Glossary

Polluter should bear the cost of pollution.

The Polluter-Pays Principle (PPP) was adopted by OECD in 1972 as an economic principle for allocating the costs of pollution control.

Source: https://one.oecd.org/document/OCDE/GD(92)81/En/pdf#:~:text=The%20Polluter%2DPays%20Principle%20(PPP,the%20costs%20of%20pollution%20control.

People, Planet, Profit.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

See also: Circular economy.

Conflict materials tin (Sn), tantalum (Ta), tungsten(W) and gold (A). Conflict materials are those mined in areas of armed conflict.

Adaptation involves taking steps to adjust to the current consequences of climate change and to prepare for the future predicted impacts. For example, in order to adapt to higher temperatures, states could coat roads in a reflective paint, plant additional trees for shade and put contingency measures in place to manage prolonged periods of drought.
Enterprises on the other hand, foreseeing rising carbon taxes could start to transition away from fossil fuel dependencies they may have. They could also ensure more workers have the ability to work from home or from alternative locations so operations are not disrupted in cases of extreme weather or in repeat pandemic experiences.

Caused by human activity.

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human characteristics or behaviour to non-human entities, including animals.

Source: Psychologytoday.com

Business Continuity Plan. A documented plan which contains critical information and steps required by the enterprise to ensure it can continue operations and/or recover key infrastructure and services in the event of an unplanned outage or similarly disruptive event. Typically enterprises rehearse the steps in a business continuity plan in a dress rehearsal scenario on an agreed schedule.

BECCS is a geo-engineering technique which uses biomass (i.e. energy generated from organic material such as wood, compost, etc.) instead of fossil fuels to generate bio or renewable energy. As this bioenergy is burned, carbon emitted during the burning process is captured and stored or sequestered underground in rocks, mountains, valleys or other geological formations for later use.

Source: Preventing Climate Change with BECCS Princeton University; Carbon Brief The History of BECCS; Wikipedia

Energy that is produced from organic or living material (i.e. plants or animals).

Source: National Geographic.

Bluewashing is similar to greenwashing in its cynical nature. It occurs when enterprises align to United Nations Initiatives such as the UN Global Compact (“Blue being the colour of the United Nations Flag), in order to give visibility and credibility to their environmental, social and human rights commitments without necessarily undertaking the substantive changes required to fully implement these in practice SDG washing is a form of blue-washing which occurs when enterprises acknowledge & highlight their alignment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals but don’t actually make any meaningful contributions to achieving the goals.
Green & bluewashing occurs when enterprises spend more on marketing their environmental & social credentials than actually achieving them and are interpreted by the public and other enterprise stakeholders as enterprises paying lip service to sustainable development.

See Also: Greenwashing.

Basel Rotterdam Stockholm Conventions. Three international environmental conventions agreed at Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm, to protect human health and the environment from hazardous chemicals and waste.

1987 Report for the World Commission on Environment and Development, ‘Our Common Future’. Defined sustainable development as development that:

\"meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\".

Source: The Brundlandt Report.

Avoiding burden shifting is a key aim of Life Cycle Thinking. This is where the impact on one life cycle stage such as manufacturing or use is reduced by some means, only to be increased or shifted to another category, stage or area. Burden shifting can partially or entirely cancel out a benefit.

Source: Making sustainable consumption and production a reality. A guide for business and policy makers to Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment (European Commission, 2010)
https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/LCT-Making-sustainable-consumption-and-production-a-reality-A-guide-for-business-and-policy-makers-to-Life-Cycle-Thinking-and-Assessment.pdf

Change Advisory Board. A governance forum typically used in enterprises to govern, assess and manage change.

A carbon budget is the amount of carbon dioxide that may be emitted over a period of time in order to keep within a certain temperature threshold.
Many countries, including Ireland, use carbon budgets to guide policy and track & manage their obligations under climate change legislation.

Carbon capture and storage involves capturing carbon dioxide before it enters the atmosphere and storing it or sequestering it underground in a geological formation.

Source: Wikipedia

Processes or technologies which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Natural removal processes include afforestation and peatland rehabilitation. Artificial methods include direct air capture and storage.

See Also: BECCS, Carbon Capture and Storage

When the amount of CO2 emitted equals the amount of CO2 absorbed.

As most enterprises do not have on-site peatlands to absorb the CO₂ they produce, those looking to achieve net zero targets often turn to carbon offsetting. Offsetting involves investing in a project or third party which absorbs CO₂ on your behalf or purchasing carbon credits from the carbon market.  Third parties who sequester carbon on behalf of enterprises include NGOs and enterprises who plant forests and trees, restore wetlands & coastal ecosystems and rehabilitate peatlands as well as enterprises who use negative emissions technology (NET) or carbon dioxide removal technologies (CDRT) to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. Note: Negative emissions technologies or carbon dioxide removal technologies (CDRT) are predominantly in their infancy and not yet available for large scale deployment. They cannot therefore be relied yet on as a major solution to climate change and doing so risks missing opportunities for real climate change mitigation in the meantime.

