We wholeheartedly admit to learning as we go in regard to our Green Security initiatives. We are consistently learning new terms and new ways in which we can communicate our climate initiatives. In that vein, we offer the below commonly used terms within the environment (pun intended) for our collective edification:
Afforestation – Planting of forests on lands that have not previously contained forests.
Carbon footprint – The total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, family, building, organization, or company in a given period of time. A person’s carbon footprint includes greenhouse gas emissions from fuel that an individual burns directly, such as by heating a home or riding in a car. It also includes greenhouse gases that come from producing the goods or services that the individual uses, including emissions from power plants that make electricity, factories that make products, and landfills where trash gets sent.
Carbon Neutral – A process where there is no net release of CO2. For example, growing biomass takes CO2 out of the atmosphere, while burning it releases the gas again. The process would be carbon neutral if the amount taken out and the amount released were identical. A company or country can also achieve carbon neutrality by means of carbon offsetting.
Carbon Negative – The initiative to go beyond carbon neutrality by offsetting more than the amount released. Most high-profile organizations these days are committing to becoming carbon negative, such as Microsoft and us, here at Concentric Advisors. Recently “climate positive” has been used as a synonym that has a more positive connotation, such as by Ikea.
Carbon offsetting – A way of compensating for emissions of CO2 by participating in, or funding, efforts to take CO2 out of the atmosphere. Offsetting often involves paying another party somewhere else to save emissions equivalent to those produced by your activity such as Carbonfund.org.
Climate change – A long-term pattern of change affecting global or regional climate, as measured by yardsticks, such as average temperature and rainfall, or an alteration in frequency of extreme weather conditions. This variation may be caused by both natural processes and human activity. Global warming is one aspect of climate change.
Deforestation – The permanent removal of standing forests that can lead to significant levels of carbon dioxide emissions, as well as a reduced ability to naturally sequester atmospheric carbon.
Global warming – The steady rise in global average temperature in recent decades, which experts believe is largely caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions. The long-term trend continues upwards with 2020 on track to be one of the warmest years on record.
Mitigation – A human intervention to reduce the human impact on the climate system; it includes strategies to reduce greenhouse gas sources and emissions and enhancing greenhouse gas sinks. [8]
Reforestation – Planting of forests on lands that have previously contained forests, but that have been converted to some other use.[1]
To learn more about our green initiates, click here!
