Alternative Fiber
Anything that can be used as a substitute for paper or pulp including:

• Bamboo
• Agricultural residues (materials left over from the production of another crop) including banana stalks, sugarcane, flax, and cereal straws.
• Fabric scraps including rags, recovered denim, and recovered currency.
• Fiber crops including amie, sisal, abaca, industrial hemp and kenaf.

Bamboo
An alternative to wood. Generally, bamboo is more renewable than wood because it is a fast-growing grass/reed. Care should still be taken when shopping for bamboo products because many cheaply made bamboo items are coated with toxic finishes. Please note: It is not environmentally responsible to replace existing wood floors with bamboo floors.

Biodegradeable
A material or substance which will decompose quickly and without harmful effects to the environment, when left exposed to nature.

Carbon Footprint
The total set of greenhouse-gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it.

Carbon Neutral
This refers to an entity achieving net zero carbon emissions. This can be accomplished by:

• “Cancelling out” the CO2 released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, by producing an equal amount of energy through renewable sources.
• Using only renewable energies that don’t produce any carbon dioxide.
• The practice of carbon offsetting (see below).

Carbon Offsetting
The “cancelling out” of one’s carbon emissions by investing in carbon projects. Carbon projects are business initiatives that receive funding because of the decrease in greenhouse-gas emissions that will occur as a result. Carbon offsetting can also be done with the purchase of carbon credits.

Certified Organic
The certified organic label is regulated by the USDA and indicates the absence of most conventional fertilizers and chemicals. In order to be certified, a processed product (something that contains more than two ingredients) must have at least 95 percent organic material.

Chlorine-Free
A product that is manufactured without chlorine. Chlorine and its derivatives (such as chlorine dioxide) are the most common bleaching agents used by the pulp and paper industry and are quite harmful to the environment, particularly the aquatic environment. 

Co-op
The abbreviation for co-operative. Worker cooperatives are owned and democratically controlled by its workers. Since the co-op is worker-owned and membership is not compulsory, this type of manufacturing set-up avoids exploitation of its workers.

Eco-friendly
An alternative to goods usually bought in most stores. These products are made with ecology and the environment in mind.

Energy-Efficient
Products and systems that use less energy to perform as well or better than standard products. While energy-efficient products sometimes have higher up-front costs, they tend to cost less over their lifetime when the cost of energy consumed is taken into consideration.

Fair-Trade Federation
An association of fair-trade wholesalers, retailers and producers that adhere to social criteria and environmental principles that foster a more equitable and sustainable system of production and trade.

Green Seal Certified
Green Seal is an independent nonprofit that promotes the manufacture, purchase, and use of environmentally responsible products. The seal accredits everything from hand soap to hotels.

LEED Certified
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building rating system, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), provides a suite of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. The USGBC recently added LEED ratings to neighborhood design as well.

Local
Generally refers to products grown within a 100-150 mile radius of where they’re being sold.

Natural
This generally refers to a product that has no artificial colors or flavors, but the term can be misleading because it isn’t certified or regulated.

Recycled
A recycled-content product is an item that contains recovered materials. Recovered materials are wastes that have been diverted from conventional disposal such as landfills for another use. Recovered materials include both pre-consumer and post-consumer wastes.

Renewable
A raw material that can be replenished within a reasonable amount of time. As an example, bamboo and sustainably-harvested woods are renewable. Gold and precious stones are not renewable.

Sustainability
Sustainability, in general terms, is the ability to maintain balance in a system. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems. In an ecological context, sustainability is the ability of an ecosystem to maintain ecological processes, functions, biodiversity and productivity into the future.