When offsetting through the carbon market, many enterprises purchase carbon credits to offset or compensate emissions caused by air travel or other activities so that they can deduct these emissions from their carbon balance sheet. In market terms one carbon credit equates to one tonne or 1000kg of CO_2.  Air travel emissions can be calculated using ICAO’s Carbon Emissions Calculator but as an example, a round-trip flight from London to Rome produces 273kg (0.27 tonnes) per person with a round trip from Dublin to New York producing 560kg or half a tonne of CO_2. per person.
Ecosystem Marketplace conducts annual surveys on carbon credit pricing in the voluntary market and can be used to reference average carbon credit prices.

Gold Standard, a not-for-profit enterprise, founded by WWF and other international NGOs advises enterprises against going with the lowest cost carbon offset option. Allowing the market to drive competition and reduce cost in the instance of carbon offsetting really defeats the purpose. Tackling climate change is not just about removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it’s also about tackling the issues of social justice that are intrinsically linked to climate change and its root cause, namely inequitable globalisation & unfettered neoliberalism. Carbon offsetting projects, not only result in the increased ability for natural based solutions to reduce global emissions or absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere but they also provide jobs and livelihoods and improved living conditions for people in vulnerable areas. Driving costs down through market behaviour may result in projects in these areas being stopped because the project is being judged on one number, the amount of CO₂  sequestered, rather than on the real or total value of the project which is improved health & well-being for local communities.

Fairtrade in conjunction with Gold Standard have developed a Fairtrade Climate Standard which supports smallholders & local communities in producing Fairtrade Carbon Credits and getting access to the market (See their explainer video here). Gold Standard have a list of projects and initiatives enterprises can offset through in their marketplace.

As it is nearly impossible for an enterprise to be carbon neutral on their own, it can be argued that offsetting has its place but it should not be used as the primary solution for an enterprise to become net zero. Globally we will only succeed if every enterprise makes a concerted effort to reduce their own emissions by changing how they work. It is too easy and ultimately irresponsible for enterprises to transfer the responsibility of clean-up to someone else. Like every issue, prevention is better than cure.

CDP on behalf of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) has issued guidance for enterprises setting net zero targets which includes information on offsets.

See Also: Carbon Offset Guide 

Purchasing carbon credits from the carbon market or investing in a project or third party which absorbs CO2 on your enterprise’s behalf.

The opposite of emission is absorption. To balance the natural cycle of CO₂ emissions from human and animal respiration, decomposition and ocean release, the Earth absorbs CO₂ through natural sinks or reservoirs, i.e. the atmosphere, land (peatlands, forests, rocks, soil, etc), ocean and fossils. As we are now burning the reservoir of carbon stored in fossils through our use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) we are releasing or emitting more CO₂ than can be absorbed by Earth through its natural carbon sinks. This excess of CO₂ in the atmosphere means more heat is trapped in the atmosphere which increases Earth’s overall surface mean temperature.

Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Convention on Biological Diversity.

See also: Kunming-Montreal GBF.

Carbon Capture and Storage.

Clean Development Mechanism, defined in article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol which extended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Carbon dioxide Removal Technology.

Carbon Disclosure Standards Board.

Note: CDSB and Value Reporting Foundation, previously independent providers, have now both been consolidated into the IFRS Foundation to provide staff and resources to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Certified emission reduction (credits).

Currently we operate in a 'take-make-use-dispose' linear pattern of consumption. This involves taking resources from the environment, making them into products, goods, packaging, etc. which are then used by consumers and disposed of, either in their entirety or in smaller components of waste. This results in an on-going depletion or dispersion of natural resources which contributes to environmental damage, biodiversity loss, pollution, waste and the depletion of finite, irreplaceable resources.

Transitioning to a circular economy involves eliminating waste and pollution, re-using, repairing or recycling resources, products and materials and regenerating nature.

Source: Ellen MacArthur Foundation; European Commission Circular Action Plan 2020.

The increase in the global mean atmospheric temperature which occurs in response to an increased level of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere.

Taking steps to adjust to the current consequences of climate change and to prepare for the future predicted impacts.

Limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and by enhancing activities that remove these gases from the atmosphere.

Materials can be recycled into the same product repeatedly, e.g. aluminium cans.

Carbon dioxide (Greenhouse Gas).

