GREENEXT Glossaries

  • B Corp Certified

    B Corporation is a renowned private social and environmental certification. There are currently over 4000 Certified B Corporations in more than 70 countries and over 150 industries.

    Biodegradable

    Every material eventually breaks down, but in some cases, it can take thousands of years. Biodegradable materials decompose naturally and do so quicker than their non-biodegradable counterparts.

    Biodiversity

    Biodiversity or biological diversity is defined by the United Nations as "the variability among living organisms from all sources including, among other things, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are a part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems".

    Blue Carbon

    Blue carbon is carbon sequestration (the removal of carbon dioxide from the earth's atmosphere) by the world's oceanic and coastal ecosystems, mostly by algae, seagrass, macroalgae, mangroves, salt marshes, and other plants in coastal wetlands.

    Blue economy

    The “Blue Economy” comprises the economic activities that create sustainable wealth from the world’s oceans and coasts. The center examines ways that ocean and coastal resources can support economic development and enhance healthy, resilient oceans and well-managed coastlines.

  • Carbon Credit

    A carbon credit is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permits representing the right to emit a set amount of carbon dioxide or the equivalent amount of a different greenhouse gas.

    Carbon Emissions

    Polluting carbon substances released into the atmosphere: carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide produced by motor vehicles and industrial processes and form pollutants in the atmosphere.

    Carbon Footprint

    A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place, or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).

    Carbon Negative

    This means removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, or sequestering more carbon dioxide than is emitted. This might include a bioenergy process with carbon capture and storage.

    Carbon Neutral

    A state of net-zero carbon dioxide emissions. This can be achieved by balancing emissions of carbon dioxide with its removal (often through carbon offsetting) or by eliminating emissions from society (the transition to the "post-carbon economy").

    Carbon Offsetting

    A carbon offsetting is a reduction or removal of emissions of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for emissions made elsewhere.

    Carbon Peak

    Carbon peak refers to the point in time in which greenhouse gas emissions will shrink in each following year, until it reaches emissions levels we deem to be safe.

    Carbon Sequestration

    The process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is one method of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with the goal of reducing global climate change.

    Cellulose Fibres

    Fibers are made with ethers or esters of cellulose, which can be obtained from the bark, wood, or leaves of plants, or from other plant-based materials.

    Circular Fashion

    Circular fashion refers to the entire lifecycle of a product and centers on a circle of create-use-recycle, rather than create-use-dispose. It looks deeper into the materials that are repurposed from the product

    Circularity

    A new vision for the fashion industry, one which describes the ability for companies to produce clothing and accessories in a way that they can be made without microfibers and other harmful materials. Doing so will increase the longevity of the item, which can then be recycled and repurposed into another product as needed.

    Climate Resilience

    Climate resilience is defined as the "capacity of social, economic and ecosystems to cope with a hazardous event or trend or disturbance".

    Closed Loop Design

    Refers to a product designed to have other functions after use to avoid all waste. A used product can become another brand new product or a usable resource.

    Compost

    Compost is organic material that can be added to soil to help plants grow. Food scraps and yard waste together currently make up more than 30 percent of what we throw away, and could be composted instead.

    Conscious Consumerism

    Conscious consumerism is when buying practices are driven by a commitment to making purchasing decisions that have a positive social, economic, and environmental impact.

    Cradle-to-cradle (C2C)

    Cradle-to-cradle (C2C) is about seeing garbage as an eternal resource and doing the right thing from the beginning. It is about making community and product development function in the same way as a healthy ecological system where all resources are used effectively, and in a cyclical way

    Cradle-to-grave

    'Cradle-to-grave' assessment considers impacts at each stage of a product's life-cycle, from the time natural resources are extracted from the ground and processed through each subsequent stage of manufacturing, transportation, product use, and ultimately, disposal.

    Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

    Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a form of international private business self-regulation which aims to contribute to societal goals of a philanthropic, activist, or charitable nature by engaging in or supporting volunteering or ethically oriented practices.

  • Decarbonization

    Decarbonization is the term used for the removal or reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) output into the atmosphere. Decarbonization is achieved by switching to the usage of low carbon energy sources.

    Deforestation

    Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use.

    Doughnut Economics

    The Doughnut, or Doughnut economics is a compass to ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials, while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth’s life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend – such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and a protective ozone layer.

    Down-cycling

    Downcycling, or cascading, is the recycling of waste where the recycled material is of lower quality and functionality than the original material.

  • Eco-Fashion

    A closely linked phrase to the sustainable fashion movement. Eco-fashion is unique due to its commitment to creating items that keep the health of our world in mind. Often, eco-fashion products will be made out of raw materials such as hemp and organic cotton, and linen.

    Eco-labels

    Ecolabels are marks placed on product packaging or in e-catalogs that can help consumers and institutional purchasers quickly and easily identify those products that meet specific environmental performance criteria and are therefore deemed “environmentally preferable”.

    Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)

    Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are a set of standards for a company’s behavior used by socially conscious investors to screen potential investments.

    Ethical Trade

    Having confidence that the products and services we buy have not been made at the expense of workers in global supply chains enjoying their rights. It encompasses a breadth of international labor rights such as working hours, health and safety, freedom of association, and wages.

    Extinction

    in biology, the dying out or extermination of a species. Extinction occurs when species are diminished because of environmental forces or because of evolutionary changes in their members.

  • Fair Trade

    A way of buying and selling products that makes certain that the people who produce the goods receive a fair price

    Fast Fashion

    A term used to describe the clothing industry business model of replicating recent catwalk trends and high-fashion designs, mass-producing them at a low cost, and bringing them to retail stores quickly while demand is highest.

