Sustainability Glossary and Vocabulary

Words related to sustainability and their definitions

Sustainable - A method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.

Strong Sustainability -  Meeting the needs of the current generation in ways providing more than what is needed for future generations to meet their needs. In other words, activities in this lifetime which leave more opportunities for future generations. Strong sustainability includes the maintenance of natural capital (natural resources) at the same level in both current and future life.

Weak Sustainability - Meeting the needs of the current generation in ways providing the same amount of resources for future generations to meet their needs. In other words, activities in the current period which leave the next generation with the same opportunities and yield future generations at least as well off. Weak sustainability mandates the maintenance of the level of total capital allowing maintenance of physical capital levels to offset natural capital level changes. Maintenance of total capital is natural and physical capital combined.

Social Sustainability - Allowing future generations to have the same or greater access to social resources as the current generation while having equal access to social resources within the current generation.

Economic Sustainability - Economic sustainability means to maintain the value of service flows over all periods. This means maintaining the value enabled through an economy over dynamic periods, namely future generations.

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Anthropogenic - Literally meaning 'human created', used to designate when something is generated by humans or by human activity.

Betz' law - The theoretical maximum possible efficiency of wind turbines, stated by German physicist Albert Betz, to be 59.3 percent.

Biodiesel - Fuel made from vegetable oils, fats and greases. Biodiesel can be used in regular diesel engines without any alterations. 

Biofuel - Liquid fuels and blending components produced from biomass (plant) materials, used primarily for transportation.

Biomass - Biomass is any biological source found on the earth. It includes wood, wood waste, crops, manure and even some garbage. Like fossil fuels, biomass contains stored energy form the sun, but it doesn't contain nearly as high a concentration as coal, oil or natural gas because biomass sources only store years' to decades' worth of the sun's energy, not millennia. Biomass is considered renewable because we can always grow more trees and crops, and humans are constantly producing waste. 

Carbon Credit - An international attempt to mitigate the growth in concentrations of greenhouse gasses through a carbon market. One carbon credit is equal to one metric ton of carbon dioxide.  A common criticism is difficulty mesuring overall effectiveness and market control determined by industry lobbying.

Carbon Dioxide Equivalent -  sometimes used in Carbon Footprint calculations as a measure of conversion of other gas emissions.

Carbon Footprint - The summation of carbon emissions (both terrestrial and fossil) caused by one's activities.

Carbon Neutral (or Net Zero Carbon Footprint )- The balancing of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference to achieve zero net carbon emissions. Sometimes referred to as 'becoming Net Neutral'.

Cabon Offset - Mesured in carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e), carbon offsets are a way of mesuring sequestered or avoided emissions.

Clean Energy - Energy sources that can be harvested without directly producing any significant pollution.

Clemson Carbon Footprint - The amount of carbon emitted directly by the University's operation or indirectly by energy generation from non-renewable fossil sources.

Climate Change - A term used to refer to all forms of climatic inconsistency, but especially to significant change from one prevailing climatic condition to another. In some cases, "climate change" has been used synonymously with the term "global warming"; scientists, however, tend to use the term in a wider sense inclusive of natural and unnatural changes in climate.

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) - Using mirrors to collect focused solar energy to create steam to drive a steam engine. Twenty-four hour energy generation is achived using molten metal as a working fluid.

Cultural Eutrophication - The process that speeds up or exgaggerates the impacts of eutrophication, specifically as a result of human influence, activity and disregard. Examples include, parking lots, clearing of land, and construction projects. 

Earth's energy budget - The Earth as a physical system with incoming energy gains and outgoing energy losses maintained in equilibrium.

Ecological Footprint -  A summation of the amount of land, water, energy, damage to environmental systems, waste output, and natural resources used or created to live and reproduce . Used to calculate the number of Earths required to sustain current lifestyles.

Energy Carrier (or secondary energy source) - Move energy in a usable form from one place to another. Electricity is the best-known energy carrier. Hydrogen is another energy carrier and must be produced from another substance. Hydrogen is not currently widely used, but it has potential use as an energy carrier in the future. 

Energy efficiency  - Defined as using less energy to provide the same level of energy service.

Energy farming - Using land to grow crops that provide fuel (such as fast growing tree species).

Energy vs. Electricity - Energy is the ability to do work or the ability to move an object. Practically speaking, energy is stored in anything one can think of. Energy is the food humans use to grow and function and is also what allows for changes between physical states. Electrical energy is usually measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), while heat energy is usually measured in British thermal units (Btu). Electricity is the flow of energy. Technically, electricity is a secondary energy source, also known as an energy carrier. We get electricity from the conversion of primary sources of energy such as burning coal, converting solar power, or nuclear fission. Electricity can be generated by renewable or nonrenewable sources, but it itself is neither renewable or nonrenewable. 

