All cards Flashcards
Aarhaus Convention
Entering into effect in 2001 among EU countries, and drafted by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), this agreement guarantees the rights of individuals – independently and collectively – to live in “an environment adequate to his or her health and wellbeing.” This includes the “rights of access to information, public participation in decision-making, and access to justice in environmental matters.”
ABCD Planning Method
The Natural Step (TNS) provides a strategic planning tool for sustainable development, based on the work of Karl-Henrik Robert. This tool developed to help plan in complex systems entails four steps: Awareness and visioning, Baseline mapping, Creating solutions, Decide on Priorities.
Adaptation
This is a tool used to address negative social or environmental impacts, by developing new, more effective ways of functioning after a change has occurred.
Adaptive management or Adaptive Resource Management (ARM)
A systematic process of continuous improvement where policies and practices are improved and adapted based on learning from previous outcomes.
Additionality
In the carbon offset market, this test answers the question: Are the GHG reductions a direct result of the project being sold? If, all else being equal, the project reduces GHG levels, then the project passes this test.
Agenda 21
A non-binding action plan for sustainable development adopted at the Earth Summit, it provided a wide-ranging blueprint to drive sustainable development around the world.
Ambient air quality
Measured at ground level, away from direct sources of pollution, this refers to the level of pollution found in outdoor air. Poor air quality is associated with heart disease, lung cancer, respiratory diseases and stroke.
Annex 1 Parties
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change defines these entities as industrialized nations (previously OECD members) and economies in transition (EIT). These countries are taking on emissions reduction obligations.
Anthropocene
The proposed epoch in Earth’s history that begins around the time of Industrial Revolution when human activities began to have a significant impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystems.
Anthropogenic
The effect of human activity on climate change.
Arab Spring
Sparked by a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire in December. of2010, this refers to a period of uprising across the Arab world. Years of economic inequality, high unemployment, and political disenfranchisement came to a heard when millions of Arab people protested and rioted, demanding political, social, and economic justice.
B Corp Certification
A certification scheme for a for-profit company whose mission aligns with creating a better society and has met the sustainability standards developed by B Lab. Their rigorous standards address social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Note that, some certified companies have legally organized themselves as “benefit corporations”./
Backcasting
Unlike forecasting based on data about what has already happened, this planning approach beings with the end in mind. Central to The Natural Step framework, planners first envision the desired future state, then build a strategy that will lead to the desired outcome.
Balanced Scorecard
A strategic framework used to align business practices with TBL goals, improve stakeholder communications, and monitor performance.
Balancing loops
These are also known as negative feedback loops, and have a stabilizing effect, creating resistance, eventually limiting growth or collapse.
Base year
In corporate GHG accounting, this is a specific year (or an average over multiple years) against which an organization’s impacts are tracked over time.
Baseline
This term refers to emissions levels represented by the status-quo-ante in GHG Project Accounting. To evaluate project additionality (including GHG emissions reductions, removals, or storage), a project accountant develops various scenarios against this point in time.
Benefit Corporation
A legal entity tat may (or may not) be a Certified B Corporation. Directors of this corporate type are required by law to consider the impact of their actions on all stakeholders, rather than their stockholders alone. In most cases, they must publicly disclose their social and environmental performance, assessed against a third-party standard.
Bhopal chemical leak
Occurring in December of 1984, this disaster took place at the Union Carbide (now Dow Chemical) pesticide plant in central India. A half-million people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas.
Biodiversity
This term refers to the full range of life forms on earth – their species, genetic, and ecological diversity.
Biodynamic agriculture
A holistic, ethical, and ecological approach to farming that strives to regenerate the soil and ecosystem.
Biofuel
A liquid fuel, derived from plant matter (biomass), which is used for transportation. There are three formulations. Ethanol is an alcohol, fermented from high carbohydrate biomass. Biodiesel is made from a mixture of alcohol and vegetable oil – sometimes recycled cooking oil. Biogas is a gaseous fuel, produced from either anaerobic digestion or gasification. Sources of biogas recovery include landfills, livestock operations, and waste treatment plans.
Biomimicry
An approach to product design and innovation that emulates nature’s patterns and strategies to find sustainable solutions to human challenges.
Bioremediation
Introducing microbes and other biological organisms to rehabilitate environmentally contaminated sites.
Bottom of the Pyramid
A term used to describe four billion people who live in poverty and have been mostly un-served or underserved by the private sector. Contrary to conventional wisdom, these people are resilient entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers who can partner with business to eradicate poverty.
BREEAM
A TBL procurement, design, construction and operations assessment that evaluates a building construction project against performance benchmarks. Assessments are performed by independent auditors.
Brundtland Commission
Publisher of “Our Common Future” in 1987, the UN’s World Commission on Environment and Development got its moniker from its Chairwoman, Gro Harlem Brundtland, ex-Prime Minister of Norway.
Business Model
The business structure of an organization, its purpose and method of making money.
CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Economy)
Standards that set the average fuel economy for new vehicles that a manufacturer’s fleet must achieve, originally established by the US Congress for cars and light trucks, in the 1970s, in response to the Arab oil embargo. In 2007, updated legislation raised the standards for cars, light trucks and SUVs. Current standards must be met at maximum feasible levels through 2030.
Cap and trade system
An emissions trading scheme, whereby lower emitters sell permits to excessive emitters so they can stay within their regulatory emissions cap.
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)
A set of technologies used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it, long-term, deep underground. Designed to reduce the climate impact of gas- and coal-fired power plants.
