Is ramping up your company’s eco-conscious efforts proving to be a bit of a hurdle? With the complexity of navigating regulations and adopting new technologies, the path to sustainability can indeed be tough. That’s why understanding the relevant sustainability acronyms and terms is crucial. Without this knowledge, implementing your strategies and achieving your green goals can remain a pipe dream. This guide breaks down the essential sustainability jargon, empowering your business to confidently advance its environmental stewardship and drive meaningful change.
Green up with This Comprehensive Sustainability Glossary
The world of sustainability is filled with acronyms and terms that are critical cornerstones of the industry. When shaping a sustainability program for your company, it’s important to get familiar with these concepts and know how they fit into your business. Let’s dive in!
ASTM
This sastainability acronym stands for the American Society for Testing and Materials, an international standards organization. It develops and publishes voluntary consensus technical standards for various industries to ensure sustainable practices. These testing methods include ASTM D6400 and D5511, which are used to test product breakdown in compost and landfill conditions. These testing protocols are the precursor to any certifications from authorized bodies.
Biobased
Biobased primarily refers to products derived from renewable organic resources, such as plants, animals, and microorganisms.
Biodegradable
Materials that naturally decompose into simpler substances like water, carbon dioxide, and biomass with the help of microorganisms under specific environmental conditions are called biodegradable.
Blue Ecocomy
This economic model focuses on the sustainable and responsible utilization of ocean resources to drive economic growth, enhance livelihoods, and create jobs.
Carbon Footprint
This sustainability term quantifies the total greenhouse gases—mainly carbon dioxide—directly or indirectly released by an individual, organization, event, or product.
CDP
This sustainability acronym is an abbreviation for the Carbon Disclosure Project. It’s an international non-profit organization offering a global disclosure platform that enables companies, cities, states, and regions to manage their environmental impacts.
Certifications
In sustainability, certifications are formal acknowledgments that a business or its products meet established environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards by independent organizations.
Circular Economy
Another popular sustainability term, a circular economy refers to an economic framework designed to eliminate waste and continually reuse resources through recycling, reusing, and repairing products.
Compost
Compost is decomposed organic matter used as a natural fertilizer.
Cruz Foam
Cruz Foam is a pioneering and award-winning company in the sustainable packaging space. Its innovative, biodegradable, and compostable packaging solutions help businesses drastically reduce their environmental footprint and embrace a circular model.
CSR
This sustainability acronym for Corporate Social Responsibility is a management strategy whereby businesses incorporate social and environmental considerations into their operations and stakeholder interactions.
Disposal
This sustainability term refers to the discarding of waste materials, typically through landfilling, incineration, or recycling.
End-of-Life
End-of-life refers to the final stage of a product’s lifecycle when it is no longer usable and must be recycled, repurposed, or disposed of.
EPR
EPR, or extended producer responsibility, is a policy approach where producers are given significant financial or physical responsibility (or both) to treat or dispose of post-consumer products.
EPS and EPE
Short for expanded polystyrene and expanded polyethylene, EPS and EPE are lightweight, non-biodegradable plastic foams used in packaging for their cushioning properties.
ESG
The sustainability acronym ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance, a set of criteria established by a combination of regulatory bodies, independent organizations, and standard-setting institutions. These criteria are used to evaluate a company’s environmental impact, social responsibility, and governance practices.
Fair Trade
Fair Trade is a system that guarantees equitable prices, safe work environments, and sustainable practices for producers in developing countries.
Fossil Fuels
A significant source of greenhouse gases, fossil fuels are natural fuels derived from the remains of ancient organisms. Examples are coal, oil, and natural gas,
GHGs
GHGs refer to greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, that capture heat from the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
Greenwashing
Greenwashing refers to deceptive practices where a company exaggerates or falsely advertises its environmental efforts to appear more sustainable.
Hydrofluorocarbons
Hydrofluorocarbons, synthetic compounds used in refrigeration and air conditioning, are potent greenhouse gases with high global warming potential.
Insetting
This is a strategy companies implement to reduce carbon emissions within their supply chain or operations through the direct integration of sustainability into business practices. Insetting is often used instead of offsetting where a company will fund carbon sequestration projects outside of their supply chain.
IPCC
The IPCC, or Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is a United Nations body that assesses the scientific aspects of climate change. It also provides reports on impacts, risks, and mitigation strategies.
ISO
A popular sustainability acronym, ISO stands for the International Organization for Standardization. This independent, non-governmental body develops and publishes standards encompassing products, systems, and services to ensure their quality, safety, and efficiency.
JIT
JIT, or Just-in-Time, is a production strategy that reduces in-process inventory and associated costs by receiving goods only as needed, improving efficiency and reducing waste.
Kyoto Protocol
This 1997 international treaty commits its signatories to reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on agreed targets to mitigate climate change.
LCA
A life cycle assessment or LCA is a comprehensive and systematic analysis of a product’s environmental impacts throughout its lifecycle, from raw material extraction to disposal. LCAs are a great tool to understand a product system’s impact, but can often not show the full picture. For example, conventional plastic products have a very low impact in landfill because they do not break down for hundreds of years. Currently, there is no impact indicator that shows the impacts of microplastics.
