CSR Glossary
Anthropogenic - resulting from the influence of human beings on nature and often used in this context - anthropogenic global warming which has been caused by human activity.
BICEP - Business for Innovative Climate & Energy Policy. An advocacy coalition of businesses committed to working with policy makers to pass meaningful energy and climate legislation that will enable a rapid transition to a low-carbon, 21st century economy that will create new jobs and stimulate economic growth while stabilizing our planet’s fragile climate.
Biomimicry - Biomimicry is derived from Greek: bios - life, and mimesis - imitation.
1. Nature as model. Biomimicry is a new science that studies nature’s models and then imitates or takes inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems, e.g., a solar cell inspired by a leaf.
2. Nature as measure. Biomimicry uses an ecological standard to judge the “rightness” of human innovations. After 3.8 billion years of evolution nature has learned: What works. What is appropriate. What lasts.
3. Nature as mentor. Biomimicry is a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It introduces an era based not on what we can extract from the natural world, but on what we can learn from it.
(from: Biomimicry - Innovation Inspired by Nature, by Janine Benyus, p. xi. HarperCollins, NYC, 1998)
CDP - Carbon Disclosure Project. Voluntary database of companies who report the risks and opportunities posed by their CO2 emissions and reduction measures.
C2C - Cradle to Cradle, a closed-loop concept of material recycling (as opposed to cradle-to-grave). See: “Cradle to Cradle - Remaking the Way We Make Things”
Carbon Footprint - the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person.
Another widely accepted definition of carbon footprint:
A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions of a defined population, system or activity, considering all relevant sources, sinks and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the population, system or activity of interest. Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential GWP.
Carbon Sink - an absorber of CO2 such as forests or oceans.
CCS - Carbon Capture and Sequestration (or Storage) refers to technology attempting to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries by capturing CO2, transporting it and ultimately, pumping it into underground geologic formations to securely store it away from the atmosphere.
CDP - Carbon Disclosure Project. Representing over 500 institutional investors (with a combined $71 trillion under management), CDP is an independent not-for-profit organization holding the largest database of primary corporate climate change information in the world. In 2008, it published the emissions data for 1550 of the world's largest corporations, accounting for 26% of global anthropogenic emissions.
Ceres - Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies provides guidelines to companies and investors for protecting our biosphere.
CO2e - CO2 equivalent. A way of expressing total GHG emissions after normalizing the quantities and each gases’ effects (GWP) to be expressed relative to CO2. CO2e, or carbon dioxide equivalent, is a standard unit for measuring carbon footprints. The idea is to express the impact of each different greenhouse gas in terms of the amount of CO2 that would create the same amount of warming. That way, a carbon footprint consisting of lots of different greenhouse gases can be expressed as a single number.
CSO - literally stands for "Corporate Sustainability Officer" but refers to anyone in the role of a sustainability manager for an organization.
CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility (aka “CR”)
DJSI - Dow Jones Sustainability Index
DMA - (used by GRI) Disclosure Management Approach
MD&A - (used by SASB) Management Discussion & Analysis
EIRIS - Ethical Investment Research and Information Service
FTSE4Good - A series of ethical investment stock market indices. Inclusion is based on CSR criteria as supported by EIRIS. The FTSE Group, an independent company jointly owned by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange derives its name from the acronym of its two parent companies, but it is a limited company in its own right.
Emissions Trading - a.k.a. cap-and-trade is a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.
A central authority (usually a governmental body) sets a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that may be emitted. The limit or cap is allocated or sold to firms in the form of emissions permits which represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant. Firms are required to hold a number of permits (or carbon credits) equivalent to their emissions. The total number of permits cannot exceed the cap, limiting total emissions to that level. Firms that need to increase their emission permits must buy permits from those who require fewer permits. The transfer of permits is referred to as a trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions. Thus, in theory, those who can reduce emissions most cheaply will do so, achieving the pollution reduction at the lowest cost to society. See also US Regional Cap and Trade Initiatives.
Eutrophication - excessive concentrations of nutrients in water bodies triggering algae growth, anaerobic fermentation (by bacteria) and hypoxia.
Hypoxia - an absence of soluble oxygen, usually in a water body. Causes die-off of aquatic life in areas called “dead zones.”
