What is 'green consumption'?

Green, a symbol of life, good health, and vigor, is also a color that reminds us of hope. All around the globe, the word is associated with energy conservation and environmental protection.

The term “green consumption” covers a full range of activities in both production and consumption fields, including green products, the recycling of materials, the efficient use of energy, the protection of the environment, and the preservation of species.

Specialists of environmental protection have agreed upon a definition of green consumption as the five “Rs”: reduce, reevaluate, reuse, recycle, and rescue. In China, however, another definition emerged in the new millennium.

According to the Chinese, green consumption is a principle with three implications. Under this principle, people are encouraged to choose green products that are unpolluted or good for public health, wastes are to be treated under special surveillance to avoid pollution, and public understanding of consumption is to be changed so as to raise people’s awareness of a healthy lifestyle, environmental protection, and energy conservation in their pursuit of a comfortable life. The ultimate goal is to achieve sustainable consumption in the country. Besides our own demands for consumption, safety, and health, we should also take the needs of our descendants into consideration.