Glossary
Cleaner production: improvements to a production process so the process uses less energy, water or other input, or generates less waste or less environmentally harmful waste (adapted from the Waste Environmental Protection Policy).
Design for the environment (eco-design or product re-manufacturing): examines a product's life cycle and proposes design changes that minimise its lifetime environmental impact. Impacts that can be reduced through design considerations include:
Raw materials
Design for resource conservation
Design for low-impact materialsManufacturing
Design for cleaner production
Use
Design for energy efficiency
Design for water conservation
Design for minimal consumption
Design for low-impact use
Design for service and repair
Design for durability
End of life
Design for re-use
Design for re-manufacture
Design for dis-assembly
Design for recycling
Design for safe disposal
Distribution
Design for efficient distribution(adapted from Environment Australia website)
Eco-efficiency: is achievable by the delivery of competitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressively reducing ecological impacts and resource intensity throughout its life cycle to a level at least in line with the Earth's estimated carrying capacity. It simply means "doing more with less". Eco-efficiency is not the same as sustainability as it incorporates only the environmental and economic aspects of sustainability, not the social aspect. Cleaner production can be a part of eco-efficiency (adapted from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and Ecosteps websites).
Eco-labels: labels that identify a preference for a product or service, within a specific product/service category, based on the environmental impact of the product or service throughout its life. In contrast to "green" symbols or claim statements developed by manufacturers and service providers, an eco-label is awarded to specific products or services by an impartial third party based on defined environmental leadership criteria (adapted from the Global Ecolabelling Network website).
Ecological footprint: a measure of how much land and water is needed to produce the resources we consume and to dispose of the waste we produce.
Energy efficiency program: a strategic and systematic program that continuously assesses and reduces the energy required to produce a product or provide a service.
Environmental audit or assessment: a means by which businesses can assess the environmental impacts of their operations. The measurement and evaluation of all inputs and outputs from the production process forms the foundation of the audit or assessment. An audit is regular and ongoing, and generally conducted against a benchmark or initial assessment, whereas an assessment is considered the initial meaurement and evaluation (adapted from Environment Australia website).
Environmental economics: a market-based approach to achieving a sustainable economy that integrates long-term economic growth, environmental quality and social fairness through innovative taxes, tax incentives, auctioned permits and other market-based mechanisms (adapted from the Centre for a Sustainable Economy website).
Environmental indicators: an information tool that allows the measurement of environmental, economic and social trends. Indicators can provide both a snapshot of a current situation, and the means to observe changes over time (Environment Australia website). Examples of indicators include energy usage on site for a unit of production (kWh/product), number of accidents on a site per year, and the cost of producing an individual product ($/product).
Environmental management policy: a statement of your business aims in relation to its impact on the environment. It sets overall goals and aspirations for the business and principles for action.
Environmental management system (EMS): a tool for managing an organisation's impact on the environment. It provides a structured approach to planning and implementing environmental protection measures (Environment Australia website). ISO 14000 is a family of internationally recognised standards on environmental management systems (see ISO14000).
Environmental accounting: a system for providing accurate and quantitative measures of the costs and resulting effects, efficiency and effectiveness of investments in environmental preservation activities. The benefit of undertaking a corporate environmental accounting initiative is that the identification and greater awareness of environment-related costs often provides the opportunity to find ways to reduce or avoid these costs, while also improving environmental performance (adapted from the Environment Australia website).
Industrial ecology: a localised, regional network of partnered organisations benefiting from an exchange of resources, information and/or expertise.
Intensity (emissions, energy, materials etc): the amount of environmental impact in the form of energy, materials, water used, or emissions or waste generated, in relation to some unit of productivity. For example, energy intensity may refer to the kilowatt-hours of electricity used to generate a single product (kWh/product). The value of using the intensity rather that the total amount of energy, materials etc is that it relates to the efficiency of the process rather than the size of the process or the quantity of product generated, which can vary from year to year. Intensity is a component of eco-efficiency.
ISO 14000: a family of international standards for environmental management that reflects a global consensus on good environmental practice in the international context but can be applied pragmatically by organisations world wide to their particular situation (International Standards Organisation website).
ISO 9000: a family of international quality management standards and guidelines that reflects a global consensus on product or service quality in the international context but can be applied by organisations world wide to their particular situation (adapted from International Standards Organisation website).
Life cycle assessment (LCA): a quantification of the level of energy and raw materials used as well as the solid, liquid and gaseous wastes produced at every stage of a product's life or process. LCA can be conducted for a whole process or for part of a process. Conducting an LCA can be complicated, therefore it is important to set boundaries for the study.
Mass balance: the quantification of total materials into and out of a process with the difference between inputs and outputs being accounted for as a release to the environment or as part of the facility's waste (NPI website — Emission Estimation Technique Manual for Iron and Steel Production).
National Pollutant Inventory (NPI): a legal requirement for businesses to report annual emissions of specific substances if they exceed certain thresholds of use.
Performance-based contracting: a technique whereby a third party contractor takes responsibility for the management of a specific part of the business. The contractor adopts the risk for managing that part of the business but also gains financial rewards for making it more efficient. The efficiency gains are shared between the contractor and the owner of the business (Environment Australia website).
Product stewardship: a product-centred approach to environmental protection. Also known as extended product responsibility (EPR), product stewardship calls on those in the product life cycle - manufacturers, retailers, users, and disposers - to share responsibility for reducing the environmental impacts of products. By rethinking their products, their relationships with the supply chain, and the ultimate customer, some manufacturers are dramatically increasing their productivity, reducing costs, fostering product and market innovation, and providing customers with more value with less environmental impact (adapted from the USEPA website). "Design for the environment" can form part of product stewardship.
Public environmental reporting: the voluntary public presentation of information about an organisation's environmental performance over a specified period, usually a financial year. An organisation's PER may be published as a stand-alone document, on a company web site or as part of an annual report (Environment Australia website). An expansion of this is Sustainability Reporting (such as the Global Reporting Initiative) whereby a company voluntarily reports its performance based on environmental, social and economic indicators.
Resource exchange/industrial partnerships: Industrial partnerships build on and facilitate use of resources, information and/or expertise. For example, the exchange of waste between your facility and another facility that can use it as a resource can save money for both companies in disposal and raw material costs. Industrial partnerships form the basis of industrial ecology, which is a localised and regional network of partnered organisations benefiting from an exchange of resources, information and/or expertise.
Sustainability: creating new ways to live and prosper while ensuring an equitable, healthy future for all people and the planet (Natural Step website).
Sustainability plan: a structured plan, process or roadmap that assists a business in becoming sustainable in an environmentally, economically and socially responsible manner.
Sustainability tools and programs: a website, concept, international standard, publication, training program etc used to educate and facilitate implementation of actions towards becoming sustainable. For example, life cycle assessments and environmental management systems are considered tools.
Sustainable development: development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (The Brundtland Report, 1997).
Taking back your product: take back programs allow a manufacturer to reduce the environmental impact of their product by collecting it, usually for recycling, when the consumer has no further use for it.
Triple bottom line (TBL): describes the integration of economic, environmental and social aspects of an organisation. Often used in relation to an integrated reporting system for these aspects.
Waste reduction and/or recycling program: a strategic and systematic program to continuously assess and reduce and/or recycle waste within a process.
Water efficiency program: a strategic and systematic program to continuously assess and reduce and/or recycle water used within a process.
Last updated: 08 January 2004
