Glossary
GLOSSARY
Here are some definitions of the commonly seen phrases within sustainable and responsible fashion that we have looked up from various cited sources! We hope that by sharing this compiled finding on what we know, it can help to promote deeper thinking and understanding about sustainability in fashion.
Happy Reading!
Carbon Emissions
Emissions means the release of greenhouse gases and/or their precursor into the atmosphere over a specified area and period of time. Carbon dioxide emissions, or CO2 emissions, are emissions that stem from the burning of fossil fuels and the manufacture of cement. They include carbon dioxide produced during consumption of solid, liquid and gas fuels as well as gas flaring.
Carbon Footprint
A measurement of the emission of gases that contribute to heating the planet in carbon dioxide equivalents per unit of time or product.
It is worth noting that the concept of a “carbon footprint” was created by British oil company BP in an attempt to shift blame for the global climate crisis onto individual consumers rather than oil and gas companies.
(Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1034)
Carbon Offsets
A compensation for carbon dioxide emissions resulting from industrial or other human activity; a quantifiable amount of such compensation as a tradable commodity. (Karki, M et al., 2018. p.540)
Carbon Tax
A compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the governments on business profits, or added to the cost of goods, services, and transactions in proportion to the consequential amounts of carbon released into the atmosphere.
(Karki, M et al., 2018. p.540)
Circular Economy
A regenerative system in which resource input and waste, emission, and energy leakage are minimized by slowing, closing, and narrowing material and energy loops. This can be achieved through long-lasting design, maintenance, repair, reuse, remanufacturing, refurbishing, and recycling (Geissdoerfer et al., 2017). (Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1034)
Climate Change
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time (i.e., decades to millions of years). Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather within the context of longer-term average conditions. Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change, often referred to as global warming.
A change in climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
(Karki, M et al., 2018. p.541)
CO2 Equivalent
The amount of CO2 emission that would have an equivalent effect on a specified key measure of climate change, over a specified time horizon, as an emitted amount of another greenhouse gas (GHG) or a mixture of other GHGs.
Composting
Composting is a process of reducing vegetable and animal refuse, ether by natural biological decomposition of organic material in the presence of air or by controlled mechanical methods.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a self-regulating business model that helps a company be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public.
Cradle-to-Cradle
A biomimetic approach to products, product design and systems that are efficient and as waste-free as possible. Also known as C2C, the approach evaluates a product’s overall sustainability across its entire life cycle. The definition can also be expanded to include safe materials and products designed and manufactured in a prosperous, circular economy to maximise health and wellbeing for people and the planet.
Deforestation
Human-induced conversion of forested land to nonforested land. Deforestation can be permanent, when this change is definitive, or temporary when this change is part of a cycle that includes natural or assisted regeneration.
(Karki, M et al.. 2018. p.542)
Continued degradation of the forests can destroy the entire forest cover and biodiversity, and it mainly occurs because of environmental and anthropogenic changes (Tejawasi, 2007).
(Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1036)
Fair Trade
Trading where the goal is to help producers in developing countries get a fair price for their products so as to reduce poverty, provide for the ethical treatment of workers and farmers, and promote environmentally sustainable practises.
Greenwashing
The act of making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or practice. The European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – ESAs) define greenwashing as a practice where sustainability-related statements, declarations, actions, or communications do not clearly and fairly reflect the underlying sustainability profile of an entity, a financial product, or financial services. This practice may be misleading to consumers, investors, or other market participants.
Greenhouse Effect
The process by which heat is trapped near the Earth’s surface by GHGs, to warm the surface of the planet. Without the natural greenhouse effect, the temperature at Earth’s surface would be below freezing and make life as we know it impossible. However, human activities that cause an excess release of GHGs into the atmosphere (e.g carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide) such as burning fossil fuels, intensifies the amount of heat trapped on the surface, primarily due to excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In addition, the removal of natural carbon sinks such as forests via deforestation, causes less carbon to be naturally absorbed, exacerbating the natural Greenhouse effect.
(Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1041)
Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
Greenhouse gases, or GHGs, are gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, both natural and man made, that absorb and emit radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of terrestrial radiation emitted by the Earth’s surface, the atmosphere itself, and by clouds. There are a number of entirely human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as halocarbons and other chlorine- and bromine- containing substances, dealt with under the Montreal Protocol.
(Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1041)
Green/Sustainable Procurement
Sustainable procurement is a process that integrates environmental, governance, and social factors of corporate responsibility into procurement processes and
decision-making, while ensuring they still meet the stakeholder requirements. It aims for the lowest environmental impact possible and the most positive social results.
Harmonised Standards
Harmonised standards are standards on the same subject approved by different standardising organisations to establish inter-changeability of products, process and services, or mutual understanding of test results, or information provided according to these standards.
Heat Island Effect
resulting from a combination of dark heat-absorbing surfaces, heat storage by day and release at night, reduced evaporative cooling from vegetation, waste heat from machinery, and canyon-like streets that trap heat, has contributed a variable proportion to observed urban warming over recent decades.