Conference of Parties. Certain international treaties or Conventions also have a supreme governance body known as the Conference of the Parties or COP, who are responsible for reviewing the implementation of Conventions and for making any necessary decisions to promote their effectiveness. These governance bodies or COPs meet according to an agreed schedule within the Convention, with each meeting of the COP represented by a sequential number, such as COP1, COP2, etc.

Note: Many people will be familiar with the annual COPs associated with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) due to heightened international awareness of the climate change crisis.

International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Corporate Social Responsibility. This term is now considered a legacy term which has been replaced with RBC or responsible business conduct.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Disclosure.

UN sponsored initiative to accelerate international transformation and to encourage innovation and creativity to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Do it Yourself.

The importance or salience of a sustainability or ESG matter or topic to an enterprise and/or its stakeholders based on the impact the enterprise has on the environment, people, human rights and the economy  and the impact sustainability or ESG matters or topics have on enterprise development, performance, position and overall value.

See Also: Materiality; Impact Materiality; Financial Materiality;

Customers and activities linked to enterprise outputs including the purchase, use and disposal of enterprise products.

Disaster Recovery.

See also: BCP; Dress Rehearsal.

A planned event to test disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

OECD in their 2011 Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises recommend enterprises carry out risk-based due diligence, “to identify, prevent and mitigate actual and potential adverse impacts” caused or contributed to by the enterprise through its operations, products, services or business relationships.

Due diligence is the level of care responsible businesses are expected to take to protect their businesses from environmental and social risks and impacts and in turn to protect their stakeholders, the environment and society in general from risks and impacts that occur as a result of enterprise activities, decisions or relationships.

Source: OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

European Commission.

European Green Deal Investment Plan. Also known as the Sustainable Europe Investment Plan (SEIP), it is the investment pillar of the European Green Deal.

European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme

A tool/environmental management system to help organisations enhance their environmental performance, save energy, and optimise resource usage.

Source: https://green-business.ec.europa.eu/eco-management-and-audit-scheme-emas_en

An emission as defined by Cambridge is “an amount of a substance that is produced and sent out into the air that is harmful to the environment, especially carbon dioxide”.
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the gas or emission most attributed to climate change but is one of a number of greenhouse gases (GHGs) which also trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. The GHGs are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases (HFCs, PFCs, SF₆, NF₃) and water vapour.  Enterprises emit CO₂ through the use of electricity, petrol or diesel vehicles, enterprise travel (employee commuting, air travel, taxis, etc.), the treatment of waste products and through fuel combustion processes employed as part of the enterprise’s production cycle (e.g. use of boilers).

Source: Cambridge Dictionary Definition.
See also: Greenhouse Gas (GHG) in this directory.

An emissions trading scheme (ETS) is a market based tool used to limit and reduce greenhouse gases. ETS schemes are based on 'cap and trade' principles where governments set a cap or limit on the amount of greenhouse gases (in particular carbon) that can be emitted and issue allowances consistent with cap limits. Emitters covered by the scheme must have allowances for all the carbon they emit. Emitters who produce less than their permitted allowance can then trade their surplus allowance with emitters who may have exceeded their allowance based on a market determined price for carbon. The 'cap' is reduced over time so that total emissions fall.
The EU ETS has been in operation since 2005 and is responsible for a 42.8% reduction in emissions in sectors covered.

Source: EU ETS; European Commission Questions and Answers - Emissions Trading – Putting a Price on carbon;

Economic and Social Council.

Emission reduction unit.

ESG represents the range of economic, Environmental, Social and Governance matters and topics that are material to enterprises and their stakeholders.

ESG Materiality Assessment. This acronym is used in STS Plan to describe the process through which enterprises determine their material sustainability or ESG topics.

European Sustainability Reporting Standards. Developed by EFRAG to provide a reporting standard to be used in conjunction with the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Emissions Trading System.

European Green Bonds.

European Green Bond Standard

Eutrophication is characterized by excessive plant and algal growth due to the increased availability of one or more limiting growth factors needed for photosynthesis (Schindler 2006), such as sunlight, carbon dioxide, and nutrient fertilizers.

Source: https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/eutrophication-causes-consequences-and-controls-in-aquatic-102364466/

Foreign Direct Investment.

Financial Institution Initiative.

The importance of a sustainability or ESG matter or topic to an enterprise based on the actual or potential impact that topic or matter has, or could have, on enterprise development, performance or position or overall value.

Source: EFRAG p 16.

Legal framework for the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment published by United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in October 2005.

General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs.

"Geoengineering is the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth’s natural systems to counteract climate change".

Source: Oxford Geoengineering Programme.

Greenhouse Gas. The greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (MH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), fluorinated gases (HFCs, PFCs, SF6, NF3) and water vapour.

GRI is an independent, international organisation, headquartered in Amsterdam who have produced the GRI Standards, a comprehensive set of sustainable development reporting standards for enterprises.

