The ultimate Net Zero jargon buster

Navigating the world of Net Zero can be daunting, especially if you are only at the beginning of your journey. We don’t want anyone to feel lost in the sea of jargon when talking to our consultants, to give businesses a head start, we put together our ultimate jargon buster to help you understand to the important parts of your sustainability journey.

Base year: An organisation’s base year is the year used as a baseline to set targets and track emissions against. It’s important to have a base year as it provides a comparison against future years and can demonstrate where progress is made or shortfalls.

Baseline emissions: The starting point measurement of emissions to compare future reductions against.

Beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM): BVCM involves climate mitigation action or investment that falls outside of the business’s value chain. This would include activities that avoid or reduce GHG emissions and could include the purchase of high-quality carbon credits.

Carbon footprint: The total greenhouse gases produced directly or indirectly by an organisation, event, product, or individual.

Carbon neutral: Reducing emissions where possible and offsetting the rest to achieve zero carbon emissions. It can be a term used interchangeably with Net Zero, but as it’s used when counting the use of carbon offsets, it does not necessarily mean that direct carbon reductions have taken place.

Carbon offsetting: Compensating for emissions by funding equivalent carbon dioxide savings elsewhere.

Circular economy: An economic model aiming to eliminate waste and keep resources in use for as long as possible.

Decarbonisation: Reducing carbon intensity in operations, often through renewable energy, energy efficiency, and behaviour change.

Greenhouse Gas Protocol: The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is a comprehensive and widely used standard for measuring and managing GHG emissions. The framework is there to help both the private and public sector operations and the value chain.

Greenhouse gases (GHGs): GHGs are gases that both absorb and re-emit infrared radiation. As they absorb and trap sunlight within the earth’s atmosphere, these gases cause the greenhouse effect. There are seven GHGs:

• Carbon dioxide (CO2)
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
• Methane (CH4)
• Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3)
• Nitrous oxide (N2O)
• Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)

Net Zero: When an organisation balances the amount of greenhouse gases emitted with the amount removed from the atmosphere.

Net Zero emissions: Net Zero is the term used when human-caused GHG emissions are balanced by removing an equal amount from the atmosphere in each period. Everyone’s contribution to Net Zero matters, as globally we need to stabilise the temperature increase at 1.5°C.

Renewable Energy Certificates: Certificates proving electricity has been generated from renewable sources.

Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO): A REGO is a certificate that documents the guarantee of the source of renewable energy and represents 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of renewable electricity generated.

Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi): SBTi is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, WWF, and the We Mean Business Coalition. They define and promote best practices in emission reduction and Net Zero, helping businesses and organisations better align goals with climate science.

Scope 1 emissions: These are GHG emissions that are directly associated with the business activity and are controlled by the reporting company. This would include emissions from items owned by the business, such as cars, boilers and computers.

Scope 2 emissions: Scope 2 emissions include indirect emissions from electricity and steam purchased and used in business operations. This means the emissions occur directly where the electricity is generated.

Scope 3 (value chain) emissions: Scope 3 emissions are indirect GHG emissions that occur in the value chain of the business. This can be either up or down the value chain, meaning that the term ‘value chain emissions’ is sometimes used interchangeably with Scope 3.

Target year: The target year on a Net Zero journey refers to the year that a company commits to achieving the emissions reduction planned for their target. Near-term target years must be between 5 and 10 years, and the long-term target must be 2050 or before.