Terms and definitions
Affected party (stakeholder): person, group of people or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive to be affected by a decision or activity
Allocation: partitioning the input or output flows of a process or a product system between the product system under study and one or more other product systems
Anticipated life cycle greenhouse gas emissions: initial estimate of greenhouse gas emissions for a product that is calculated secondary data or a combination of primary and secondary data, for all processes used in the life cycle of the product
Biogenic carbon: carbon, which is contained in biomass
Biogenic CO2: CO2obtained by the oxidation of biogenic carbon
Biomass: material of biological origin excluding material embedded in geological formations or transformed to fossilised material and excluding peat. This includes organic material (both living and dead) from above and below ground, e.g. trees, crops, grasses, tree litter, algae, animals and waste of biological origin, e.g. manure.
Business to business (B2B): provision of inputs, including products, to another party that is not the end user
Business to consumer (B2C) provision of inputs, including products, to the end user
Carbon footprint (CF): net amount of greenhouse gas emissions and greenhouse gas removals, expressed in CO2equivalents .The CO2equivalent is calculated using the mass of a given GHG multiplied by its global warming potential (GWP). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes the GWP values.
CF programme: voluntary or mandatory international, national or sub-national system or scheme that registers, accounts or manages GHG emissions, removals, emission reductions or removal enhancements outside the organization
Carbon storage: retaining carbon of biogenic or atmospheric origin in a form other than as an atmospheric gas
Carbon footprint of a product (CFP): carbon footprint of a product system
Corporate CF: the footprint of the organisation, which uses materials and energy
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e): unit for comparing the radiative forcing of a GHG to carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide equivalent is calculated using the mass of a given GHG multiplied by its global warming potential.
Carbon footprint product group requirements (CF-PGR): set of specific rules, requirements and guidelines for developing carbon footprint communication for one or more product categories
Capital goods: goods, such as machinery, equipment and buildings, used in the life cycle of products
Climate: weather prevailing at a given location or in a given area, as established statistically by meteorological parameters recorded over a prolonged period
Climate change: change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods
Consumer: individual member of the general public purchasing or using goods, property or services for private purposes
Consumable: ancillary input that is necessary for a process to occur but that does not form a tangible part of the product or co-products arising from the process
Note: Consumables having an expected life time less than 1 year, include lubricating oil, tools and
other rapidly wearing inputs to a process. Fuel and energy inputs to the life cycle of a product are not considered consumables.
Economic value: market value of a product, co-product or waste at the point of production
Elementary flow: material or energy entering the system being studied that has been drawn from the environment without previous human transformation, or material or energy leaving the system being studied that is released into the environment without subsequent human transformation
Environmentally extended input–output (IOA) analysis: method of estimating the GHG emissions (and other environmental impacts) arising from sectors within an economy through the analysis of economic flows
Environmental footprint: based on the GHG Protocol for products/services and organisations the Commission elaborated a new environmental footprint which beside the CF contain other environmental threath for e.g.acidification, eutrophication, The environmental footprint is developed for products/services (PEF) and organisations (OEF).
Fossil carbon: carbon derived from fossilised material including coal, peat, oil, and natural gas
Functional unit: quantified performance of a product system for use as a reference unit
Global warming potential (GWP): factor describing the radiative forcing impact of one mass-based unit of a given GHG relative to an equivalent unit of carbon dioxide over a given period of time
Note: the length of the period is 100 year
Greenhouse gas (GHG): gaseous constituent of the atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, that absorbs and emits radiation at specific wavelengths within the spectrum of infrared radiation emitted by the earth's surface, the atmosphere, and clouds
NOTE: for the definition of the CF according to the Kyoto Protocol the main six GHGs are included: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
Greenhouse gas emission: total mass of a GHG released to the atmosphere over a specified period of time
Greenhouse gas removal: total mass of a GHG removed from the atmosphere over a specified period of time
Greenhouse gas emission factor: amount of greenhouse gases emitted, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent and relative to a unit process or unit of activity
Information module: compilation of data covering a unit process or a combination of unit processes that are part of the life cycle of a product
Input: product, material or energy flow that enters a unit process
Intermediate product: output from a process that is an input to other processes involving further transformation within the system
Land use change: change in the use or management of land by humans, which may lead to a change in land cover direct and indirect land use change may have an impact on GHG sources and sinks, or other properties of the climate system and may thus have a radiative forcing impact and/or other impacts on climate, locally or globally.
