General Environment

The general environment market includes services, products, equipment and technologies capable of mitigating environmental damage and reducing or minimizing the environmental impact resulting of the environmental release of gas, liquid and solid wastes and byproducts resulting from human development of the environment, human populations, or other forms of economic and industrial activities. Various associated markets in renewable energy (RE), sustainable materials, energy efficiency (EE), and alternative resource and energy source utilization technologies are also considered under a broader conceptual “environment market” otherwise synonymous with public and industry terminology as the “green industry” or “green market”.

Examples of products and materials under the general environmental market include green building materials, sustainable and renewable-sourced materials (like bioplastics), alternative resources like shale gas, bitumen, oil sands, biomass and biological wastes, infrastructure and equipment for the recycling of waste products and unused industrial materials and chemicals, equipment used to capture and prevent the release of environmentally harmful emissions and wastes like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, sulfur dioxide, methane, CFCs and substances directly harmful to biological life, and equipment used to remediate, restore, and protect environmental resources like water and air.

With centralized governments, urbanization and modernization, regulatory controls are increasingly effective through enforcement and have helped steer investment in the mining, oil & gas, utilities, chemicals, manufacturing, defense and government sectors and industries towards products and services included under the general environment market. Consequently, the total market volume and revenue under various general environment market products and services has increased significantly in regulated markets like the US, EU and increasingly Asia.