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Glossary
The
glossary of terms is divided into four parts, please select one
from below:
A to F - Alternative
fuels to Food miles
G to L - Genetic
engineering to Life cycle assessment
M to R - Management
system to Risk Management
S to Z - Scenarios
to World Business Council
Alternative fuels
Most fuels we use for our homes, businesses
and transport such as oil, gas and coal come from fossil fuels.
Global supplies of these are limited and their use produces carbon
dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas. Alternative fuels seek to reduce
or avoid these problems. They include less polluting fossil fuels
such as; Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), Compressed Natural Gas
(CNG), and bio-fuels. These are made from agricultural or forestry outputs,
such as: using vegetable oil to run in diesel cars and hydrogen gas,
which when burnt produces only water and is being developed through
fuel cells. Alternative fuels provide diversity of supply but are
not without their individual problems.
Assurance
The ability and duty of an organisation to
assure or reassure its stakeholders that it is operating in an accountable
fashion.
Benchmarking
The process of comparison of performance
between business units, companies, sectors etc in order to establish
change.
Bio-diversity
Bio-diversity is the richness and variety
of plants, birds, animals and insects that exist throughout the
world. This diversity provides us with many of our needs, such as
raw materials, sources of drugs and food.
Climate change
Increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in
the atmosphere mean less heat from the sun is able to escape back
into space. The different moisture holding properties and, for example,
cloudiness of this air results in significant changes to climate
that are already affecting us and could have catastrophic consequences.
Compliance
The duty to comply with laws and agreed standards
regarding both organisational policies and practices.
Corporate governance
Corporate governance is the way in which
corporations are directed and controlled.
Eco-design
The removal or reduction of any environmental
impacts associated with a product or a service at the design stage
- eg by using less materials and energy; substituting toxic materials
for non-toxic materials; designing a product so that it can be disassembled
at the end of its useful life and its components re-used or recycled,
etc.
Eco-efficiency
Put at its simplest eco-efficiency is about
making more and better products with less (materials and being more
energy efficient) and which last longer.
Eco-taxes
These increasing common taxes target goods
and behaviours with the specific intention of persuading consumers
towards greener purchasing and attitudes. An example would be road
tax based on carbon dioxide emissions.
End of pipe
Refers to finding solutions to a problem
at the final stages of its life cycle. This might mean a focus on
waste disposal solutions rather than waste minimisation or design
for recycling.
Fair trade
Trade, especially involving small-scale producers,
that does not put the producers at a disadvantage and ensures they
receive a reasonable price for their products and can work in decent,
healthy conditions. This must adequately cover all costs for sustainable
production and provides them with enough income to develop their
working conditions and business.
Food miles
The distance food has to travel to get from
the source of production to our tables. For example, in a cold country
like the UK, we can live in a city yet still eat imported exotic
foods when we like. To transport the produce to the UK takes fuel
and food miles relate to this fuel and the energy it uses based
on the distance it has had to travel. Food miles enable us to better
understand the real costs and prices of our food production. This
approach can be applied to all scales, products and to many ends
for example, encouraging local production, minimising live animal
transport or increasing the freshness of our food.
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