Thank you for reading the first blog article from my eco comms business🙂

I thought it was nicely appropriate to go back to basics with this first topic. Not about me, but about the vast number of eco terms that are thrown around – and what they really mean. 

Enjoy the read.

Here are my chosen eco terms

• Firstly, ecological/eco – a commonly used term (also by me!) – What is the good old internet saying?
  • The dictionaries. Funnily enough, the well-known dictionaries provided the least insightful definition (if you’re interested you can read one of them here).
  • I like the definition by vocabulary.com – to the point and very easy to understand: “the study of how living things and the environment do their thing… how plants and animals relate to each other, in good and bad ways, in specific environments.” Then it goes on to say “Just about anything people do has an ecological impact – for better or worse.” This sounds like a marriage, and I suppose it really is…
  • The Ecological Society of America, the people here obviously know their thing: “the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment; it seeks to understand the vital connections between plants and animals and the world around them.”
  • So, the aim of ‘ecological’ is to consciously live in better harmony with nature. We can all do this by just being more aware and trying out more eco-friendly habits

• Next up is ‘green’ – this is the most instantly recognisable way to talk about ecological practices. The colour prompts us to think about nature automatically
• This takes us to ‘net-zero’ – the UN explains it well: “cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible, with any remaining emissions re-absorbed from the atmosphere, by oceans and forests for instance.” This is what The Paris Agreement is all about
  • The University of Oxford talks about our collective action to ‘go net zero’: “to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and/or to ensure that any ongoing emissions are balanced by removals”

• Durability works in the long term – it’s about strong and lasting things
• Sustainability takes durability to a bigger-picture level. It looks at meeting human needs whilst respecting our planet. Here, an interlinked mix of 1) the environment, 2) people (fairness) and 3) economic development play into each other
  • As a side note our actions can both positively and negatively impact our planet – we need more climate champions🙂(sources: UN and Clarify Green) 
• Fair trade ⚖ – focuses on people. To make trade better for people, where producers in developing countries have safe working conditions, a fair wage, get a fair price for their goods and have more control themselves (Fairtrade International).
  • But climate change and natural disasters severely impact developing countries. The producers have to deal with a harsher landscape that results in failing crops. They have to adapt, which means learning new techniques in a different climate
• Environmentally friendly – this is all about not harming nature and actively helping to do positive things for the environment
• Climate – this is defined as “the long-term pattern of weather” in an area (National Geographic)
• Natural resources – our planet is actually one big natural-resource treasure
  • We should not forget that our natural resources are finite and that we live in these limits (Greentumble)
• Conservation – protecting what there is already – in the eco sense this focuses on the environment and our planet’s natural resources
• Greenwashing – making bigger environmental claims than the reality or giving misleading information. Investopedia has a clear definition. The EU will ban greenwashing/false climate-neutral claims in a new law (by 2026)

The most talked about: Climate Change

What does this actually mean? The definition is simple: the change in weather and temperature over time. Climate changes naturally but very slowly. Since the industrial age we have massively sped up the process by our greenhouse-gas-producing actions (UN). We talk a lot about harmful climate change. This relates to the excess polluting gases that can’t be removed naturally by our wonderful nature, which warms up our planet at an alarming rate and endangers all life – including our own!

There you go, that’s my list of eco jargon – for today at least.

I’ll leave you to consider which climate term you think about the most, and what you (or your business) already do to help the climate movement.

See you at the next chapter!🙌