Carbon credits
Instruments used to trade carbon emissions among parties in either the voluntary or compliance markets.
Carbon cycle
Carbon is the building block of life on Earth. When nature is in balance, carbon flows cyclically between each of the “spheres” – the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.
Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Formed through cellular respiration, the decomposition of biomass, and combustion, excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect. This is one of the greenhouse gases that nations are required to track under the Kyoto Protocol. According to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) it has a global warming potential of 1.
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)
The universal unit of measurement expressing the global warming potential (GWP) of greenhouse gases. It is used to compare the radiative force of a GHG to CO2.
Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)
Also known as Carbon Engineering, this technology is used to counteract the greenhouse effect and ocean acidification by removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Multiple technologies have been proposed, such as afforestation, biochar, carbon capture, and sequestration.
Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP)
Drives the disclosure of measurement information to improve the way companies manage their environmental risk over the long-term. They work with nearly 1,000 institutional investors to report Climate, Water, and Deforestation impacts, as well as, the performance of Supply Chains. In addition, their public sector program works with cities, states and regions to improve environmental performance.
Carbon footprint
The total GHG emissions from fossil fuel use.
Carbon offsets
A mechanism employed by businesses to meet their carbon reduction goals. Purchasing carbon credits equivalent to emissions generated by operations allows businesses to offset their impacts and meet their reduction goals.
Carbon sequestration
Through the process of photosynthesis, trees, grasses, and other plants take up atmospheric carbon dioxide and store the carbon in their trunks, branches, foliage, roots, and soil. Over millennia, the biomass fossilizes and converts to coal and other fossil fuels.
Carrying capacity
The maximum population that can survive indefinitely on the available resources and services.
Caux Round Table (CRT) - Principles for Business
These provide “a worldwide vision for ethical and responsible corporate behavior and serve as a foundation for action for business leaders worldwide.”
Caux Round Table (CRT) - Principles for Government
These are based on the idea that “the expectation that better government supporting the entrepreneurial endeavors of socially responsible businesses around the world will generate greater investment of private capital to create more wealth for poor people.”
Ceres Principles
A global coalition of investors and environmental and social advocacy groups supporting investment, policy, and business leadership in order to promote sustainability.
Certified Emission Reduction (CER) units
Qualified emissions reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
Chemicals of Concern
Everything containing matter is made up of chemicals – in liquid, gas, or solid form; natural and manmade; pure or mixed. The majority of chemicals pose no risk to humans or the environment, but those that could potentially cause harm are considered hazardous. Depending on the harmful properties of these they are regulated in order to protect human and environmental health.
Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC)
A family of chemicals that are nontoxic and nonflammable that are used by industry in such applications as aerosols, solvents, and refrigerants. One example, Freon (CHC-12) was used for decades in refrigerators, freezers and air conditioners. Because they react with the upper atmosphere, they have a high ozone-depleting potential (ODP) and are therefore banned under the Montreal Protocol.
Circular economy
An approach to business and sustainable development that replaces our “take, make, waste” economy with one that continuously reuses outputs, adding only those inputs derived from exclusively renewable sources.
Clean Air Act (CAA)
Passed in 1972, this act protects human and environmental health from the effects of air pollution. Over the years, it has been used to cut ozone, sulfur, and nitrogen dioxide in order to address acid rain, and remove lead from gasoline. In 2007, the US Supreme Court upheld the EPA’s ability to regulate GHG emissions under this legislation. This action made it possible for the US to drive clean energy efforts despite political opposition.
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
A mechanism established by the Kyoto Protocol designed to encourage project-based emission reduction activities in developing countries. Purchasing the CERs produced by these projects allows Annex 1 countries to meet their reduction commitments.
Climate change
While weather refers to atmospheric conditions over short periods of time, climate is the long-term behavior of the atmosphere – an accumulation of weather over time. Although daily weather may appear relatively constant, incontrovertible scientific data shows that Earth’s climate is changing. The result is an increase in severe weather events, drought, changes in ocean chemistry, and rising tides.
Climate-neutral
Another term for net-zero
Cogeneration
Also known as combined heat and power (CHP), this is the process of capturing and using waste heat, a byproduct of burning fuel for electricity.
Communication on Progress (COP)
At a minimum, signatories to the UNGC must produce one of these each year. The document reinforces corporate commitment to the UNGC and describes the measurable results of actions taken over the prior year.
Community Capital
This type of capital includes all the “natural, human, social, and built capital from which a community receives benefits and on which the community relies for continued existence.”
Comprehensive Assessment System for Built Environment Efficiency (CASBEE)
This is a Japanese rating system for evaluating the environmental performance of the built environment. The program provides tools for assessing the environmental performance of housing, commercial buildings, neighborhood, and cities.
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA)
Passed in the wake of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, this act, provides a US Federal “Superfund” for hazardous-waste cleanup. It also empowers the US EPA to seek out responsible parties and assure their cooperation in the cleanup.
Conference of the Parties (COPs)
The supreme decision-making body comprised of the parties that have ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Conflict Minerals
Refers to the trade in non-military goods, the income from which is used to fund wars and helps to perpetuate human rights abuses. Used in the context of central Africa, tin, tungsten, and tantalum (the 3Ts) plus gold comprise these goods.
Consumptive use
Refers to water that is removed from the environment through either evapotranspiration or consumption.
Coral bleaching
This phenomenon results when resident algae die, due to changes in environmental conditions (e.g. temperature, light, nutrients), causing them to be expelled from their hosts.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
This term refers to the business practice of focusing on activities affecting the triple bottom line interests of all stakeholders.
