Emerald green is Pantone's top color of 2013

Emerald is no longer green with envy. The rich, vibrant shade is Pantone LLC's Color of the Year for 2013, beating out all the other shades of the rainbow.

The company, which creates and matches colors for the fashion, home and beauty industries, among others, picks its top hue based on both how it's already being used and a prediction of sustained popularity. Green's time had come, says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of Pantone's research arm known as the Pantone Color Institute.

"The entire green family has been so strong, upcoming through the '90s as we're paying attention to nature, so the family isn't new, but what we needed to look at and revisit was the psychological background: Emerald is such a balanced color, and balance is something to pick up on and listen to," she explains.

Eiseman adds, "It's a color of growth, renewal, healing, unity and regeneration -- words we're all so in need of at this point of history."

Colors rise and fall in popularity just like other style-centric trends, says Eiseman, but she thinks green has staying power like few others. It has taken on meaning as a noun and a verb as well as an adjective.

"It might have been a trend, but it has become a social cause so it's just part of our world. ... Kermit said it's not easy being green, but it became easier once it became a good thing to be green."