GEF

Unit 10  |  Toward a Sustainable Future 217 As consumers, we can make an effort to buy products that have a posi- tive impact on sustainability. More visible than the practice of purchasing local goods is the explosion of green products . Green products, or products said to be sustainable, are sold everywhere, from supermarkets to gas stations to convenience stores. Accurate figures are difficult to come across, but global green product sales have been estimated at over $400 billion annually by the Natural Marketing Institute. Thousands of products and services rang- ing from furniture to clothing to dry cleaning have the green label. But, there is no standard for labeling a product as green. Many products marketed as green may not be any more sus- tainable that similar unlabeled items. Some of the methods for developing truly green products include using less packaging, featuring sustainable ingredi- ents, and incorporating recycled materials. Many designers create products that use less packaging, an important goal given that on average, each American throws out nearly three hundred pounds of packaging per year. Some companies take this process a step further by creating reusable substitutes for disposable products, such as stainless steel water bottles instead of plastic bottles. Other green products feature natural GREEN PRODUCT A product presumed to be environmentally safe or sustainable.