24 Jul NNBN INSIGHT: An A to Z of Sustainability
NNBN Member Alexina Cassidy from ActNow Consulting and a member of the Sustainable Business Alliance takes us through an A to Z of sustainability to help you understand more about what’s involved and to explain a number of key terms when it comes to sustainability.
A to Z of Sustainability
An inexhaustive list of essential sustainability terms to help organisations understand the fundamentals.
Air/Atmosphere
Our air is made up of mainly nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%). The balance is made up of other gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorocarbons, neon and hydrogen as well as particles such as soot and microorganisms.
Adaptation
Adapting to the impacts of climate change, both current and future, involves various strategies. These include constructing infrastructure like flood and fire defences, developing crops resilient to changing climates, and discovering innovative methods to cool buildings.
B Corp Certification
A B Corp certified business meets high standards of verified social and environmental performance and forms part of a global community of businesses legally committed to considering all stakeholders, people, community and planet.
Biodiversity
The variety of life found in a place or on Earth, from animals and plants to microorganisms. A rich level of biodiversity provides humans with many benefits and services.
Biodiversity Net Gain
An approach to development and land management that leaves biodiversity in a better state than before. It’s an exciting step forward for sustainable development, ensuring that new projects contribute positively to the environment.
Biofuel
A fuel derived from renewable, biological sources, including crops such as maize and sugar cane, and some forms of waste
CSRD
CSRD stands for the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. It’s a new set of rules from the European Union designed to improve and standardize how companies report on their sustainability efforts.
Carbon Dioxide Equivalence
This is a unit of measurement that allows the different GHGs to be measured relative to one unit of carbon dioxide.
Carbon footprint
A measurement of all the greenhouse gases that an entity is responsible for; a person, a business, a product, a flight, a holiday. The average for an individual is 13 tonnes.
Carbon intensity
Measure of carbon dioxide emissions relative to a unit of revenue (for a company, ExxonMobil, for example) or relative to GDP (for a country).
Carbon neutral
Refers to the balancing out of carbon emissions with carbon removal. This differs from ‘net zero’, which typically includes the removal or offsetting of all greenhouse gas emissions, including methane and hydrofluorocarbons.
Circular Economy
An economic model aimed at eliminating waste through the continual use of resources in a circular loop of regeneration.
Decarbonisation
Eliminating or reducing carbon dioxide emissions, generally through the replacement of energy sourced from fossil-fuels.
Digital carbon footprint
The amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by all tech devices, tools and platforms, from cloud computing to mobile phones to internet usage.
Disclosure
The practice of reporting social and environmental information to internal and external stakeholders.
ESG
ESG stands for environmental, social and governance and refers to a set of standards used to measure an organisation’s environmental and social impact and risks.
ESG investing is a strategy that evaluates companies based on their environmental, social and governance performance. Organisations create ESG strategies to help them act on and measure what is mutually good for profits, people, and the planet.
Feed-in tariff
A policy designed to accelerate investments in renewable energy. A policy of this type usually involves long-term government contract
Greenhouse gases
These are the gases that have been defined by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) as having significant warming impacts on our planet. These gases act as a blanket enveloping the planet and through the greenhouse effect ensure that the climate is comfortable for life forms to survive.
Greenhouse Gas Protocol
A globally recognized set of reporting and accounting frameworks for managing greenhouse gas emissions from private and public sector operations, value (supply) chains and mitigation actions.
Greenwashing
The practice of making an unsubstantiated or misleading claim about the environmental benefits of a product, service, technology or company.
Hydrogen fuel
Green hydrogen is made by using clean electricity from renewable energy technologies which emits zero-emissions when burned with oxygen.
Impact Investing
An investing strategy that directs money towards companies that create a measurable, positive change in the world. This may also be called socially responsible investing.
Land-use Management
The effective and efficient use of land to meet the changing needs of humans (agriculture, forestry, and conservation), while ensuring long-term socio-economic and ecological functions of the land.
Life Cycle Assessment
The ‘cradle-to-grave’ analysis of the environmental impact of a product, process, or service throughout its life cycle, during its production, use and disposal phases.
Materiality
A process of assessing the importance of various environmental and social issues for an organisation and its stakeholders. This analysis helps an organisation focus on the issues that matter most and to align reporting with the best industry practices and standards.
Mitigation
This involves actions to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. Examples would be transitioning to renewable energy, enhancing energy efficiency, adopting regenerative agricultural practices and protecting and restoring forests and other critical ecosystems.
Modern Slavery
In today’s world, the term “modern slavery” might seem like a relic of the past, but it’s an urgent and grim reality affecting millions globally. Modern slavery encompasses various forms of exploitation where individuals are forced to work against their will under threat, coercion, or deception.
Net zero
Cutting emissions as close to zero as possible and compensating for any remaining emissions with projects that remove emissions from the atmosphere, such as planting trees or funding offset projects.
Offsetting
Compensating for the release of emissions by making a cut or saving of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This could involve the planting of trees or another carbon removal activity.
Paris Agreement
A landmark agreement reached at COP21 in 2015 to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low-carbon future. The central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 °C above the pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 °C.
Renewable Energy
Energy from a source that is not depleted when used, such as wind or solar power.
SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
Published by the UN in 2017, the 17 SDGs are a set of development goals for improving economic, environmental, and social conditions worldwide with a target of 2030.
SECR
SECR stands for Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting and requires obligated companies to report on their energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions annually within their financial accounts for Companies House
Science-based targets
Reduction in emissions targets that are in line with the latest climate science requirements to limit global warming to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and trying to limit warming to 1.5°C. The SBTi (Science Based Target Initiative) is a global framework for corporate net-zero target setting in line with climate science.
Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions are categorised into three groups or “Scopes” by the most widely used international accounting tool, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol
Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the reporting company. Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value (supply) chain. Many companies do not include Scope 3 emissions in their reporting.
Stakeholders
A person or group with an interest in a company that can affect or be affected by its operations and performance. Internal stakeholders would be employees, owners, managers and external stakeholders might be suppliers, customers, community.
Sustainability
‘Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ Brundtland Commission 1987
Sustainability and the environment – ensuring business operations don’t deplete natural resources or negatively impact the environment through poorly managed waste disposal, GHG emissions or activities that impact natural habitats.
Sustainability and society – ensuring businesses avoid a negative impact on communities, poor or toxic working conditions or creating social injustice through business activities.
Tipping point
Critical climate thresholds that, once passed, can lead to irreversible changes to our planetary systems. Positive tipping points are major changes in society that tip the balance towards rapid decarbonisation.
Transparency
Transparency means being open about decisions and activities that affect society, the environment, the economy and the willingness of businesses to communicate information in a clear, accurate, honest, timely, and complete manner.
Value Chain
A value chain is a model used to describe the process by which businesses receive raw materials, add value to the raw materials through various processes to create a finished product, and then sell the finished product to customers. Companies conduct value chain analysis by looking at every production step required to create a product and identifying ways to increase the efficiency of the chain.
Zero carbon
Means that no carbon emissions are produced at all. This compares with ‘net zero’, where greenhouse gas emissions are balanced out.
Zero waste
A philosophy that encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused, and no trash is sent to landfills, incinerators, or the ocean.
