Sustainability Flashcards
”.. a form of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs”
From a 1987 report, Our Common Future, by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland.
Sustainability
A three-dimensional framework for sustainable development proposed in 1994 by Task Group 16 of the International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction.
Framework for Sustainable Development
One of the three dimensional framework for sustainable development. These are the characteristics:
Reduce resource consumption
Reuse resources
Recycle resources for reuse
Protect Nature
Eliminate toxics
Apply life-cycle costing
Focus on quality
Principles
One of the three dimensional framework for sustainable development. These are the characteristics:
Land
Materials
Water
Energy
Ecosystems
Resources
One of the three dimensional framework for sustainable development. These are the characteristics:
Planning
Development
Design
Construction
Use & Operation
Maintenance
Modification
Deconstruction
Phase
A broad philosophy and social movement that advocates or works to protect and sustain natural resources and ecosystems from pollution and its effects, esp through political activism and education.
Environmentalism
The preservation, protection, or restoration of natural resources, ecosystems, and their habitats for the future.
Conservation
The branch of biology that deals with the relations and interactions of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings.
Ecology
The study of the interaction of people with their environment and institutions.
Human Ecology
A system formed by the interaction of biological community with its physical environment.
Ecosystem
The variety of life in a particular habitat or ecosystem, often used as a measure of its health; greater biodiversity implies greater health.
Biodiversity
The branch if science dealing with the occurence, distribution, and circulation of the earth’s water, esp its movement in relation to land.
Hydrology
The wastewater produced by toilets and urinals.
Blackwater
The relatively clean wastewater generated from such domestic activities as dishwashing, bathing, and laundry, which can be recycled on-site for flushing toilets and landscape irrigation to reduce the consumption of fresh water.
Gray Water
An undeveloped or underdeveloped site, either left to nature, used for agriculture, or considered for commercial development.
Greenfield
An abandoned or previously used industrial or commercial site whose future use is affected by real or perceived environmental contamination.
Brownfield

The gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth’s lower atmoshphere and oceans since the mid-20th century, due to an increase in the greenhouse effect resulting from the burning of fossil fuels and emission of greenhouse gases.
Global Warming
Any of a number of gases in the earth’s atmosphere, such as methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), and ozone (O3), that absorbs and emits thermal radiation. While the presence of some naturally occurring greehouse gases is required to contain the heat necessary for life on earth, increased production and buildup of greenhouse gases by human activities can contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming.
Greenhouse Gas, GHG
A hydrocarbon deposit, such as oil, coal or gas, formed in the geological past from the remains of living organisms and now burned for fuel. Fossil fuels release energy upon burning, when the carbon and hydrogen within them combine with the oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide (CO2), or carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O). Other elements within the fules, such as sulfur or nitrogen, are also released into the air after combining with oxygen, causing further pollution with SO2 and nitrogen oxide gases.
Fossil Fuel
Global warming that results when some of the infrared radiation passing through the atmosphere is absorbed and reemitted by greenhouse gas molecules and water vapor in the atmosphere, raising the temperature of the lower atmosphere and the earth’s surface.
Greenhouse Effect
A measure of the greenhouse gases produced by human activities involving the burning of fossil fuels.
Carbon Footprint
A term describing any of a number of practices that neither contribute to nor reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. These practices are generally designed to balance the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere with similar amounts that are recaptured through the use of renewable nergy, sequestered by carbon projects, or offset by buying carbon credits.
Carbon Neutral
Natural energy resources, such as solar, wind, wave, tidal, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy, that theoretically can be replenished by natural processes at the same rate as it is used. While striking an appropriate, cost-effective balance between energy conservation and generating renewable energy is the goal, minimizing energy use is a necessary first step, irrespective of the fact that the energy may come from renewable resources.
Renewable energy
The radiant energy emitted by the sun, including ultraviolet radiation, visible radiation, and infrared radiation. The energy from the sun can be used for passive heating, daylighting, hot-water heating, and generating electricity with photovoltaic (solar cell) systems.
Solar Energy, Solar Radiation















