The 3 Goals Of Green Technology (and how to achieve them)

The main goals of green technology are of 3 types: environmental, economic, and social. This means that the 3 key objectives of green tech are to:

1. Reduce the environmental footprint of human activities
2. Be economically viable and profitable
3. Improve the quality of life in harmony with nature

Those technologies are helping to achieve sustainable development by acting on all the 3 ps of sustainability: people, profit, and planet.

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The 3 primary goals of green technology

What are the goals of green technology?

Green technology aims at improving our quality of life while respecting the environment. This of course needs to be economically viable as well.

That’s why green tech is so important to improve the actual facts about sustainability. Because it is only thanks to those technologies that we will be able to reach sustainable development.

In what ways can technology help us achieve sustainability?

The goals of green technology are aligned with the 3 pillars of sustainability, helping us to reach that sweet spot where human development is ethical and in harmony with nature.

Thanks to the increased environmental awareness and the benefits of green tech this industry has been thriving and attracting huge investments and capital. Leading also to social benefits thanks to a large number of jobs created. Those are certainly some great green technology goals to achieve.

Here are the 3 objectives of eco friendly technology!

1. Reduce the environmental footprint

The first objective of green technology is to help us protect the environment and conserve natural resources.

That’s why we call them “green” tech after all!

Distinct types of green technologies may pursue different goals for the environment:

• Repairing the damages done to our planet in the past – Cleanup our oceans from plastics, preserve biodiversity, restore forests, carbon capture to reduce global warming, and so on.
• Reducing the use of natural resources – Renewable energy, digital technologies, hydroponics (see also hydroponic vs aeroponic farming), improving production efficiency thanks to the benefits of Industry 4.0, and much more.
• Reducing waste and emissions – Biogas, plant-based packaging, reducing CO2 emissions, etc.

There are many green technology examples showing how is possible to pursue those goals and help us preserve natural resources and pursue environmental sustainability.

2. Economic viability

Economic viability is another important goal of green technology. Because tech should be sustainable to be effective long term, and this can’t happen if it isn’t economically viable and profitable.

Profitable green tech companies will attract more capital and investments. This will help further the development of the technology and accelerate mass adoption, maximizing the benefits for the environment and society.

Governments can also contribute with grants and funding to help green tech companies to get started, but in the long run, the tech has to be economically viable and profitable to get mass adoption.

3. Improve the quality of life

Among the goals of green technology, improving the quality of life is also important. Because if green tech improves our well-being, it will be more valuable and easier to adopt.

For example, technologies used in sustainable agriculture, like integrated pest management and crop rotation are reducing the need to use pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Thanks to those, it is possible to produce food of better quality while also reducing the environmental impact.

Green technologies are contributing to social sustainability by creating new jobs and improving our social wellbeing.

How To Achieve The Goals Of Green Technology?

The best way to reach those green tech goals is to leverage 2 things:

• The right mindset
• Both the latest and ancient technologies

The green tech mindset: the secondary goals of green tech

The goals of green technology can be achieved by first of all changing our mindset and keeping in mind the 6 Rs of sustainability. This is so important and, unfortunately, mostly overlooked.

The 6 Rs of sustainable development can also be interpreted as secondary goals of green technology, those are:

1. Rethink – Remove the preconceptions and think: “Do we really need this?” if yes, then think “can we do this differently and in a more eco-friendly way?”. This stimulates creativity, a crucial ingredient to create new green technologies.
2. Refuse – Refuse to use materials that are not environmentally friendly. This helps to think out of the box and for sure it will be possible to find some eco-friendly alternatives.
3. Reduce – Look for ways to reduce waste and the use of natural resources. Being efficient is a must for green tech.
4. Reuse / Renew – Can you reuse some old components or waste for your product? For example, it is possible to reuse some organic waste to produce eco-friendly packaging.
5. Repair – Make sure that your green tech product is easy to repair. This helps extend the lifespan of the product and reduces waste.
6. Recycle – The benefits of recycling and very important and recycling is key to reducing waste and pollution. If possible, use recycled materials and make your product easy to recycle. Avoid rare or exotic materials and make sure that your product is easy to disassemble. Cardboard recycling is a nice example of this.

Those 6 steps are an excellent framework to help us achieve the goals of green tech by stimulating our lateral thinking and creativity.

Motivation and the right attitude towards the environmental problems we are facing are also crucial and reading some sustainability quotes can truly help to get the right mindset.

Leveraging new and ancient technologies

When thinking about how to achieve the goals of green technology, the first thing that comes to mind is often related to advanced tech. However, it is not always necessary to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes ancient tech coupled with modern systems can offer us amazing green solutions.

For example, one of the alternatives to concrete is rammed earth. This is an ancient construction methodology that can be used to reduce our use of concrete and be more eco-friendly: a perfect example of ancient green tech that is still relevant today.

On the other hand, advanced digital transformation technologies and industry 4.0 are offering incredible solutions to make our production lines much more efficient: less waste, more productivity, reduced costs, and much more. Those technologies were not available before in the history of the industrial revolution and we should leverage them to speed up our progress towards sustainable development.

Conclusion

Thanks to green tech this decade will mark the shift towards sustainable development. Getting our mindset right is the first step to achieving the 3 important goals of green technology:

• Environmental Goals – Reduce waste, CO2 emissions, preserve natural resources, reduce the use of fossil fuels, reduce the use of plastic and repair the environmental damages made in the past.
• Economic Goals – Green-tech needs to be profitable and economically sustainable to attract the necessary investments for its development. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores help investors to evaluate the best-performing companies for long-term sustainability.
• Social Goals – Improve the quality of life, with better food, clean air and water, access to good healthcare, and much more.

For those reasons, many green tech projects tend to focus on things such as sustainable energy, clean water, green IT, sustainable agriculture, waste reduction, saving energy, green tourism, and sustainable manufacturing.

I’m sure that green tech will be able to achieve its goals and help us to live more sustainably, respecting the environment and avoiding waste. But let’s not forget that we all have to do our part and start getting a more sustainable lifestyle right now!