GREEN flashcards
GREEN · Build recall with a focused review session.
33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Brundtland definition
- Sustainable development that meets present needs without compromising future generations' ability to meet their own needs, defined in the 1987 report Our Common Future.
- Triple bottom line
- Elkington's framework requiring organizations to account for social (people), environmental (planet), and financial (profit) performance rather than financial results alone.
- Materiality assessment
- Process identifying ESG issues that could reasonably affect enterprise value or stakeholder decisions, ranked by likelihood, magnitude, and relevance to the business model.
- Planetary boundaries
- Nine Earth-system thresholds defining a safe operating space for humanity; climate change and biosphere integrity are assessed as the most critical boundaries.
- Global warming potential
- A factor converting one unit of a greenhouse gas to CO2-equivalent over a stated horizon, usually 100 years, allowing different gases to be summed.
- Scope 1 emissions
- Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources owned or controlled by the organization, such as fuel combustion in boilers, furnaces, and company vehicles.
- Scope 2 emissions
- Indirect emissions from purchased electricity, steam, heat, or cooling; reported using both location-based and market-based methods under the GHG Protocol.
- Scope 3 categories
- Fifteen value-chain categories covering upstream and downstream emissions such as purchased goods, transport, business travel, use of sold products, and end-of-life treatment.
- GHG Protocol
- The most widely used corporate accounting standard, setting rules for organizational boundaries, scope classification, calculation methods, and emissions reporting.
- Science-based target
- A corporate emissions reduction goal consistent with climate science, typically requiring roughly 4.2 percent annual linear reduction for 1.5 degrees Celsius alignment.
- Use of proceeds bond
- A bond whose issuance proceeds are earmarked for eligible projects such as renewable energy or clean transport, with allocation and impact reporting.
- Sustainability-linked bond
- A bond whose financial characteristics, often the coupon, change if the issuer meets or misses predefined sustainability performance targets measured by key indicators.
- Second-party opinion
- An independent external review assessing whether a bond or loan framework aligns with market principles such as the ICMA Green Bond Principles.
- EU Taxonomy
- A classification setting conditions for an activity to count as environmentally sustainable: substantial contribution, no significant harm, and minimum social safeguards.
- Greenium
- The yield difference between a green bond and a comparable conventional bond, reflecting investor demand; its existence and size vary by issuer and market.
- ISO 14001
- The international standard for environmental management systems, built on Plan-Do-Check-Act and requiring policy, aspects register, objectives, controls, and management review.
- Waste hierarchy
- A preference order for waste management, from most to least preferred: prevention, reuse, recycling, energy recovery, and disposal.
- Circular economy
- An economic model that designs out waste and pollution, keeps products and materials in use, and regenerates natural systems rather than following take-make-dispose.
- Life-cycle assessment
- A method quantifying environmental impacts across a product's life using four stages: goal and scope, inventory, impact assessment, and interpretation, based on a functional unit.
- Extended producer responsibility
- A policy making producers financially or physically responsible for the end-of-life collection and treatment of their products and packaging.
- Mitigation hierarchy
- A sequence for managing environmental impacts: avoid first, then minimize, then restore, and only lastly offset residual impacts.
- ILO core conventions
- Eight fundamental labor standards covering freedom of association, collective bargaining, forced labor, child labor, discrimination, and occupational safety and health.
- Human rights due diligence
- An ongoing process of policy commitment, impact assessment, integration, tracking, and remediation, used by companies to respect human rights across operations and supply chains.
- LTIFR
- Lost-time injury frequency rate, calculated as lost-time injuries multiplied by one million divided by total hours worked, allowing comparison across sites.
- Living wage
- Remuneration sufficient for a worker and family to afford a decent standard of living in a specific location, typically above statutory minimum wage.
- Free prior informed consent
- The right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent to projects affecting their lands, resources, or livelihoods before activities begin.
- Social license to operate
- Ongoing acceptance of a company's operations by local communities and stakeholders, earned through behavior and engagement rather than granted by permit.
- Duty of care
- A board director's obligation to act with the diligence, skill, and judgment a reasonably prudent person would apply in comparable circumstances.
- Related-party transaction
- A deal between a company and a director, officer, or affiliated entity, requiring independent review and disclosure to manage conflicts of interest.
- FCPA
- The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prohibits bribery of foreign officials and requires accurate books and records plus internal accounting controls.
- Whistleblowing channel
- A confidential route for reporting misconduct, effective when it offers anonymity options, non-retaliation protection, and independent investigation oversight.
- Additionality
- The principle that a claimed environmental benefit must exceed what would have occurred under business as usual, otherwise the project creates no net change.
- MRV
- Monitoring, reporting, and verification: the system defining which metrics are tracked, how data are collected and reported, and how results are independently checked.