Sustainability Glossary
The sustainability world is littered with specialist terms, reporting schemes, abbreviations and acronyms. We have brought together some of the more common ones below (but please contact us to include others).
Carbon Footprint/ GHG Inventory
A carbon footprint is a measure of the total greenhouse gas emissions over a period of time caused by an organisation, person, product or specific activity. It may also be referred to as a greenhouse gas inventory. In order to compare activities, the emissions are converted to a common unit – usually kg (or tonnes) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
CDP
CDP (originally the Carbon Disclosure Project) is a global non-profit that runs a voluntary environmental disclosure system for companies, capital markets, cities, states and regions. It is a self-reporting system which provides a scoring mechanism and comparison with similar organisations.
Climate Change/ Global Warming
Climate change refers to long-term changes in global weather patterns owing to changes in mean temperatures. Over the last 200 years, step changes in human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels (coal, gas, oil), have been shown to be the main driver for these changes.
As the climate changes have included an upward trend in global temperatures, climate change is also referred to as global warming.
ESOS
ESOS stands for the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme and is a mandatory energy assessment and audit scheme. ESOS applies to organisations that have a UK-registered company that employs more than 250 staff or has a turnover/balance sheet that meets certain criteria.
ESOS has to be complied with every 4 years, the current phase running from December 2023 to December 2027.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
These are emissions of a number of different gases from natural and human activities that when they reach the earth’s atmosphere, trap heat.
The gases are known collectively as Greenhouse Gases (GHG) and include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)
Greenhouse Gas Protocol
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is the most widely used standard for accounting for greenhouse gas emissions. They provide a framework for businesses, governments and other organisations to measure emissions.
They form the basis of the accepted reporting methodology used for most mandatory and voluntary reporting schemes (such as SBTi and CFD).
Net Zero/Zero Carbon
Zero carbon usually means that no greenhouse gas emissions are produced – for example, solar electricity is referred to as zero carbon as no greenhouse gas emissions are produced during operation.
Net zero is slightly different in that it refers to an overall balance – emissions that are produced are counteracted by emissions removed from the atmosphere by natural or artificial means. It is generally accepted that reductions in emissions need to be undertaken before turning to removal.
SECR
SECR stands for the Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting scheme. This is a mandatory reporting requirement in the UK for large companies that are required to disclose information relating to their energy use and GHG emissions within their official annual accounts
SBTI/Science Based Targets
SBTi stands for the Science Based Targets initiative, an organisation that provides voluntary standards for companies to set targets for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
The reductions are based on scientific analysis which identifies what the particular sector should contribute to the overall global challenge of limiting global temperature rises to below 1.5oC (hence the targets are referred to Science Based Targets). SBTi provide advisory publications and target validation services.
TCFD
TCFD stands for the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures , and it was set up to improve and increase reporting on climate-related financial information, including how companies are mitigating the risks of climate change to their business. In the UK, large companies have had to report using the TCFD recommendations since 2023.