Our current era will undoubtedly be marked by technology’s arrival and fast-paced evolution, as well as by the dire consequences that poor resource management has brought about for planetary dynamics. This little musing is but the result of an emerging phenomenon that we like to call “environmental consciousness” and which we could define as the human ability to understand nature and the importance of using it and preserving it responsibly. Consumption of natural resources, as one would expect, is as old as the world itself, since humans have always made use of all that nature has to offer. Nevertheless, in the past few centuries, we could say that the development of technology and its indiscriminate use have caused hefty losses to the environment. One that is easy to recognize is the extinction of animal species, which is driven by the mass hunting of species with commercial purposes, such as the monk seal in the Caribbean, which is sought after for its skin, or the Western black rhinoceros, whose horns are endowed with healing properties. In addition to this reality, whereby with each passing year more animal species are declared extinct, there are other activities that are detrimental to our planet’s health at various levels, such as pollution (which releases harmful gases into the atmosphere), the uncontrolled exploitation of non-renewable resources (oil extraction) and, of course, the lack of action by the competent bodies, which seem to be aggravating the situation and taking us further away from finding a potential solution in the short term.
Confronted with this situation, many institutions are making an effort to raise awareness about our current circumstances. Little by little, information is being disclosed so that everybody can better understand the importance of the environment and the need to preserve nature, as well as persuade key organizations to use their privileged stance to foster environmentally-friendly policies that also combat climate change, which are among the direst consequences whose long-term outlook for the planet looks quite bleak. In fact, we could say that environmental consciousness is starting to take hold across many fields in society, and that is now taken into account both at governance levels (the types of energy we use, how we use resources), at socioeconomic levels (companies are doing their best to show their commitment to the environment, holding different events to keep raising awareness) and at an individual level (we are more ecological consumers and we now pause and reflect a lot more on the impact of our lifestyle on the environment). This evolution has led to the genesis of a brand-new environmental sector, in other words, a group of industries whose shared objective is to protect the environment, mitigate those emissions that are harmful to the planet and ensure a greener future for us all.
This is a highly interdisciplinary sector which in turn generates a huge amount of cross-language work since there is worldwide interest in being kept in the loop about the latest breakthroughs concerning environmental affairs. In this manner, international players can continue on their path towards a more ecological and sustainable future and official organisms can have any pertinent files localized in their language. For this reason, it is essential for companies that include the environmental factor in their commercial activities to count on the professional advice of translation agencies that are sensitized and have the most suitable profiles to carry out localizations in this field, respecting their specific needs.
Environmental translation is present throughout a large number of expert fields that generate different types of text. On the one hand, we can find a vast array of documents belonging to the scientific field, since they are responsible for studying the evolution of ecosystems and how different factors have an impact on them, as well as the potential answers to confront these situations. As such, potential texts belonging to environmental translation include climate protection reports, product diagrams and technical specifications, feasibility studies, EU guidelines, installation manuals, policies or training materials, as it is no longer conceivable to launch a new product without carrying out an analysis of both its short and long term impact. On the other hand, we can observe a huge boom in environmental translation in the field of dissemination and advertising, as motivating people to take action individually has become indispensable, in addition to boosting a new consumption style that is more environmentally-committed. With this end in mind, a variety of materials are generated that seek to increase empathy and foster interest, including advertising campaigns, web copy and product descriptions, among others.
Therefore, for companies that seek to expand beyond national borders with their products by pursuing a strategy that leans towards environmental sustainability, hiring the services of translators who are specialized in this field is essential. This will enable companies to obtain localized products that are better suited to their target audiences in a world where foreign words are increasingly adopted due to a lack of professionalism when it comes to content localization.
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