Food vs. fuel - The influence and risk of diverting food supply farmland or crops for higher value biofuels production.

Fossil Carbon - Carbon molecules stored underground and not contributing to the fast carbon cycle.

Global Warming - An increase in the near surface temperature of the Earth. Global warming has occurred in the distant past as the result of natural influences, but the term is today most often used to refer to the warming scientists have observed and predict to continue as a result of increased anthropogenic (man-made) emissions of greenhouse gases.

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) - Those gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride, that are transparent to solar (short-wave) radiation but opaque to long-wave (infrared) radiation, thus preventing long-wave radiant energy from leaving Earth's atmosphere. The net effect is a trapping of absorbed radiation and a tendency to warm the planet's surface.

Grid energy storage - A grid is the layout of an electrical distribution system. Electricity is transmitted through transmission lines, which are a set of conductors, insulators and supporting structures used to move large quantities of power at high voltage (usually over long distances between generating or receiving point and major substation or delivery points). Transmission systems can move, transfer or hold electricity in bulk between points of supply and delivery. Grid energy storage refers to collecting an amount of electricity in a station and waiting to transfer it until needed. 

Hydropower - The electricity generated by flowing water. Hydropower is by far the most productive renewable energy source in the United States and also one of the oldest. Even though it’s a clean, renewable resource, large-scale hydropower is not without controversy. Many of the big Western dams block fish from migrating upstream to their spawning habitats, and dams also change water temperatures, chemistry, and the flow characteristics of rivers in ways that can have pronounced impacts on the aquatic ecology.

Hypertrophication (or Eutrophication) - The environmental response an ecosystem experiences after the introduction of substances or waste into an aquatic system. Examples include, the explosion of marine growth after a lava flow reaches the ocean or an algae bloom resulting from furtilizer run off from a nearby farm, and  the production of demonic acid by diatoms in response to industry dumping dyes into waterways. In the case of demonic acid production in the ocean, this results in the nurvous system poisoning of marine life and humans consuming seafood.

IEDs - Intelligent Electronic Devices, used in smart grid technology to facilitate remote sensing and control. IEDs tracks energy usage from various equipment back to a central source. IEDs are also able to provide 2 way communication between the central substation and the individual building/machine so they not only report any outages or leaks but also have the capacity to turn the machine off from a distance to minimize losses. 

Net energy gain - The difference between the energy spent to harvest an energy source and the amount of energy actually derived from it. Abbreviated NEG, this term is commonly used in energy economics.

Nominal Cost vs. Real Cost - The nominal cost of something is simply the dollar value of the unit while the real cost is the cost adjusted to represent market prices. Examples of real cost is the real interest rate which is adjusted to account for inflation.

Photovoltaic Cells - A device, often made from silicon, which converts some of the energy from light (radiant energy) into electrical energy. Also called a solar cell.

Power - The rate at which energy is transferred. Power can also be used as a measure of capacity. Electrical energy is usually measured in watts. 

Renewable Energy - Renewable energy sources regenerate or are replenished naturally and can be sustained indefinitely. Sometimes you may hear these sources described as alternative, clean or green energy.

Return on Investment (ROI) - The ratio of income to investment. The ratio reflects the ability to generate profit, or income, for a given investment. For example, if you invest $1,000 and make $100 after subtracting all related expenses you have an ROI of 10% (100/1000=0.1).

SCADA - Stands for Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition, refers to computer systems that monitor and control facility-based processes and power generation

Shadow price of capital - A method of discounting (allocating costs and benefits over time) to evaluate policies in terms of their net effects on future consumption. Also defined as the present value of future consumption steams yielded by a dollar's worth of investment today in capital.

Terrestrial Carbon - Organic and inorganic carbon molecules participating in the fast carbon cycle (ie. carbon molecules interacting on land, atmosphere, and oceans).

Tidal power - The electricity generated from the movement of the tides which is sourced in turn from the cycle of the moon. 

Tipping Point - The point in time when the collection of Earth's ecosystems shift irreversibly from the stable state of the past to a new stable state, accelerated by anthropogenic climate change.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) - A treaty to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the biosphere. It is responsible for the Kyoto Protocol which has been negotiated yearly since 1992 at the Conferences of the Parties (COP) summits.

Wind power - Wind energy harnessed to generate electricity. Modern day wind turbines use blades to “catch” the wind and collect its kinetic energy. As the turbines spin, a generator turns and produces electricity. The vast majority of wind turbines in operation today are “horizontal axis” turbines but "vertical axis" turbines also exist to capture vertical wind.