Life cycle: consecutive and interlinked stages of a product system, from raw material acquisition or generation from natural resources to final disposal
Life cycle assessment (LCA): compilation and evaluation of the inputs, outputs and the potential environmental impacts of a product system throughout its life cycle
Note: the LCA refers to GHG emissions, removals and storage.
Life cycle impact assessment (LCIA): phase of life cycle assessment aimed at understanding and evaluating the magnitude and significance of the potential environmental impacts for a product system throughout the life cycle of the product
Note: only the impact category climate change is used in the impact assessment phase of the LCA.
Life cycle inventory analysis (LCI): phase of life cycle assessment involving the compilation and quantification of inputs and outputs for a product throughout its life cycle
Material contribution: contribution from any one source of GHG emissions of more than 1% of the anticipated life cycle GHG emissions associated with a product
Offsetting: mechanism for compensating for the carbon footprint of a product through the prevention of the release of, reduction in, or removal of, an equivalent amount of GHG emissions in a process outside the boundary of the product system
NOTE Examples of offsetting include external investment in renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency measures and afforrestation /reforestation.
Organization: company, corporation, firm, enterprise, authority or institution, or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated or not, public or private, that has its own functions and administration
Output: product, material or energy that leaves a unit process
Partial carbon footprint (partial CF) carbon footprint of selected processes of a product system for e.g. the life cycle assessment of a product from a business to an other business (B2B)
Process: set of interrelated or interacting activities that transform inputs into outputs
Product: any goods or service
NOTE: The product can be categorized as follows: service (e.g. transport, implementation of events), software (e.g. computer program, dictionary), hardware (e.g. engine mechanical part), processed material (e.g. lubricant)
Product category: group of products that can fulfil equivalent functions
Product system: collection of unit processes with elementary and product flows, performing one or more defined functions and which models the life cycle of a product
Programme operator: body or bodies that conduct a CF programme. A programme operator can be a company or a group of companies, industrial sector or trade association, public authorities or agencies, or an independent scientific body or other organization.
Product category rules (PCR): set of specific rules, requirements and guidelines for developing Type III environmental declarations for one or more product categories
Primary data (specific data): quantified value of a unit process or an activity within the product system obtained from a direct measurement or a calculation based on direct measurements at its original source
Reference flow: measure of the outputs from processes in a given product system required to fulfil the function expressed by the functional unit
Renewable energy: energy from non-fossil energy sources
Service life: period of time during which a product in use meets or exceeds the performance requirements
Secondary data (generic data): quantified value of a unit process or an activity within the product system obtained from sources other than direct measurement at its original source. Such sources can include databases, published literature, national inventories, and other generic sources.
Secondary products: two or more products resulted from the same process or product system
Note: the product is only in that case considered secondary product if it cannot be produced without to produce the other products
System boundary: set of criteria specifying which unit processes are part of a product system
Supply chain: those involved, through upstream and downstream linkages, in processes and activities delivering value in the form of products to the user
Type III environmental declaration: environmental declaration providing quantified environmental data using predetermined parameters and, where relevant, additional environmental information
Unit process: smallest element considered in the life cycle inventory analysis for which input and output data are quantified
Uncertainty: parameter associated with the result of quantification, which characterizes the dispersion of the values that could be reasonably attributed to the quantified amount
Verification: confirmation, through the provision of evidence, that specified requirements have been fulfilled
Verifier: person or body that carries out verification
Waste: materials, co-products, products or emissions, which the holder discards or intends, or is, required to discarding