Environmentally friendly (also eco-friendly, nature friendly, and green) are terms used to refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies claimed to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment.^[1] Companies sometimes use these terms to promote goods and services by making environmental marketing claims and with eco-labels. The term sometimes is used as greenwashing.

Because there is no accepted definition nor international standard for this concept, the International Organization for Standardization considers such labels too vague to be meaningful.^[2]

Regional variants[link]

Europe[link]

A sewage treatment plant that uses solar energy, located at Santuari de Lluc monastery.

Products located in members of the European Union can use the EU's Eco-label pending the EU's approval.^[3] EMAS is another EU label^[4] that signifies whether an organization management is green as opposed to the product.^[5] Germany also uses the Blue Angel, based on Germany's standards.^[6]

North America[link]

In the United States, environmental marketing claims require caution. Ambiguous titles such as environmentally friendly can be confusing without a specific definition; some regulators are providing guidance.^[7]

The United States Environmental Protection Agency has deemed this language useless in determining whether a product is truly "green".^[2]

In Canada, one label is that of the Environmental Choice Program.^[6] Created in 1988,^[8] only products approved by the program are allowed to display the label.^[9]

Oceania[link]

The Energy Rating Label is a Type III label^[10][11] that provides information on "energy service per unit of energy consumption".^[12] It was first created in 1986, but negotiations led to a redesign in 2000.^[13]

International[link]

Energy Star is a program with a primary goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.^[14] Energy Star has different sections for different nations or areas, including the United States,^[15] the European Union ^[16] and Australia.^[17] The program, which was founded in the United States, also exists in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Taiwan.^[18]

See also[link]

Environment portal

References[link]

Annie Williams (born 1942) is a water-colour artist who won the 2009 Turner Watercolour Award ^[1]

Born in London, the daughter of artist Ivor Williams and Elizabeth Pocock, she grew up in Wales and trained and worked as a nurse before studying Fine Art at City and Guilds from 1966 to 1969.

Her later work has been almost entirely still-life. She enjoys playing with shapes, pattern and colour, mixing the familiar with some abstraction, and precision with suggestion. Her foregrounds are a few simple objects, usually pots, and backgrounds are created from textiles or old newspaper cuttings, and even some unfinished paintings as a starting point.

She has had one-woman shows at the Baker Tilly Gallery, Grape Lane Gallery and University of Warwick. Awards include a travel scholarship to Florence, The Artist Magazine Award at the Mall Galleries, and various awards from the RWS open exhibition 21st Century Watercolour. Annie is a Member of the Royal Watercolour Society and a senior fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. She has regularly exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

References

1. ^ http://www.royalwatercoloursociety.co.uk/member.aspx?memberid=543