Road to Environment Sustainability with Green Technologies

Industrial pollution control has been a major concern for various business units in the global arena including India. There are many initiatives on safeguarding the lives of future generation by carrying out commercial activities that ensure sustainability.   

Science and Technology have been exploring various technologies that could produce goods with least pollution and for efficient diffusion into the society.  

Today social pressure is working towards evolving environment-friendly technologies for sustainable development. The alarming increase in the level of pollution forced the governments all over the world to make laws to minimize it.  

This grave rise to the birth of Green/Clean Technology and Green Chemistry, the terms “Green” relates to environment-friendly objects and “Technology” means the application of knowledge for practical purposes. Since Green chemistry involves new methodologies hence green chemistry or technology means the same in broader sense.  

Green technology applies environmental sciences to conserve the natural environment and resources and by curbing the negative impacts of human involvement. It is a continual process of the development of materials and methods for generating energy to give non-toxic products.  

It is believed that clean technology will bring results of similar magnitude to that of information technology and will revolutionize the ecology and the life of humanity to a new horizon.   

Representative Image (Source: Gogreencyclopedia)  

Let’s talk about some expected goals from these green or clean technologies which are mentioned below for your information.  

Sustainability:   

It will help to meet the present needs of society without compromising the needs of future generation.  

Source Reduction:  

Emphasis is laid here on ‘atom economy’ so that the waste generated (by-products or unreached reactants) are minimum in the reaction technology.  

Cradle to Cradle Design:  

The Product obtained by the green technology should not have any toxic effects on the environment. On the contrary, if any by-products are obtained they should be used in other processes.  

Innovation:  

This technology will look into the alternatives to the existing technologies which are harmful to human health and environment, for instance; these days a lot of research is being done on biofuels which can be used instead of existing fossil fuels causing global warming.  

Viability:  

The technology used should not only be environmentally friendly but also at the same time be economical to enhance its implementation.  

The focused areas covered under the green technologies are – Energy, Green Buildings, Environmental Preferred Purchasing, Green Nanotechnology and Green Chemistry.  

Energy:  

This is one of the most important areas of green technology which lays emphasis on opportunities for development of future alternative fuels and sustainable technologies for generating energy.

Green Buildings:  

This includes the substances used as building materials and the location of the building. The green building concepts are getting momentum in urban areas.  

Environmental Preferred Purchasing:  

This is targeted mainly on the ‘government purchasing’ where care should be taken to avoid buying of toxic substances. The proper attention also needs to be taken while purchasing the house-hold items to safeguard our house and its surroundings.  

Green Nanotechnology:  

Nanotechnology means when the materials used are reduced to the nanoscale. The application of clean technology to hand scales will bring a lot of development changes.  

Green Chemistry:  

It involves modified engineering practices, bioremediation, eco-friendly reaction media, and the concept of atom economy leading to almost zero waste.   

There are two types of clean technologies: control and prevention. Clean technologies are established in preventive actions aimed at reducing the use of toxic materials, eliminating waste during manufacturing industries, the reducing waste generated, among other preventive actions.   

These clean technologies also include prevention technologies used to produce goods and services that do not destroy the environment.  

Going Forward  

The need to establish a sustainable environment has been the bigger focus in the modern business arena because of the impacts of stresses caused on the environment through all commercial and non-commercial activities carried out by individuals and organizations.  

The initiatives taken on clean technologies worldwide might not ensure salvation from all environmental problems because of low dose, but it gives confidence that such initiatives are moving in the right direction.