(Karki, M et al., 2018. p.193)
Kyoto Protocol
An international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which commits its Parties by setting internationally binding emission reduction targets.
(Karki, M et al., 2018. p.546)
Life Cycle
Consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system from raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources to end-of-life treatment.
Montreal Protocol
An international treaty that successfully aimed to regulate the consumption and production of nearly 100 man-made ozone-depleting-substances (ODS). It is one of the few treaties that was successfully followed into completion.
Organic
An agricultural production system that aims to utilise natural processes and cycles to limit off-farm and notably synthetic inputs, while also aiming to enhance agroecosystems and society. Organic farming is legally defined and governed by standards, typically guided by principles outlined by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements.
Organic Agriculture
Any system that emphasises the use of techniques such as crop rotation, compost or manure application, and biological pest control in preference to synthetic inputs. Most certified organic farming schemes prohibit all genetically modified organisms and almost all synthetic inputs. Its origins are in a holistic management system that avoids off-farm inputs, but some organic agriculture now uses relatively high levels of off-farm inputs.
(Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1048)
Overexploitation
Overexploitation means harvesting species from the wild at rates faster than natural populations can recover. Overfishing and overgrazing are also examples of overexploitation.
(Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1048)
Paris Agreement
An international treaty made by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with the intent to mitigate the amount of global GHG emissions, as well as overseeing the process of adapting and financing these mitigations. (Karki, M et al., 2018. p.548)
Recycling
Recycling is the process of collecting, processing, and repurposing materials that would otherwise be thrown away as trash and turning them into new products.
Remanufacturing
Remanufacturing is a comprehensive and rigorous industrial process by which a previously sold, leased, used, worn, manufactured or non-functional product or part is returned to a like-new, same-as-when-new, or better-than-when-new condition from both a quality and performance perspective, through a controlled reproducible, and sustainable process.
Renewable Energy
Energy derived from natural sources that are replenished at a faster rate than they are consumed. Solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and biomass are common sources of renewable energy. Most renewable energy sources produce zero carbon emissions and minimal air pollutants.
Supply Chain Management
Supply chain management (SCM) is the monitoring and optimisation of the production and distribution of a company’s products and services. It seeks to improve and make
more efficient all processes involved in turning raw materials and components into final products and getting them to the ultimate customer.
Sustainable
The use of biological diversity and its components in a way, and at a rate, that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity, thereby maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations. (Karki, M et al., 2018. p.551)
Sustainability
A characteristic or state whereby the needs of the present and local population can be met without compromising the ability of future generations or populations in other locations to meet their needs.
(Karki, M et al., 2018. p.551)
There are multiple and complementary, and in cases conflicting, definitions of sustainability.
(Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1052)
Sustainable Development
Originally popularized by the UN report ‘Our Common Future’ (1987), it is intended to mean development that meets the needs and aspirations of the current generation without compromising the ability to meet those of future generations. (Brondízio, E. S et al., 2019. p.1052)
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
The 17 global goals for development for all countries established by the United Nations through a participatory process and elaborated in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including ending poverty; ensuring health and well-being, education, gender equality, clean water and energy, and decent work; building and ensuring resilient and sustainable infrastructure, cities and consumption; reducing inequalities; protecting land and water ecosystems; promoting peace, justice and partnerships; and taking urgent action on climate change.
Transparency
Transparency is the extent to which investors have ready access to required financial information about a company, such as price levels, market depth, and audited financial reports. Investors also require transparency with investment firms and funds surrounding the various fees that will be charged to them. Transparency can also include clarity for consumers regarding the fees that bank charges or the rate that consumers will ultimately pay to their credit card company.
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. TBL theory posits that instead of one bottom line, there should be three: profit, people, and the planet. A TBL seeks to gauge a corporation’s level of commitment to corporate social responsibility and its impact on the environment over time.
Value Chain
A value chain is a series of consecutive steps that go into the creation of a finished product, from its initial design to its arrival at a customer’s door. The chain identifies each step in the process at which value is added, including the sourcing, manufacturing, and marketing stages of its production
Waste
RCRA states that "solid waste" means any garbage or refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, as well as community activities. It is also defined as a substance or product which is no longer suited for its intended use. Where natural waste (e.g oxygen, carbon dioxide, or dead organic matter) is used as food or reactant in natural ecosystems, waste materials resulting from human activities are often highly resilient and take a long time to decompose. Nearly everything we do leaves behind some kind of waste. It is important to note that the definition of solid waste is not limited to wastes that are physically solid.
For the producer or holder, assessing whether a material is waste or not is important in identifying whether waste rules should be followed. Definitions are also relevant in the collections and analysis of waste data as well as in domestic and international reporting obligations.
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(Big thank you to Holly for assembling this page and researching/updating this glossary page!)
Sources:
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