When you go to the store, have you noticed that many products now have a pattern-environmental label? Environmental labels, also known as eco-labels or green labels, are graphics affixed to products. Environmental labeling is different from general product trademarks. It is a special product label that is linked to environmental protection. The environmental label indicates that the product is a green product, and that the entire process from production to use and recycling meets the requirements of environmental protection, is harmless to the ecological environment and human body or causes minimal damage, and is conducive to the recovery and reuse of resources.
The environmental labeling system is implemented so that when people choose products, in addition to considering the price and quality of the product, they should also consider whether the product has any adverse impact on the environment. The increasing promotion of environmental labels can further enhance consumers' environmental awareness, which in turn prompts manufacturers to pay more attention to the development and production of green products. Surveys show that 40% of Europeans prefer to buy products with environmental labels. More and more people have realized the importance of environmental protection. For the sake of health and protecting the natural environment, people would rather spend more money and buy green products with environmental labels. For their own benefit, companies also display their technologies in environmental protection to promote product sales.
The strengthening of consumers’ awareness of environmental protection will also prompt companies to pay attention to environmental issues during the production process and reduce harm to the environment.
Currently, people are carrying out a "green revolution" in traditional production processes, which has triggered a series of changes in product consumption. "Green marketing" has rapidly emerged and become popular all over the world. In the entire "green marketing" system, environmental labeling is a very important part.
The first country in the world to use environmental labels is Germany. In 1978, Germany implemented a program called "Blue Angel". Relevant departments issued environmental labels to 3,600 products, indicating that these products were pollution-free and green products. In our country, the green environmental labeling system was officially implemented on May 27, 1993. Now our country's green products are developing rapidly. Why is green GDP a new measure of development? GDP is the English abbreviation of "Gross Domestic Product", which refers to the final results of the production activities of residents of a country or region within a certain period of time (usually measured in years). In traditional economics, it is the most basic aggregate indicator for measuring the production of a country or region.
However, this scale seems unreasonable because it does not take into account the environmental costs a country or region pays for economic development. For example, diseases increase people’s medical expenses and pollution increases. This reduces governance costs, etc., which in turn promotes GDP growth. In addition, the current GDP indicator cannot reflect the loss and depletion of natural resources in the process of economic development. A country or region may have a "deficit" of ecological resources, but it does not affect its calculated GDP. For example, of two countries with rich forest resources, one creates value by cutting down timber, while the other creates wealth through forest tourism and rattan handicrafts. The former destroys the ecology, while the latter protects the ecology. If their GDPs are the same, can we say that the development of the two countries is the same? Obviously not, because the former consumes resources at the expense, which will lead to ecological deterioration and a decline in people's quality of life, which is unsustainable development; while the latter uses resources rationally and Maintaining a good ecological environment is sustainable development. Therefore, using GDP alone to measure development is not enough and can easily lead to the one-sided pursuit of GDP and intensify the damage to the environment.
The development we need is comprehensive and coordinated development of economy, society and ecology, and is sustainable development. Therefore, consideration should be given to integrating natural capital with holistic measures of sustainability to provide a “green” measure of economic development. "Green accounting" can be expressed in the form of green GDP or green net national product. In "green accounting", the GDP value must not only reflect the depreciation of capital reserves, but also changes in environmental quality, such as air pollution, water pollution, and soil erosion.
The "Agenda 21" adopted by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 marked that human society will enter the era of green technology with "protecting nature, advocating nature, and promoting sustainable development" as its core. As people's understanding of green technology, green products and green lifestyles increases, green GDP, green net national product, etc. will also become a new measure of development.
Currently, people are exploring the formulation of an indicator system that can fully reflect the idea of ??sustainable development. For example, in 1995, the World Bank developed a new calculation method for assessing the wealth of countries based on the idea of ??sustainable development. It is calculated comprehensively from three aspects: natural capital, output capital and human capital. According to this statistical method, our country ranks 31st from the bottom among 192 countries in the world, mainly because of our lack of natural resources (natural capital accounts for only 8% of our country’s wealth in the new statistical results) and huge population. Therefore, our country's future development must utilize our limited natural capital in the most effective way, and we can no longer exchange high GDP growth at the expense of high resource consumption and high environmental pollution.