Glossary

Absolute Data: Unmodified, exact figures that quantify environmental impacts, such as total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, as opposed to relative data which is normalized by revenues or volumes of production, for ease of comparison across companies or investments.

Biodiversity: The diversity of all living organisms. Can be measured on various levels, from genetic diversity to species diversity, ecosystem diversity or functional diversity.

Carbon Metrics: Measurements and indicators that quantify the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions associated with activities, products, or services.

Earth System Impact (ESI) Score: A comprehensive analytical tool that assesses the global Earth system impact of local environmental impact of business activities by considering interactions between climate, water, and land use.

Ecological Economics: A transdisciplinary field that addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems, aiming to promote sustainability and well-being.

Ecological Footprints: A measure of human demand on Earth’s ecosystems, quantifying the amount of natural resources consumed and the amount of waste produced.

Ecosystem Services: The various benefits humans derive from healthy ecosystems; ranging from e.g. provision of food, natural pollination of crops, and clean air and water, to decomposition of wastes, or flood control.

Environmental Materiality: Issues that are of critical importance to understand human impact on the environment and should be accounted for in corporate disclosures, regardless of their financial materiality.

Essential Environmental Impact Variables (EEIVs): A set of proposed environmental disclosures grounded in the science of the nine planetary boundaries that capture complex system dynamics and provide a transparent prioritization for disclosing corporate environmental impacts. EEIVs encompass 15 variables across three levels: emissions, location and use, and sector-specific operations.

Financial Materiality: The significance of factors that directly affect a company’s financial performance, often focusing on short-term impacts.

Greenwashing: The practice of making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company’s practices to appear more environmentally friendly than they are.

Natural Capital: The world’s stocks of natural resources, including geology, soil, air, water, and all living organisms, which provide ecosystem services essential for human survival and economic activity.

Planetary Boundaries: Thresholds or limits within which humanity can safely operate, preventing large-scale and potentially irreversible environmental changes.

Relative Data: Comparative metrics that measure environmental impacts in relation to another variable, such as CO 2 emissions per unit of production, which can sometimes obscure the total impact.

Resilience Science: A field of study focused on the ability of systems, particularly ecological and social systems, to withstand and recover from disturbances and changes.

Resource Depletion: The exhaustion of natural resources due to overuse or unsustainable management, leading to a decline in the availability of these resources.

Sustainability Science: An interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the interactions between natural and social systems and develop solutions to complex environmental challenges.

Systemic Risks: Risks that affect an entire system or sector, often resulting from interconnected and interdependent factors, and potentially causing widespread impact.