For the full version of the GRI Standards, including Recommendations, Guidance, and Background, please visit the GRI Resource Center.

The increase of trade around the world, especially by large companies producing and trading goods in many different countries.

Source: Cambridge Dictionary.

Greenhouse gases are those gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, thus creating a natural greenhouse effect. The greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (MH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), fluorinated gases (HFCs, PFCs, SF₆, NF₃) and water vapour.

Greenwashing is defined as “behaviour or activities that make people believe that an enterprise is doing more to protect the environment than it really is” . The term was coined by Jay Westerveld, a New York Biologist and Environmentalist when he wrote an essay in 1986 about the hypocritical practices of the hotel industry. When on holidays Westerveld observed that the hotel he was staying in, asked customers to ‘save their towels’ in a bid to conserve water & protect the environment, whilst on the other hand, seemed to care very little about the environment when it came to their own expansion plans. Westerveld believed the hotel was motivated more by saving on laundry costs than saving the planet and that this cynical marketing ploy would eventually be exposed, observing that “It all comes out in the greenwash”.

Source: The Guardian 2016, Orange and Cohen 2010.

Hydrofluorocarbons (Greenhouse Gas).

Highest Governance Body or Highest Governing Body. Within enterprises this is the most senior governance, leadership or management team.

Earth’s current geological epoch which began after the last ice age. Period of environmental stability for the last 10,000 years.

Human rights due diligence is due diligence undertaken specifically to ensure human rights are being respected all along an enterprise’s value chain, i.e. by the enterprise itself, by its suppliers and by the suppliers of its suppliers and so on throughout the chain. This responsibility aligns with Principle 13a of the UN Guiding Principles of Business & Human Rights, one of the core instruments underpinning Responsible Business requirements. This principle states that enterprises should
“Seek to prevent or mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are directly linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts.”

Source: UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Interest.

Inter-agency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators.

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.

International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

International Development Association.

International Finance Corporation.

Insurance Industry Initiative.

International Law Commission.

International Labour Organization.

International Monetary Fund.

Impact in terms of enterprise sustainability is the positive or negative effect(s) enterprise activities, decisions or relationships have on the environment, people, human rights, society and the economy and/or on the business itself and its stakeholders.
Impact can be positive or negative, actual (i.e. issue / benefit) or potential (i.e. risk or opportunity), intended or unintended, direct or indirect, reversible or irreversible, short, medium or long term.

The importance or salience of a sustainability or ESG matter or topic based on the impact the enterprise has on the environment, people, human rights and the economy.

See Also: Impact Materiality, Financial Materiality, Double Materiality

Quote from IFRS Website:

"The intention is for the ISSB to deliver a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards that provide investors and other capital market participants with information about companies’ sustainability-related risks and opportunities to help them make informed decisions."

Source: IFRS

Institutions for Occupational Retirement Provision.

Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide scientific information in relation to climate change and its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts.The IPCC produces scientific, peer-reviewed reports related to climate change and its effects at regular interviews.

Source: IPCC Website; IPCC Reports;

Impact, Risk and Opportunity.

See also: Due Diligence.

The difficulty associated with counteracting harm or adverse impact.

International Sustainability Standards Board. Created by the IFRS Foundation as a new standard-setting board, tasked with creating sustainability-related disclosure standards to inform investors and capital market participants of enterprise sustainability-related risks and opportunities.

Source: IFRS Foundation

The Keeling Curve, named after Charles Keeling a researcher at the California Institute of Technology, who developed an accurate methodology to measure CO2 and began daily measurement in 1958, is a daily record of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. It measures the atmospheric concentration of CO2 in parts per million or PPM. The keeling curve is maintained by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

Source: The Keeling Curve; How Charles Keeling Measured the Rise of Carbon Dioxide.

A Global Biodiversity Framework agreed in December 2022 which aims to transform our societies\' relationship with biodiversity by 2030 and to attain our shared vision of living in harmony with nature by 2050.

This framework consists of 4 long-term goals for 2050 and 23 targets for 2030 that include:

1. Ensuring at least 30% of global lands and seas are conserved and equitably managed.

2. Halting extinction of known threatened species and taking action to recover and conserve species.

3. Reducing pollution risks and the negative impact of pollution. Eliminating plastic pollution.

4. Halving global food waste and significantly reducing consumption and waste generation.

5. Taking an ecosystems-based approaches to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation.

6. Redirecting, repurposing, reforming or eliminating incentives harmful for biodiversity in a just and equitable way.

7. Mobilising at least US$ 200 billion per year from public and private sources for biodiversity.

8. Ensuring large and transnational companies and financial institutions monitor, assess and transparently disclose their risks, dependencies and impacts on biodiversity.

