Unfortunately, there are companies that take advantage of this term, applying it to products that aren\u2019t truly eco-friendly. This article details what it means for incense to be eco-friendly and how to determine where to locate such incense. <\/p>\n\n\n
![\"Is](\"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Is-Incense-Eco-Friendly-800.jpg\")
What Makes a Product Eco-Friendly?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Eco-friendly products are those that are not harmful to the environment. But beyond the product itself being unharmful, the materials that the products are made with and the process used to make them also help preserve and\/or renew environmental conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earth-friendly products typically help conserve precious resources like energy and water while producing little to no waste. During the production process, there\u2019s hardly any contribution to land or water pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eco-Friendly Materials<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Products that are eco-friendly are also sustainable. Consideration for the environment and the people and other living organisms in those environments is the main idea behind sustainability. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Products that are made from recycled materials are an example of sustainability because they reduce waste. Materials that are reused leave less of a carbon footprint as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another example of an eco-friendly material is one that\u2019s biodegradable. Instead of piling up in landfills, these products are broken down by living organisms or bacteria. Plant-based ingredients like wood and plant matter are biodegradable.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This quality can also extend to packaging. Packaging made with biodegradable materials<\/a> decay naturally without causing harm to the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n International efforts, like those of the United Nations<\/a>, promote sustainable forest management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the fifteenth of their seventeen goals, to: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProtect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.\u201d<\/p>\nUnited Nations Sustainable Development<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n With regards to incense, aromatic woods and resins comprise a large portion of ingredients used to make natural incense. So one way to determine whether an incense brand is eco-friendly is to inquire about their forest management and wood harvesting. <\/strong>Do they engage in reforestation? Are they responsibly harvesting wood or collecting driftwood? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more: Is Incense Made of Dung<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Shoyeido<\/a> <\/strong>is \u201cfully compliant with international regulations governing the export of agarwood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nippon Kodo<\/strong><\/a> actively participates in reforestation of wood sourced from Southeast Asia. They also engage in conservation efforts to protect the environments they source their materials from. This company also uses eco-friendly raw materials<\/a> – floral elements, woods, resins, and gums that all support a healthy ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Companies can incorporate environmentally friendly efforts into their product production process in a number of ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some practices include efficient use of electricity and water.<\/strong> Use of materials that won\u2019t produce or in this case, emit toxins into the environment. Also avoiding the use of machinery that releases toxic gasses and such into the air or water are eco-friendly practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gonesh fitted their factory roof<\/a> with solar power in order to use less electric energy. Use of solar panels also reduces carbon emissions<\/a> as it\u2019s a form of renewable energy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For a factory as large as Gonesh<\/a>, these efforts can potentially have a significant positive impact to our ecosystem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nippon Kodo implements a very basic drying process<\/a> and implement more carbon emission reduction goals<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They use minimal packaging and recycled materials when possible. They also educate their staff about ways to minimize the effect that their production process and daily practices have on the environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Because \u201ceco-friendly,\u201d \u201csustainability,\u201d \u201cgreen\u201d and similar words are increasingly popular (and profitable) marketing terms, greenwashing has also been dominating marketing tactics used to mislead customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As this Forbes article points out<\/a> customers are willing to pay more for products that are marketed as being more conscious, whether it is healthier, socially responsible, or safer to use. But not all companies implement industry-specific interventions.<\/strong> Some use the language without having a clear plan in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)<\/a>, determining whether or not a product is \u201cgreen\u201d or eco-friendly is not a straightforward process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They list eight factors that come into play:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Contribution to air quality is one of these factors. In a study conducted by the EPA,<\/a> incense was found to contribute to poor indoor air quality. But it\u2019s not clear which incense brands were tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nippon Kodo shared results<\/a> from a safety standard chemical substances review<\/a>. So if possible, it would help to find information like this from the company that makes the incense brands you use the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Green Built Alliance<\/a> has a list of really helpful questions to ask when trying to determine if a company truly implements eco-friendly practices.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Several questions particularly relevant to incense are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I invite you to visit their website for the more detailed list of questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Investopedia offers additional insight. Their list of questions can help you distinguish an eco-friendly product from one that might be greenwashed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Straightforward language is a primary factor.<\/strong> If a company claims that your purchase was made using recycled materials, for instance, it should be clear exactly what materials were reused. The product itself? The packaging? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another distinguishing factor is the way that environmental benefits are explained. If there\u2019s a lot of hype or ambiguous language, then you might want to pause and do more research before making that purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organic recycled flowers are one of the primary ingredients used to make these incense sticks. In India, flowers are dumped into the river after religious ceremonies. BRAHMAS reduces river pollution<\/a> by recycling these flowers to be used as incense ingredients.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n They remove insecticides and other toxins from the flowers, and then incorporate them into their incense paste. This is just one of the ways that this company accurately markets a truly \u201cgreen\u201d product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When searching for eco-friendly incense, you may not find one company that meets all of your standards. But there are a few companies that seem to come close. Another point is that this is a very short list of companies that I\u2019ve come in contact with. There might be many more brands out there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These four brands have been previously mentioned in the article. The first three have both materials and manufacturing processes that are eco-friendly. Gonesh only has eco-friendly manufacturing processes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Satya Bengaluru<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n An additional brand is the Bengaluru-based Satya incense company. It produces certified green products. (You can read more about the two Satyas here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some key points:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not always easy to determine whether the incense you use is eco-friendly, but there are clues that you can look out for and questions you can ask about the brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n To get started, you can try brands like Nippon Kodo<\/a>, Shoyeido<\/a>, and Brahmas as eco-friendly incense options.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In our current climate where preserving the environment is increasingly important, it makes sense to learn whether the home fragrance products you use are eco-friendly. As with most products, some<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5918"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7861,"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5918\/revisions\/7861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/UN_Sustainable-Development-Tweet.jpg\")
\n
Eco-Friendly Materials Incense Brand Examples<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Eco-Friendly Production Process<\/h3>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/housefragrance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Eco-Friendly-Production-Process-800.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nEco-Friendly Production Process Incense Brand Example <\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Beware of Greenwashing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
Brand Example of True Green Marketing: BRAHMAS<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Which Brands Produce Eco-Friendly Incense?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
In Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n