Term

Definition

Upside (Optimist)

Balancing Act (Cynic)

Biodegradable

Used to describe the properties of items that will naturally decompose if left in exposed outdoor environments.

If something disintegrates to become useful to the environment, that’s usually good. Disintegration and decomposition are NOT the same though.

Anything can be made poorly enough to “degrade” or even be toxic after biodegradability. Even organic cotton, dyed with toxic dyes, could be biodegradable and toxic.

Biodiversity

Can mean the variety of DNA among a species to the most commonly used number of species within a given geography.

Since 75% of all species are still not known, losing any before we learn if they may hold a key to human life improvement could mean the loss of something important.

There are millions of species and it is human arrogance to think that all species should have a “usefulness” to humans. However, the rate of extinction as a result of human encroachment is rising substantially.

Bio-fuel

Fuels (mostly automotive or transportation) derived from plant or animal substances

Brings potential sustainability to the production of fuels for primarily internal combustion engines.

Ignores whether the equipment using the fuels is efficient in the first place.

Biomass

Refers to fuels created from biological materials.

When composted can be used as a mulch, a fertilizer and a burnable fuel.

Not exactly the optimum way to generate power, but, more renewable than fossil fuels.

Carbon footprint

The process of calculating the amount of carbon created in any given process or enterprise

Companies (and some people) have a deep seeded need to quantify everything. This metric is the one currently in vogue.

Carbon is good for the soil, bad for the air. Deconstructing human existence into the amount of carbon we convert is like monetizing the value of a life; it’s just a common denominator

Carbon offset

A new method by which carbon emissions produced by one process or practice can be offset by reducing carbon emissions produced by another process or practice.

A method constructed to make people invest a little money to allow them to feel good about something being done somewhere to mitigate the carbon producing practice in which they are engaged.

This is another murky area. If a tree is planted today, how much carbon does that “offset” over its lifetime relative to a vehicle driving around over its lifetime. It’s not very perfect as a common denominator.

Climate change

See Global Warming

The less politicized version of Global Warming since it can be used to define the last ice age, too.

See Global Warming

Close the loop

The practice of purchasing items derived from the diverted material from the waste stream (recycling)

In a world full of assorted wastestreams, the more we close the loop, the less material that goes to landfill

If we don’t purchase the products from recycled materials, the recycling of materials doesn’t actually do any good.

Conservation

The practice of resource management that seeks to balance the resource’s consumption or utilization between natural and human needs.

In its truest sense, conservation strikes the closest possible balance between human interaction with resources and no interaction with resources

In its worst definition, considered to be the “leave it entirely alone forever” concept.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment in all aspects of their operations.

Kind of sad, actually, that this term is only now becoming part of the awareness of corporations.

When corporations ignore CSR, the media is quick to engage. Union Carbide in India, Enron in finance, asbestos industry workers. All have been media subjects as a result of ignoring CSR.