Contested language

An adequate wage is pay assessed as sufficient under the applicable legal, collective-bargaining or normative framework, which may not be identical to a living wage.

Affected communities are groups of people whose rights, wellbeing, livelihoods, environment or cultural heritage may be changed by an organisation's operations or value chain.

Afforestation is the establishment of forest on land that has not recently been forested, subject to the definition and time period used by the relevant framework.

Afforestation, reforestation and revegetation are land-based activities that establish or restore vegetation cover and may generate climate claims when measured against defined rules.

The deliberate process of making strategies, requirements, incentives, data or actions consistent enough to support a shared objective without necessarily making them identical.

The level, scale or pace of improvement an organisation seeks to achieve relative to a sustainability challenge, benchmark or pathway.

The condition in which sustainability information, processes and controls are sufficiently defined, documented, evidenced and governed to support an independent assurance engagement without major...

Avoided emissions are estimated emissions reductions outside an organisation’s own inventory that occur because a product, service or intervention displaces a higher-emitting alternative.

A baseline scenario is the reference case against which emissions reductions, removals, impacts or changes are estimated.

Voluntary action that goes further than the minimum legal or mandatory requirement applicable to an organisation.

Beyond value chain mitigation is climate action or finance outside an organisation's own value chain, intended to support wider mitigation while not replacing internal emissions reductions.

Biochar is a carbon-rich material made by heating biomass in limited oxygen and used in some contexts as a carbon removal or soil amendment pathway.

Blue carbon is carbon stored or sequestered in coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses.

A critical term for presenting an organisation as more socially responsible, ethical or aligned with recognised social principles than its underlying conduct and evidence justify.

Generic, reusable reporting language that could apply to many organisations and therefore provides little entity-specific information about material sustainability circumstances, decisions or performance.

A buffer pool is a reserve of credits or units set aside to manage reversal, non-permanence or other integrity risks in a crediting system.

Cap and trade is a policy design that limits total permitted emissions and allows covered entities to trade emission allowances within that cap.

Carbon farming is the use of land management practices intended to reduce emissions or increase carbon storage in soils, vegetation or agricultural systems.

Carbon leakage is the risk that emissions are displaced rather than reduced when production, investment or demand shifts to places with weaker or different climate constraints.

A carbon registry is a system that records carbon units, ownership, transfers, retirements and project information to support traceability and avoid double counting.

The structured management of the people, process and cultural transition required for an organisation to adopt and sustain a materially different way of working.

A senior executive role responsible for integrating material sustainability issues into strategy, governance, organisational performance and external accountability.

A Claims Code of Practice is a set of rules or guidance for making sustainability or climate claims in a way that is clear, evidenced and not misleading.

The Clean Industrial Deal is an EU policy framework linking industrial competitiveness and decarbonisation through measures for energy-intensive industry, clean technology and circularity.

Climate scenario analysis is a structured exercise that tests how different plausible climate-related futures could affect strategy, financial position, operations or resilience.

A collaborative process in which relevant actors jointly shape a solution, intervention or decision rather than merely commenting on a design produced elsewhere.

A group of organisations or actors that deliberately combine influence, resources or expertise around a shared sustainability objective while retaining their separate identities.

A declared obligation to pursue a defined sustainability objective, backed by sufficient governance, resources and accountability to make delivery a real organisational responsibility.

A compliance carbon market is a regulated system where covered entities must surrender allowances or credits to meet legal emissions obligations.

A structured process in which an organisation seeks stakeholder views early enough to inform a decision and then considers and responds to that input.

A contribution claim states that an organisation has supported a climate or sustainability outcome without claiming that the contribution neutralises or offsets its own impact.

The process by which separate sustainability standards, practices, expectations or methods become more similar or compatible over time.

Core Carbon Principles are integrity criteria used to assess whether carbon credits meet threshold expectations for governance, emissions impact and sustainable development safeguards.

Corporate culture is the shared pattern of values, incentives, behaviours and informal norms that shapes how people in an organisation make decisions.

Corresponding adjustments are accounting adjustments used under international climate accounting to avoid double counting of transferred mitigation outcomes between countries.

Credit retirement is the act of permanently taking a carbon credit out of circulation so it can no longer be transferred or used for another claim.

A crediting period is the defined time during which an activity can generate credits under a programme, methodology or approval.

The decline in responsiveness, care or cooperation that can occur when people or organisations face repeated, overlapping or poorly coordinated requests for sustainability information.

Digital tagging is the process of attaching machine-readable labels to reported information so that it can be searched, compared and processed more efficiently.

Durability is the extent to which a claimed climate or sustainability outcome is expected to last without being reversed, weakened or materially undermined over the relevant time horizon.

Embodied carbon is the greenhouse gas emissions associated with materials, production, transport, construction or other lifecycle stages before or beyond operational use.

