Glossar

Ecological restoration refers to measures for the restoration of disturbed ecosystems.

The point at which a relatively small change in external conditions causes a rapid  change  in  an  ecosystem.  When  an  ecological  threshold  has  been passed, the ecosystem may no longer be able to return to its state by means of its inherent resilience.

A dynamic complex of plant, animal and micro-organism communities and their non-living environment interacting as a functional unit. A typology of ecosystems is provided by the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology 2.0.

Embodied Greenhouse Gas Emissions (also known as Embodied Carbon Emissions) refer to the CO₂ emissions generated throughout the entire lifecycle of a product or material – from raw material extraction and production to recycling or disposal. They play a crucial role in corporate carbon accounting, particularly in Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) analysis.

Emission factors are used to estimate the amount of CO₂ emitted by an activity. These values can be found in various databases provided by governments such as DBEIS, ProBAS and EPA or by private providers such as ecoinvent.

Emissions refer to the release of substances into the environment.

The Emissions Trading System (ETS) reduces greenhouse gas emissions through market-based approaches.

An energy audit is a systematic inspection and analysis of the energy consumption of a building or industrial facility. The goal is to identify energy-saving potential, optimize energy consumption, and highlight opportunities to improve energy efficiency.

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