Limits vs Win-Win
Both green and sustainable practices represent an incredibly diverse set of ideas and techniques. Generally speaking, the difference between them comes down to their approach to people.The activities of people are the cause of environmental problems. In other words, if people didn't exist there wouldn't be an environmental crisis. In some cases, green approaches recommend limits to population, economic growth and consumption. Sustainability is far more focused on quality of life as measured by people's self-reported happiness. People have a tendency to want to grow and be prosperous. As such, sustainability typically embraces economic growth. Sustainability looks for win-win scenarios that allow communities to grow while driving their impact on the environment towards zero.The difference between the two approaches comes down to limits. The Earth's resources are surely limited. In some cases, green advocates scaling back economic activity. Sustainability tends to be on the side of expanding activities in a way that has far less impact. Technological progress created environmental problems and could potentially solve them. The rapid advancement of technologies such as solar panels is a prominent example. If technology were used to reduce human impact as opposed to rapidly expanding it, communities could have economic growth while saving the world. At least that's the idea.| Green vs Sustainable | ||
Green | Sustainable | |
Definition | Practices that address environmental issues often with the goal of reducing environmental impacts to zero. | Practices that improve quality of life and address environmental issues. |
Prioritizes | Planet | PeoplePlanet |