    Fossil fuels

    Fossil fuels are made from decomposing plants and animals. These fuels are found in the Earth’s crust and contain carbon and hydrogen, which can be burned for energy. Coal, oil, and natural gas are examples of fossil fuels.

    FSC-certified

    FSC-certified means that the fabric is made from tree fibers that come from sustainable sources in that they do not originate from endangered or ancient forests. Rather, the fibers here come from well-managed forests and large scale areas of conservation.

  • Global warming

    Global warming is the long-term warming of the planet’s overall temperature. Though this warming trend has been going on for a long time, its pace has significantly increased in the last hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels.

    Greenhouse effect

    The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs when gases in Earth's atmosphere trap the Sun's heat. This process makes Earth much warmer than it would be without an atmosphere.

    Greenhouse gases (GHGs)

    A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

    Greenwashing

    A form of marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.

  • Kyoto Protocol

    An international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part one) global warming is occurring and (part two) that human-made CO2 emissions are driving it.

  • Land Degradation

    A process in which the value of the biophysical environment is affected by a combination of human-induced processes acting upon the land.

    Land Use

    The management and modification of natural environment or wilderness into built environments such as settlements and semi-natural habitats such as arable fields, pastures, and managed woods.

    LEED® Rating System

    LEED® rating system provides an independent, third-party verification that a building, home or community was designed and built by using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of the environment and human health.

    Lifecycle Assessment

    Lifecycle Assessment is a systematic analysis of environmental impact over the course of the entire life cycle of a product, material, process, or other measurable activity.

  • Microplastics

    Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than 5 mm (0.20 in) in length, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Chemicals Agency.

    Minimalism

    Minimalism is a lifestyle in which one removes/donates all items they don't need, only keeping the essentials. From that point on, then do not buy any new items unless it is viewed as absolutely necessary. If you are trying to get into minimalism, starting a capsule wardrobe may be a good place to start.

    Mircofibre

    Microfiber is synthetic fiber finer than one denier or decitex/thread, having a diameter of less than ten micrometers.

  • Natural Fibres

    Fibers that are produced by geological processes, or from the bodies of plants or animals.

    Non-renewable resources

    A non-renewable resource is a natural resource that cannot be readily replaced by natural means at a pace quick enough to keep up with consumption.

  • Paris Agreement

    Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change, adopted in 2015. It covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The Agreement was negotiated by 196 parties at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference near Paris, France.

    Post-consumer Waste

    A waste type that is produced by the end consumer of a material stream; that is, where the waste-producing use did not involve the production of another product.

    Pre-consumer Waste

    Pre-consumer waste is any material that is discarded before it reaches the consumer.

    Product Stewardship

    An approach to managing the environmental impacts of different products and materials and at different stages in their production, use, and disposal.

  • Reconstruction

    Reconstruction is the process of making new clothes from previously worn garments or performed finished products.

    Regenerative Agriculture

    Regenerative Agriculture describes farming and grazing practices that, among other benefits, reverse climate change by rebuilding soil organic matter and restoring degraded soil biodiversity – resulting in both carbon drawdown and improving the water cycle.

    Renewable Resources

    A natural resource that will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of time on a human time scale.

    Responsible Consumerism

    Responsible consumerism, also known as ethical consumerism, revolves around choosing goods that are ethically sourced, ethically made and ethically distributed.

    Rewilding

    Activities are conservation efforts aimed at restoring and protecting natural processes and wilderness areas.

  • Scope 1,2 and 3

    Greenhouse gas emissions are categorized into three groups or 'Scopes' by the most widely-used international accounting tool, the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol.

    Scope 1

    Scope 1 covers direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Fuel combustion, Company vehicles, Fugitive emissions.

    Scope 2

    Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating and cooling consumed by the reporting company.

    Scope 3

    Scope 3 includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain.

    Sharing Economy

    An economic model in which goods and resources are shared by individuals and groups in a collaborative way such that physical assets become services

    Supply Chain

    A network between a company and its suppliers to produce and distribute a specific product to the final buyer.

    Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

    A collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all". The SDGs were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly (UN-GA) and are intended to be achieved by 2030.

    Synthetic Fibres

    Synthetic fibres are fibers made by humans through chemical synthesis, as opposed to natural fibers that are directly derived from living organisms, such as plants (like cotton) or fur from animals.

  • Take-make-use-dispose model

    A linear model of resource consumption that harvests and extracts materials, uses them to manufacture a product, and sells the product to a consumer, who then discards it as waste.

    Textile Recycling

    The process of recovering fibre, yarn or fabric and reprocessing the textile material into useful products.

    Traceability

    The ability to trace products during each step of the manufacturing process, from collecting the raw materials to the good being laid out in a storefront or stored at a warehouse.

    Transparency

    The practice of freely distributing information on how a product is made. Transparent activities include sharing where fabric is sourced, who sews the clothing together, and the means of transportation used to get products to the storefronts.

    Triple Bottom Line

    In economics, the triple bottom line (TBL) maintains that companies should commit to focusing as much on social and environmental concerns as they do on profits.

  • Upcycling

    The process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products perceived to be of greater quality, such as artistic value or environmental value.

    Urbanisation

    The process by which large numbers of people become permanently concentrated in relatively small areas, forming cities.

  • Value Chain

    A value chain is a set of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product to the end customer.

  • Waste Stream

    The complete flow of a specific type of waste from domestic or industrial areas through to recovery, recycling, or disposal.

    Woke Washing

    Woke washing describes when a brand (whether that be a store, brand or corporation) expresses support for a social justice movement in words or actions but continues to hurt communities in need.

  • Zero Carbon

    No carbon emissions are being produced from a product or service (for example, a wind farm generating electricity, or a battery deploying electricity).

    Zero Waste

    A set of principles focused on waste prevention encourages the redesign of resource life cycles so that all products are reused.