Externality - a spillover effect of an activity or transaction affecting parties who were not directly related to that activity or transaction. (Ex. second-hand smoke)
Fracking - Hydraulic fracturing; a method of extracting natural gas contained in geologic strata deep underground. A solution of extremely hot liquid chemicals is pumped into the gas-bearing rock formations under high pressure to crush them and release the gas.
GHG - Greenhouse Gas - Atmospheric gasses that whose atomic structure holds solar energy, contributing to the warming of our planet.
Greenwashing - an attempt by any party to make a product, service or process appear “greener” than it really is. (Example: “clean coal”)
GRI - Global Reporting Initiative - GRI is the most widely-accepted triple-bottom-line reporting framework, used by hundreds of the largest organizations.
GWP - Standard ratios are used to convert the various greenhouse gases into equivalent amounts of CO2. These ratios are based on the so-called global warming potential (GWP) of each gas, which describes its total warming impact relative to CO2 over a set period – usually a hundred years. Over this time frame, according to the standard data, methane scores 21 (meaning that one tonne of methane will cause the same amount of warming as 25 tonnes of CO2), nitrous oxide comes in at 271 and some of the super-potent F-gases score more than 10,000.
Integrated Reporting <IR> - developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council, the IIRC seeks to merge non-financial (ESG) reporting metrics with financial reports in order to forecast short, medium and long-term opportunities and challenges.
Kyoto Protocol - to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." The protocol was initially adopted December 1997 and entered into force in February 2005. The United States has not ratified the protocol and in December 2011 Canada renounced the protocol. Under the Protocol, 37 countries commit themselves to a reduction of four greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons) produced by them, and all member countries give general commitments. It is a common perception that the lack of quantitative emission commitments for developing countries was one of the factors which led to the United States decision not to ratify the treaty.
See US Regional Cap and Trade Programs.
LEED - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (green building rating system).
Materiality - (GRI’s definition) Those topics that have a direct or indirect impact on an organization's ability to create, preserve or erode economic, environmental and social value for itself, its stakeholders and society at large.
Materiality Matrix - a document created as the result of determining an understanding of what factors (risks, resources, etc.) impact your business the most. This informs the decision-making process in determining the importance of what should be measured and reported.
OECD - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
PACE - Property Assessed Clean Energy. A funding mechanism that allows investments in onsite renewable energy financially easier and more viable.
Pacific Garbage Patch - A large concentration of debris (mostly plastic) in the Pacific ocean. (For more info, see www.5gyres.org).
POP - Persistent Organic Pollutants
PBT - Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxin
PV - Photovoltaic. A technology that converts sunlight into electricity.
REC - Renewable Energy Certificate. A tradable, non-tangible commodity that represents 1 MW hour of energy has been created from a renewable resource, such as wind or PV. RECs explained.
SASB - Sustainability Accounting Standard Board created reporting standards that help publicly-listed corporations disclose material factors in compliance with SEC requirements.
Scope (Emissions) - Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions are classifications of fossil fuel emissions based on source.
TBL or 3BL - Triple Bottom Line. The effects of an organization’s activities on People, Planet, Profit. The phrase was coined by John Elkington in his 1997 book Cannibals with Forks.
Tragedy of the Commons - a concept that describes the externalities shared among all in a community based on the actions of a few. Based on a 1968 article published in the Journal “Science.”
UNGC - United Nations Global Compact. A UN initiative encouraging businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation.
USGBC - United States Green Building Council. Non-for-Profit organization that creates and maintains of the LEED green building rating systems.
U.S. Regional Cap and Trade Programs - With technical and policy advice from WRI, three mandatory regional carbon trading markets are being established to limit states’ greenhouse gas emissions, spur energy innovation and create green jobs. Twenty-three U.S. states are taking part, covering over half the U.S. population. Seven more states are formal observers. In September 2008, the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) began formal carbon trading. The Western Climate Initiative and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord are in development and will be operational by 2012. http://www.wri.org/map/us-regional-cap-and-trade-programs
Water and WBCSD - World Business Council for Sustainable Development Global Water Tool
A free and easy to use tool for companies and organizations to map their water use and assess risks relative to their global operations and supply chains.
This tool will help you answer these questions and more.
WRI - World Resource Institute, creators of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a consensus-based set of GHG measurement protocols.