Microplastics
Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters, resulting from the breakdown of larger plastic debris. They pose environmental hazards, especially in marine ecosystems.
NDCs
Nationally Determined Contributions or NDCs are commitments by countries under the Paris Agreement to cut down on national greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.
Offsets
Also called carbon offsets, these are projects compensating for carbon emissions by reducing or capturing greenhouse gases elsewhere, such as reforestation and renewable energy projects.
Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement is a 2015 international treaty designed to address climate change by limiting global warming to below 2°C, with a goal of 1.5°C. It seeks to achieve this by reducing GHG emissions through commitments made by individual countries or NDCs.
PCR
PCR, or post-consumer recycled, refers to materials that have been recycled after being used by consumers.
Product Stewardship
This is an environmental management strategy where all stakeholders involved in a product’s lifecycle take responsibility for minimizing its environmental impact.
QMS
Quality Management System, or QMS, is a framework of established protocols for documenting processes, procedures, and responsibilities. Its purpose is to achieve quality policies and objectives.
Recycling
Recycling means converting waste materials and products into reusable resources through various methods, such as sorting, processing, and remanufacturing.
Renewable Energy
Renewable energy is sourced from naturally replenished resources such as wind, solar, and hydro.
Restoration
Restoration is the process of aiding the recovery of degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems.
Science-Based Targets
These are emission reduction targets set by companies in line with climate science to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Scope 1, 2, and 3 Emissions
These greenhouse gas emissions generated by an organization encompass direct, indirect, and value-chain emissions.
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Scope 1 Emissions – Direct emissions from company-owned or -controlled sources, such as emissions from company vehicles and onsite fuel combustion.
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Scope 2 Emissions – Indirect emissions from the electricity, steam, heating, and cooling generated for, purchased, and utilized by the company.
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Scope 3 Emissions – All other indirect emissions in the company’s value chain. These include upstream (early production stages involving raw material extraction and initial processing) and downstream (final stages of production, distribution, and delivery of finished goods to consumers) activities. These often account for 70% or more of a large corporation’s carbon emissions.
SDGs
Established by the United Nations, the 17 SDGs, or Sustainable Development Goals, tackle global challenges like poverty, inequality, and climate change.
Supply Chain
This refers to the network of organizations, resources, activities, and technologies involved in the production, handling, transportation, and distribution of a product from the supplier to the end consumer.
Triple Bottom Line
A three-pronged sustainability framework, it assesses a company’s social, environmental, and economic impacts.
UNFCCC
Short for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UNFCCC aims to combat climate change by providing a structure for negotiating agreements like the Kyoto Protocol.
Upcycled
This sustainability term refers to materials transformed into new products instead of being thrown away.
VOC
VOC is an acronym that stands for volatile organic compounds, organic chemicals that quickly vaporize at room temperature. Emitted anthropogenically (from human activities) and from natural sources like plants, they greatly contribute to air pollution and health issues.
Water Security
Water security refers to ensuring reliable access to adequate, safe water for health, livelihoods, and economic development while protecting against water-related risks and preserving ecosystems.
XRF
XRF, or X-ray fluorescence, is a non-destructive analytical method for determining the elemental composition of materials, aiding in recycling and resource management.
YIMBY
“Yes In My Backyard,” otherwise known as YIMBY, is a movement supporting sustainable urban development by advocating for increased housing density and environmentally friendly projects.
Zero Waste
Zero waste is a strategy or philosophy that aims to redesign product lifecycles to systematically avoid and eliminate waste and conserve resources.
Spell out Your Sustainability Strategy with Cruz Foam
This glossary is just the beginning of the vast Rolodex of sustainability acronyms and terms. Whether you’re just learning the ABCs of eco-friendly practices or well-versed in the intricate language of sustainability, Cruz Foam is here to support your journey.
Cruz Foam boasts innovative reusable and compostable packaging solutions that will enhance your environmental efforts, boost your regulatory compliance, and enhance your reputation. For instance, Cruz Foam’s Cruz Cool™ is a cutting-edge sustainable cold chain packaging solution that’s industrially and home compostable. Choosing Cruz Cool™ is also a smart business move as it offers superior cooling performance, keeping contents cold for over 48 hours.
For impact-sensitive goods, Cruz Foam offers yet another outstanding product in Cruz Cush™. Not only is it a compostable foam solution, but it also delivers high-performance protection with its innovative “block & brace” feature, which is also fully customizable for brand-specific optimization.
Looking for a more robust and sustainable way to ship wine? Cruz Foam has the perfect answer in Eco Vino™. Bioengineered using 70% upcycled food waste, Eco Vino™ is certified biodegradable and compostable foam. Your wine shipments arrive safe and sound so you can keep the party going without letting Mother Nature down.
With Cruz Foam, you can step up to sustainability and set your business apart—partner with Cruz Foam today!
