these material into intermediate and finished products; and distribution of these finished products to customers.

The process of developing products, services, and organizations that comply with the principles of economic, social, and ecological sustainability. There are many principles of sustainable design, including a customer-centric approach, dematerialization, transmaterialization, and biomimicry.

A concept under development by Woody Tasch, Chairman of Investors’ Circle. Inspired by the mission of the Slow Food Movement, Tasch considers that “fast” money investments (such as venture capital) is expected to return a profit quickly but is rarely invested long enough to create sustainable ventures. This is especially true of early-stage companies in [...]

Often, the most sustainable option is to reuse materials and objects already manufactured, either for their original or new purposes, rather than recycle them into other products. This decreases further energy and materials use in recreating them into a new form.

Any material or energy that can be replenished in full without loss or degradation in quality.

One of the most sustainable strategies is simply to reduce the amount of energy and materials we use and, thus, are required to be manufactured. This reduction has an exponential effect as it further reduces packaging, recycling, transportation, cleaning, disposal, and a host of other costs.

Recycling is the process of reclaiming materials from used products or materials from their manufacturing and using them in the manufacturing of new products. It is different from Reuse, where products are not destroyed and remanufactured but cleaned and repaired to be used again, also known as remanufacturing. Another strategy to use resources more efficiently [...]

A contraction of “permanent agriculture,” coined in 1978 by Australian ecologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Permaculture is an approach to developing ecological human habitats and food production systems that use land sustainable and build communities that harmonious integrate dwellings and agriculture in regard to climate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water use. [...]

Investment strategies that provide social and environmental returns in addition to financial returns with an emphasis on returns over the long-term. While a longer investment horizon and/or a smaller financial return may be inherent in individual patient capital investments, neither of these conditions are required of patient capital investments.

In regards to food (both plant and animal) and other agricultural products (such as cotton), a term describing the absence of pesticides, hormones, synthetic fertilizers and other toxic materials in cultivation. In some countries, “organic” has a legal definition. For example, in the USA, it is defined in the Organic Food Production Act of 1990 and [...]

The saving of a megawatt of power by reducing consumption or increasing efficiency.