A process is green when it follows Earth's example of ecological contribution.

To be green a process must embody Earth’s pattern of concentrating matter and dispersing energy to cyclically enrich the diversity and awareness of the system of which it is a part.

As we become more and more aware of the ecological degradation caused by our modern age, we long to amend our ways. Of all our ecological crises, plastic pollution is particularly representative of our challenge. As a fossil-fuel by-product, plastic embodies both Earth’s multi-billion year pattern of ecological enrichment and our modern pattern of ecological depletion. By retracing plastic’s primordial and modern stories, we can observe the sharp contrast in each’s patterns of process. In particular, the ways in which Earth’s spiraled its matter inwards and energy outwards to unfurl ever greater vitality, diversity and consciousness whereas our modern civilization has spiraled matter outwards, energy inwards to unfurl just the opposite. Learning from cultures and creatures that have long embodied Earth’s pattern to master their own ecological integration, we can amend our metaphysics to recognize ecological contribution as a basis for an ethic of green. Then, and only then, can we step forward with bold green enterprises that operate in cycles of enrichment, that declare their for-Earth intention and that raise the awareness of all those they touch. Starting with our plastic, we can follow Earth's example in this way to ensure that our enterprises systematically enrich the ecosystems of which they are a part.