Source: COP 15: Nations Adopt Four Goals, 23 Targets for 2030 in Landmark UN Biodiversity Agreement

Legitimacy

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifies and assesses the emissions, resources consumed, and pressures on health and the environment that can be attributed to different goods or services over their entire life cycle. It seeks to quantify all physical exchanges with the environment, whether these are inputs in the form of natural resources, land use and energy, or outputs in the form of emissions to air, water and soil.

Source: Making sustainable consumption and production a reality. A guide for business and policy makers to Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment (European Commission, 2010)

https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/LCT-Making-sustainable-consumption-and-production-a-reality-A-guide-for-business-and-policy-makers-to-Life-Cycle-Thinking-and-Assessment.pdf

Life Cycle Thinking (LCT) seeks to identify possible improvements to goods and services in the form of lower environmental impacts and reduced use of resources across all life cycle stages. This begins with raw material extraction and conversion, then manufacture and distribution, through to use and/or consumption. It ends with re-use, recycling of materials, energy recovery and ultimate disposal (European Commission, 2010).

Life Cycle Thinking aims to prevent environmental issues before they damage occurs without transferring the problem from one system to another, for example to another production site (G.EN.ESI Education Centre)

Source:
1. European Commission, 2010: Making sustainable consumption and production a reality. A guide for business and policy makers to Life Cycle Thinking and Assessment
https://eplca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/uploads/LCT-Making-sustainable-consumption-and-production-a-reality-A-guide-for-business-and-policy-makers-to-Life-Cycle-Thinking-and-Assessment.pdf
2. G.EN.ESI Education Centre Introduction to Life Cycle Thinking
www.genesi-fp7.eu/education-centre.
2. Liu, L.

The importance or salience of a sustainability or ESG matter or topic to an enterprise and/or its stakeholders. Materiality can be assessed from two perspectives.
Impact materiality determines importance based on the impact the enterprise has on the environment, people, human rights and the economy .
Financial materiality determines importance based on the impact sustainability or ESG matters or topics have on enterprise development, performance, position and overall value.
Double materiality takes both Impact materiality and Financial materiality assessments into account.

See Also: Impact Materiality, Financial Materiality, Double Materiality

Millennium Development Goals

Methane (Greenhouse Gas)

Enterprise consisting of 1-10 people

Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency

The term minimum social safeguards or MSS is used in the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Compliance with MSS means complying with the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs), the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the nine specifically referenced ILO Core Labour Conventions identified in the International Labour Organization’s declaration on Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work and the International Bill of Human Rights.

Management Information System

The IPCCC define climate change mitigation as “limiting or preventing greenhouse gas emissions and by enhancing activities that remove these gases from the atmosphere”.

At a state level climate change mitigation is managed through things like national transport policies & projects which provide the necessary infrastructure needed to promote the use of renewables-fuelled public transport and electric vehicles, as well as agricultural policies and natural conservation and rehabilitation projects. States can also encourage businesses to contribute to mitigation by providing incentives or grants to make their premises more energy efficient or by setting ESG requirements for anyone wishing to do business with the state. They can also create legislation to ensure state mitigation targets are met.

At an enterprise level, mitigation is any action a business takes to reduce or eliminate their GHG emissions. This means looking at building efficiency (e.g. insulation, behavioural patterns around use of lights, PCs, equipment, etc.), fuel sources, enterprise fleets, any combustion processes, use of GHG emitting chemicals, etc.

Source: IPCC Working Group III Mitigation of Climate Change

ILO’s Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy

Nitrous Oxide (Greenhouse Gas)

Under the Paris Agreement each country is required to set and submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs) every five years (increasing in ambition each cycle), stating how they plan to limit global warming and how they plan to adapt to the impact of rising temperatures.

Natural capital is "An extension of the economic notion of capital (manufactured means of production) to environmental goods and services. A functional definition of capital in general is: "a stock that yields a flow of valuable goods or services into the future". Natural capital is thus the stock of natural ecosystems that yields a flow of valuable ecosystem goods or services into the future. For example, a stock of trees or fish provides a flow of new trees or fish, a flow which can be sustainable indefinitely. Natural capital may also provide services like recycling wastes or water catchment and erosion control. Since the flow of services from ecosystems requires that they function as whole systems, the structure and diversity of the system are important components of natural capital."

Source: Robert Constanza, University of Vermont, available in Dictionary of Energy; Constanza et al, 1997

National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans

National Contact Point

Technologies or processes that remove carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

The policy of supporting a large amount of freedom for markets, with little government
control or spending, and low taxes (Cambridge Dictionary 2022b)

Negative Emissions Technology

Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere and are crucial for regulating Earth’s temperature and enabling life. When balanced, the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere should equal that absorbed by Earth’s reservoirs or sinks (e.g. atmosphere, sea, land, flora & fauna). This is known as the Global Carbon Budget.

