CP is now an international term that means reducing environmental impacts from processes, products and services by using better management strategies, methods and tools. It encompasses Eco-Efficiency which is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution.

Realistically, production cannot be perfectly clean, and CP does not deny growth; it merely insists that steps be taken to make production ecologically sustainable over the long term, and that often leads to greater profitability.