An emission allowance is a permission or unit issued under a regulated emissions trading system that authorises the holder to emit a specified quantity within the scheme rules.

The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive refers to EU consumer-protection rules aimed at improving the reliability of environmental information and claims presented to consumers.

A documented approach that specifies why, with whom, when and how an organisation will engage stakeholders, what can be influenced, and how input will affect decisions and follow-up.

Engineered carbon removals are technology-based approaches intended to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it durably.

An analyst who evaluates environmental, social and governance information to assess risks, opportunities, performance or value for a defined decision-making purpose.

An ESG rating is an assessment by a provider of an organisation's environmental, social and governance profile, usually based on the provider's own methodology.

An ESG score is a numerical or categorical expression of an environmental, social and governance assessment, usually dependent on a specific methodology and data set.

Ex-ante credits are credits or units issued or sold before the underlying emissions reduction or removal has fully occurred or been verified.

Ex-post credits are credits issued after the underlying emissions reduction or removal has occurred and has been verified under the applicable rules.

Family-related leave is time away from work connected with childbirth, adoption, parenting, caregiving or serious family needs.

An organisation that adopts a materially new sustainability practice, standard or market position earlier than most peers and therefore faces distinctive risks and potential advantages.

A condition in which sustainability requirements, systems, data or responsibilities are divided across overlapping or inconsistent arrangements that make coherent action harder.

Gold Standard is a certification and crediting standard used for climate and sustainable-development projects that meet its programme requirements.

Green Claims Directive refers to European policy language concerned with substantiating and communicating environmental claims so that consumers are not misled.

Greenhushing is the practice of reducing, withholding or avoiding public communication about sustainability activity, often because of legal, reputational or credibility concerns.

A cognitive bias in which a strong positive or negative impression in one area disproportionately influences judgement about other, less directly evidenced attributes.

The coordinated reduction of unnecessary differences between standards, methods, definitions or requirements so that systems can work together more consistently.

ICVCM is the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, an independent governance initiative focused on quality and integrity signals for voluntary carbon credits.

The use of impact language or claims that overstate, mischaracterise or insufficiently evidence the positive change attributable or contributable to an organisation, investment, product or programme.

The distance between an agreed policy, standard, strategy or commitment and the capabilities, actions and results achieved in practice.

Improved forest management is a change in forest management intended to increase carbon storage, reduce emissions or improve forest outcomes relative to a baseline.

Insetting is the use of emissions reduction or removal activities within an organisation’s own value chain, often in contrast to offsetting outside that value chain.

Integrated reporting is an approach to corporate reporting that connects financial and non-financial information to explain how an organisation creates, preserves or erodes value over time.

The combined people, knowledge, processes, systems, decision rights and organisational routines that allow an organisation to perform sustainability work reliably without excessive dependence on individual...

An internal carbon price is a price an organisation applies inside decision-making to reflect the cost, risk or strategic value of greenhouse gas emissions.

An internationally transferred mitigation outcome is a quantified mitigation outcome transferred between countries under Article 6 accounting arrangements.

An organisation or actor that adopts a relevant sustainability practice substantially later than peers, market expectations or the evolving level of required performance.

A coordinated, place-based effort in which multiple actors work across land uses and jurisdictions to improve shared environmental, social and economic outcomes within a defined landscape.

A relative claim that an organisation performs, acts or influences at a level meaningfully ahead of prevailing peers or expectations on a defined sustainability issue.

Marine resources are living and non-living resources, ecosystem services and ecological functions associated with oceans and coastal environments.

Materiality is the filter that decides which sustainability information matters for a specific decision, audience or reporting obligation.

The gradual, insufficiently governed expansion of what an organisation labels material, often causing a prioritisation tool to lose its ability to distinguish what matters most.

A facilitated session used to examine evidence, perspectives and thresholds relevant to a materiality assessment; it is an input to materiality judgement, not the judgement itself.

Measurement, reporting and verification is the system used to quantify, document, review and confirm emissions, reductions, removals or other performance claims.

An organised forum or governance arrangement in which actors from different sectors or interest groups work over time on a shared sustainability problem.

Qualitative reporting that explains the context, strategy, governance, risks, impacts, judgements and relationships behind sustainability metrics and other disclosed information.

Net zero describes a balance between remaining emissions and removals, but its credibility depends on boundary, pathway and residual emissions.

Non-financial reporting is disclosure about environmental, social, governance and other matters that are not expressed solely through traditional financial statements.

An offsetting claim states that a quantified impact has been counterbalanced by a corresponding credit, reduction or removal elsewhere, subject to the quality of the evidence and accounting boundary.

An omnibus simplification package is a legislative package that amends multiple related rules with the stated aim of reducing complexity, overlap or administrative burden.

Operational carbon is the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use and operation of an asset, building, product or service over time.

Over-crediting occurs when credits or claimed reductions exceed the environmental benefit that can reasonably be attributed to the activity.