When the amount of CO2 emitted equals the amount of CO2 absorbed the result is Net Zero or carbon neutrality, i.e. we stay within budget.
Whilst globally we need to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to limit global warming to well below 2.0°C and within 1.5°C, in line with Paris Agreement objectives, enterprises are also being encouraged to set net zero targets as national targets can only be met if everyone contributes and plays their part.
Enterprises can achieve net zero emissions by significantly reducing the amount of CO2 they emit and offsetting any residual emissions that cannot be avoided. Reducing CO2 means switching to an energy provider that uses renewable sources of energy such as solar or wind to produce electricity rather than coal, oil or gas. It means switching to electric vehicles, reducing or eliminating enterprise travel, reducing employee commutes and/or encouraging employees to walk, cycle or use public transport. It involves making buildings more energy efficient so they lose less heat and it involves assessing and adjusting all enterprise processes, products and services from the cradle to the grave to determine whether anything can be changed to reduce the amount of water used and the amount of waste produced, with a primary focus on CO2.

Sources: Friedlingston et al 2021, Global Carbon Project 2021

Nitrogen Trifluoride (Greenhouse Gas)

Non-Financial Reporting Directive

Not in My Back Yard

Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario:

https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-and-climate-model/net-zero-emissions-by-2050-scenario-nze

Reference: IEA (2022), Global Energy and Climate Model, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/global-energy-and-climate-model, License: CC BY 4.0

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

A product is recycled into a different product that is disposed of after use.

An opportunity is a positive risk. it is an event or incident which if it happens will create value for the enterprise.
Opportunities should be enhanced or exploited.

Operational Readiness Board

Power

Legally binding international treaty on climate change which aims to limit global warming
to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, while pursuing a limit of 1.5°C

Parts per million indicates the number of parts of carbon dioxide per one million parts of air.

As of March 9 2022, the C02 reading was 417.8ppm



Source: The Keeling Curve

Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials

Perfluorocarbons (Greenhouse Gas)

Power Interest

Prior Informed Consent

Personal Identifiable information

Quantitative planetary boundaries, related to 9 processes that regulate the stability and
resilience of Earth within which humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations
to come. Crossing these boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt
or irreversible environmental changes.

The practice of building items with a purposefully finite or limited life-span in order to ensure repeat purchase of said items.

See: Sierra Club Overview of Planned Obsolescence

Power, Legitimacy, Urgency

Persistent Organic Pollutants

Parts per million

Principles of Responsible Banking

The precautionary approach to protect the environment was defined in the 1992 United Nations Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The Declaration obliged the use of the precautionary approach in order to protect the environment which requires that “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.”

From an enterprise perspective, applying a precautionary approach to environmental protection requires enterprises to have an effective due diligence framework through which environmental threats can be identified and avoided, mitigated or remediated.

Source: Report of the United Nations Conference of Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992), Principle 15

Principles of Responsible Investment

Pollutant release and transfer registers

Principles of Sustainable Insurance

Listed companies; banks; insurance companies; other companies designated by national
authorities as public-interest entities

RACI notation is used in project management to assign roles and responsibilities to individuals and groups for specific tasks. A RACI matrix is a simple visual guide to depict who does what. RACI stands for ‘Responsible’, ‘Accountable’, ‘Consulted’, ‘Informed’.

‘Accountable’ is the person who is accountable for the overall successful of delivery of an activity. Only one person should be accountable for an activity. This person is the decision maker and the buck stops with them.

‘Responsible’ is the person who actually performs the work associated with the activity. If the same person doing the work is also accountable overall they should be assigned ‘AR’, Accountable & Responsible. There can be more than one person responsible for an activity (i.e. multiple people can work on one activity) but only one person can be accountable for it.

‘Consulted’ is someone who is asked to input/consult/liaise on the activity but has no direct responsibility to perform work for the activity. Communication between ‘Responsible’ and ‘Consulted’ is two way communication.

‘Informed’ is someone who must be kept informed about the activity but who does not contribute to the activity. Communication between ‘Responsible’ and ‘Informed’ is one way communication flowing from ‘Responsible’ to ‘Informed’.

‘Responsible’, ‘Consulted’ and ‘Informed’ are mutually exclusive roles. if a person is ‘Responsible’ they shouldn’t be ‘Consulted’ or ‘Informed’. Similarly ‘Consulted’ shouldn’t be ‘Responsible’ or ‘ Informed’ and ‘Informed’ shouldn’t be ‘Consulted’ or ‘Responsible’.

