Greening pursues the preservation and protection of bio-diversity and natural habitat. The term is derived from ecology, the science of interactions between living things and their environment.
In politics, greening is understood to mean environmentally sound design, especially in decisions for planning and the economy. For example, in 2015, the EU introduced a direct payment scheme intended as greening. This should reward farmers for management practices that positively impact soil quality and biodiversity. The purpose was to improve the environmental and climate performance of the EU’s common agricultural policy. However, this measure was found to be ineffective by the Court of Audit in 2017.
For companies, greening means considering the entire value chain from procurement to production to sales from an ecological perspective. Thus, ecological procurement should not only be cost-oriented in the conventional sense, but also take into account goals such as resource conservation and optimal recycling.
Management must base its operational and strategic planning not only on the market, but also on environmental regulations.
Production processes should be designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible, and the use of raw materials and energy should be reduced in an ecologically sensible and cost-saving manner as part of the production process.
The problem, however, is that there is currently no international framework for the greening of farms. This strongly inhibits the development.