Phantom credits are credits that appear to represent an environmental benefit but lack credible evidence that the benefit occurred, was additional, or was not already claimed elsewhere.

A contested term for using 'pink' cause association to project social responsibility or progressiveness without corresponding substantive action; its meaning varies across breast-cancer, LGBTQ+ and...

A public promise or declaration of intended future action, usually expressed before the full delivery pathway has been completed.

Cooperation between organisations that normally compete, focused on shared sustainability challenges where collective action can improve conditions without removing legitimate market competition.

A dynamic in which competition for cost, investment or market share creates pressure to weaken, avoid or under-enforce environmental, social or governance protections.

A dynamic in which competition, regulation, buyer expectations or collective norms encourage organisations or jurisdictions to raise sustainability performance rather than compete by lowering standards.

The use of LGBTQ+ or Pride symbols and messages to present an organisation as inclusive or supportive when its policies, practices, political activity or sustained contribution do not substantiate that image.

REDD+ refers to policy and project approaches intended to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and support conservation, sustainable management and forest carbon stocks.

Reforestation is the re-establishment of forest on land that was previously forested, subject to the definition, baseline and timeframe used.

Regenerative agriculture describes farming approaches intended to improve ecological and social conditions, but definitions vary widely.

The time, cost and organisational effort required to collect, validate, reconcile, govern and disclose information in response to reporting expectations.

A Representative Concentration Pathway is a greenhouse gas concentration trajectory used in climate modelling to describe possible levels of radiative forcing over time.

Reversal risk is the possibility that a stored, avoided or reduced environmental impact is later undone, reducing the reliability of the original claim.

An organisation or actor that must respond to sustainability rules, standards or market requirements it had limited ability to shape.

The discrepancy between what an organisation publicly says it will do or values and what its decisions, resources and observable behaviour actually demonstrate.

The Science Based Targets Network develops methods for companies and cities to set science-based targets for nature across freshwater, land, biodiversity and ocean systems.

The uncontrolled expansion of a project, programme or workstream beyond its agreed objectives and boundaries without corresponding decisions on resources, time, accountability or trade-offs.

The selective or symbolic use of the Sustainable Development Goals to imply meaningful contribution without evidence that strategy, impacts, targets and performance have materially changed.

A coordinated programme, standard, platform or commitment designed to address sustainability issues across a defined industry or value-chain sector.

A shadow carbon price is a notional carbon cost used to test investments, plans or choices without necessarily creating an internal fee or transfer of money.

A Shared Socioeconomic Pathway is a scenario storyline describing possible social, economic and demographic conditions that shape future emissions, vulnerability and adaptation capacity.

Soil organic carbon is the carbon contained in soil organic matter and used as an indicator in soil health, climate and land management discussions.

A structured process for identifying people and groups who affect, are affected by, or hold legitimate interests in a decision, and for understanding the relationships, rights, influence, knowledge and...

An organisation or authorised body that develops, maintains and revises standards or normative requirements through a defined governance process.

Stranded assets are assets whose expected value, use or economic life is reduced because external conditions change, including climate policy, market demand, technology or physical risk.

The ability to understand core sustainability concepts and interconnections, evaluate evidence and trade-offs, and apply that understanding to responsible decisions and action.

A manager who translates sustainability objectives into coordinated programmes, controls, data, responsibilities and operational improvement within an organisation.

A practitioner who applies sustainability knowledge, evidence and judgement to influence organisational decisions, manage impacts and enable change across environmental, social, economic and governance issues.

A sustainability statement is a structured part of corporate reporting that presents material sustainability information, often within or alongside annual management reporting.

Systemic risk is the possibility that disruption spreads through an interconnected system and impairs the functioning or stability of the system as a whole.

A mode of compliance in which completing prescribed forms, controls or evidence becomes the objective, while the substantive risk, purpose or outcome behind the requirement receives insufficient attention.

Traceability is the ability to follow a product, material, claim or evidence record through a defined chain of activities.

Transition risk is the possibility that policy, market, technology, legal or reputational changes linked to a lower-carbon economy affect an organisation, asset, sector or value chain.

Undue cost or effort is a reporting relief used when obtaining or preparing information would impose a disproportionate burden relative to its decision usefulness.

VCMI is the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative, a governance initiative focused on how companies make credible claims when using voluntary carbon credits.

Verified Carbon Standard refers to a carbon-crediting programme used to issue verified units from projects or activities that meet its rules and methodologies.

Verra is a standards organisation associated with carbon and sustainability programmes, including the Verified Carbon Standard.

A credit vintage identifies the period in which the emissions reduction or removal represented by a carbon credit occurred or was verified.

The public expression of socially valued positions in a way that observers may interpret as primarily intended to demonstrate the speaker's or organisation's virtue rather than to create corresponding...

The voluntary carbon market is the market where organisations or individuals buy and sell carbon credits outside mandatory compliance schemes.