The possible RACI assignments for an individual are as follows: A, R, AR, C, I

Where an enterprise consists of multiple entities (e.g. group companies / subsidiaries, associated / affiliated companies, joint ventures / partnerships, fixed asset investments, franchises, etc.) the reporting boundary indicates whether the enterprise is reporting on behalf of a single entity; entities within enterprise financial; entities within enterprise operational control or entities where equity share is held by the enterprise.

Location where carbon is stored or sequestered. Natural reservoirs include the atmosphere,
land (peatlands, forests, rocks, soil etc.), the ocean and fossils

Responsible Business Conduct (RBC) as defined by the OECD means that businesses:

“a) should make a positive contribution to economic, environmental and social progress with a view to achieving sustainable development and
b) should avoid and address adverse impacts through their own activities and prevent or mitigate adverse impacts directly linked to their operations, products or services by a business relationship. Risk-based due diligence is central to identifying, preventing and mitigating actual and potential adverse impacts, and thus is a key element of RBC. Enterprises must obey domestic law and respect human rights wherever they operate even when such laws of obligations are poorly enforced."

Sources: OECD Policy Framework for Investment p75; European Union.
See Also: OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

As defined by the United Nations: “acts or behaviour of enterprises, which through an abuse
or acquisition and abuse of a dominant position of market power, limit access to markets
or otherwise unduly restrain competition, having or being likely to have adverse effects on
international trade, particularly that of developing countries, and on the economic development
of these countries, or which through formal, informal, written or unwritten agreements or
arrangements among enterprises, have the same impact”298

The SA8000 Standard and Certification System provide a framework for organisations of all types, in any industry, and in any country to conduct business in a way that is fair and decent for workers and to demonstrate their adherence to the highest social standards.

Source: SAI

Scenario Analysis is a tool whereby enterprises identify and assess a set of different, possible events or scenarios that may occur as means of identifying a set of potential response actions plans and determining the best course of action to avoid and/or mitigate against risk and negative impact. Scenario analysis helps build enterprise resilience by ensuring they are more prepared for different eventualities.

Scope 1 or direct use GHG emissions are caused by sources owned or controlled by the enterprise that occur within the enterprise’s organizational boundary (i.e. stationary combustion, mobile combustion, process emissions and/or fugitive emissions).

Scope 2 or indirect GHG emissions arise from the generation of purchased electricity, heating, cooling and steam. Scope 2 emissions are indirect because they occur at sources owned or controlled by another organization (e.g. electricity provider) but occur as a consequence of enterprise activities.

Scope 3 emissions or other GHG indirect emissions occur along the entire value chain as a consequence of enterprise activities. Scope 3 emissions include those that occur as a result of employee commutes to work, business travel, the extraction and production of purchased materials used by the enterprise, transportation of purchased fuel, the use of enterprise sold products and services (including through treatment of final product waste) and data management practices.

Sustainable Development Goal

Sustainable Development Goal Disclosures

SEDEX is an international database of audits conducted against the ETI base code which is used to help businesses assess the impact of using different suppliers. These audits are known as SMETA audits – SEDEX Members Ethical Trade Audit. Audits can be requested through SEDEX by member enterprises for their suppliers or proposed suppliers or by customers of an enterprise.

Sustainable Europe Investment Plan

Scale and scope of actual and potential impact

Sulphur Hexafluoride (Greenhouse Gas)

Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation

The concept of shared value encourages enterprises to expand their view of value beyond that of solely financial value and to extend their ambition of creating value solely for the enterprise to creating value for additional stakeholders in parallel.

Michael E. Porter and Michael R. Kramer published a seminal article in the Harvard Business Review in 2011 entitled “Creating Shared Value. How to reinvent capitalism – and unleash a wave of innovation and growth.” They believe many enterprises are trapped in a short-term value-creation cycle, driven by shareholder demands of quarterly (or other similarly short term period) financial growth. This pressure prevents enterprises from taking a broader or longer-term view of what might better serve their customers and everyone else impacted by their operations. It locks them into unsustainable practices such as the depletion of natural resources and contributes to other stress points, such as employee, customer, supplier and community well-being. Whilst shareholders may be satisfied, ignoring the bigger picture is in fact a false economy as it threatens the longer-term viability of an enterprise by negatively impacting stakeholders who can in turn hurt the enterprise. Unhappy stakeholders can drive a reduction in sales, increase the threat of litigation and fines and damage an enterprise’s reputation through negative publicity which in turn weakens or withdraws an enterprise’s social license to operate.

Porter and Kramer tell us the principle of shared value “involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. Business must reconnect enterprise success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success”.

Source: Porter, M.E. and Kramer, M.R. (2011) The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value. Harvard Business Review, 89, 2-17.

