Sustainable products, components and material are all items that:
contribute to a cleaner environment, don’t cause any harm to people or reduce poverty in
developing nations.
With regard to the environment, a sustainable item is any item
which causes a reduction in GHG emissions as compared to the emissions caused when a product
is produced in an ordinary fashion. A reduction is caused by, for example, production with
clean energy, active waste management policies, fewer or better resources, longer product
life cycles and so on.
Avoiding harm to people means avoiding
poor working conditions such as long working hours and payment below minimum wage. But it
also means avoiding exposure to toxic materials and gasses such as lead, cadmium and
mercury.
A reduction in poverty means promoting suppliers
established in developing countries, which either employ impoverished people or are
impoverished themselves. The definition of poverty is not being able to provide for the
primary necessities of life including healthcare and education.