Small Island Developing States

Location where carbon is stored or sequestered. Natural reservoirs include the atmosphere,
land (peatlands, forests, rocks, soil etc.), the ocean and fossils

Service Level Agreement

Small to Medium sized Enterprises

Subject Matter Experts

Senior Management Team

"The provision of finance to organisations addressing social needs with the explicit expectation of a measurable social, as well as financial, return."
Source: OECD
See Also: Impact Revolution, Sir Ronald Cohen

An enterprise’s social license to operate is an intangible indicator of an enterprise’s legitimacy.

Legitimacy is defined as “ a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions.”

Source: Legitimacy definition Suchman 1995

Solar Radiation Management

Supplier Relationship Mnagement

A stakeholder is defined as “any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives”.
Stakeholders can include owners, employees, customers, suppliers, governments, industry regulating or standards bodies, banks, investors, lenders, insurers, unions, local communities, NGOs, environmental & social justice groups and the media.

Source: Freeman 1984
See Also: Freeman, Harrison, Wicks 2007; Freeman, Harrison, Zyglidopoulos 2018

An enterprise is wholly dependent on its’ stakeholders for all of its’ inputs (e.g. finance, labour, materials, technology, social license to operate etc.) and outputs (e.g. sales, profit, etc.). Its success & reputation therefore, is determined by how well it understands and manages its’ stakeholders and how it incorporates their needs, wants and concerns into its strategic planning and operations.

Stakeholder capitalism represents the ideological shift from the traditional Friedman-esque ‘management of stakeholders’ or ‘management for shareholders’ approach to a ‘management for all stakeholders’ approach. This shift includes a transition from short-term to long-term thinking and requires enterprises to earn their social licence to operate.

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and a proponent for ethical business conduct since the 1970s has used his global platform of the Annual Davos Summit to promote a new global economic model of Stakeholder Capitalism which “works for Progress, People and Planet”. Schwab describes stakeholder capitalism as a system where, “the interests of all stakeholders in the economy and society are taken on board, enterprises optimize for more than just short-term profits, and governments are the guardians of equality of opportunity, a level-playing field in competition, and a fair contribution of and distribution to all stakeholders with regards to the sustainability and inclusivity of the system.”

Source: Schwab and Vanham, 2021a; Schwab and Vanham, 2021b; Davos Manifesto 1973: A Code of Ethics for Business Leaders; Schwab, 1971

A stakeholder group is any group "who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives”.
Stakeholder groups can include owners, employees, customers, suppliers, governments, industry regulating or standards bodies, banks, investors, lenders, insurers, unions, local communities, NGOs, environmental & social justice groups and the media.

Source: Freeman 1984
See Also: Freeman, Harrison, Wicks 2007; Freeman, Harrison, Zyglidopoulos 2018

All direct (i.e. Tier 1) suppliers and indirect (i.e. Tier 2...Tier n) suppliers of suppliers who are involved in the supply of inputs to the enterprise.

First coined in the 1987 Brundtland Report,  “Our Common Future: Report for the World Commission on Environment and Development” sustainable development is development that “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Source: World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987
See Also: UN GA 2015, UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Take Action for the SDGs

The UN Sustainable Development Goals are an 17 goals and 169 targets within 5 pillars - People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace & Partnership which are described as “the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice”.

Source: UN SDGs, Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

European classification system to identify how economic activities contribution to six
environmental objectives

Triple Bottom Line

Quoted from IFRS Website:

"The IFRS Foundation is a not-for-profit, public interest organisation established to develop a single set of high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards—IFRS Standards—and to promote and facilitate adoption of the standards."

Source: IFRS Website About Us

Tier 1 suppliers are primary suppliers to the enterprise. The enterprise has a direct relationship and supply agreement with its Tier 1 suppliers.
Tier 2 suppliers supply enterprise Tier 1 suppliers. Tier 3 suppliers supply Tier 2 suppliers, etc.

Points or thresholds, beyond which recovery becomes impossible

Urgency

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations

A United Nations initiative whereby enterprises commit publicly to adhere to ten principles across four pillars of Environment, Human Rights, Labour and Anti-Corruption. Participating enterprises submit an annual communication on progress (COP) report to the UNGC each year indicating the actions they have taken and plan to take to progress positive contribution across these four areas.

United Nations Academic Impact

United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

United Nations Development Programme

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

United Nations Environment Programme

United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

United Nations Guidelines on Consumer Protection

United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights

United Nations Children’s Fund

United Nations University

Upstream encapsulates the supply chain (primary suppliers (tier 1), suppliers of suppliers (tier 2..tier N), etc.), activities and relationships involved in providing the enterprise with all of its required inputs and raw materials.

World Business Council for Sustainable Development

World Health Organization

Word Meteorological Organization

World Resources Institute

World Trade Organization