ISO 14000 is a family of standards by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations negatively affect the environment ; (b) comply with applicable laws, regulations, and other environmentally oriented requirements; and (c) continually improve in the above.
The Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks is an Ontario government ministry responsible for protecting and improving the quality of the environment in the Canadian province of Ontario, as well as coordinating Ontario's actions on climate change. This includes administration of government programs, such as Ontario's Drive Clean and Clean Water Act. The ministry headquarters are located inside the Ontario Government Buildings.
A carbon footprint (or greenhouse gas footprint) is a calculated value or index that makes it possible to compare the total amount of greenhouse gases that an activity, product, company or country adds to the atmosphere. Carbon footprints are usually reported in tonnes of emissions (CO2-equivalent) per unit of comparison. Such units can be for example tonnes CO2-eq per year, per kilogram of protein for consumption, per kilometer travelled, per piece of clothing and so forth. A product's carbon footprint includes the emissions for the entire life cycle. These run from the production along the supply chain to its final consumption and disposal.
Carbon offsetting is a trading mechanism that allows entities such as governments, individuals, or businesses to compensate for (i.e. “offset”) their greenhouse gas emissions by supporting projects that reduce, avoid, or remove emissions elsewhere. In other words, carbon offsets focus on offsetting emissions through investments in emission reduction projects. When an entity invests in a carbon offsetting program, it receives carbon credits, i.e "tokens" used to account for net climate benefits from one entity to another. A carbon credit or offset credit can be bought or sold after certification by a government or independent certification body. One carbon offset or credit represents a reduction, avoidance or removal of one tonne of carbon dioxide or its carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e).
Information security standards or cyber security standards are techniques generally outlined in published materials that attempt to protect the cyber environment of a user or organization. This environment includes users themselves, networks, devices, all software, processes, information in storage or transit, applications, services, and systems that can be connected directly or indirectly to networks.
The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a voluntary environmental management instrument, which was developed in 1993 by the European Commission. It enables organizations to assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance. The scheme is globally applicable and open to all types of private and public organizations. In order to register with EMAS, organisations must meet the requirements of the EU EMAS-Regulation. Currently, more than 4,600 organisations and more than 7,900 sites are EMAS registered.
Carbon accounting is a framework of methods to measure and track how much greenhouse gas (GHG) an organization emits. It can also be used to track projects or actions to reduce emissions in sectors such as forestry or renewable energy. Corporations, cities and other groups use these techniques to help limit climate change. Organizations will often set an emissions baseline, create targets for reducing emissions, and track progress towards them. The accounting methods enable them to do this in a more consistent and transparent manner.
Greenhouse gas inventories are emission inventories of greenhouse gas emissions that are developed for a variety of reasons. Scientists use inventories of natural and anthropogenic (human-caused) emissions as tools when developing atmospheric models. Policy makers use inventories to develop strategies and policies for emissions reductions and to track the progress of those policies.
The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom. BSI produces technical standards on a wide range of products and services and also supplies certification and standards-related services to businesses.
The carboNZero programme and CEMARS programme are the world’s first internationally accredited greenhouse gas (GHG) certification schemes under ISO 14065. They provide tools for organisations, products, services and events to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and optionally offset it. The programmes are owned and operated by Toitū Envirocare - Enviro-Mark Solutions Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Landcare Research.
Verification and validation are independent procedures that are used together for checking that a product, service, or system meets requirements and specifications and that it fulfills its intended purpose. These are critical components of a quality management system such as ISO 9000. The words "verification" and "validation" are sometimes preceded with "independent", indicating that the verification and validation is to be performed by a disinterested third party. "Independent verification and validation" can be abbreviated as "IV&V".
ISO 55000 is an international standard covering management of assets of any kind. Before it, a Publicly Available Specification was published by the British Standards Institution in 2004 for physical assets. The ISO 55000 series of Asset Management standards was launched in January 2014.
PAS 2060 is a specification detailing how to demonstrate carbon neutrality produced and published by the British Standards Institution.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began regulating greenhouse gases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act from mobile and stationary sources of air pollution for the first time on January 2, 2011. Standards for mobile sources have been established pursuant to Section 202 of the CAA, and GHGs from stationary sources are currently controlled under the authority of Part C of Title I of the Act. The basis for regulations was upheld in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in June 2012.
ISO 50001Energy management systems - Requirements with guidance for use, is an international standard created by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It supports organizations in all sectors to use energy more efficiently through the development of an energy Management System. The standard specifies the requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining and improving an energy management system, whose purpose is to enable an organization to follow a systematic approach in achieving continual improvement of energy performance, including energy efficiency, energy security, energy use and consumption.
The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) is a non-profit organization working to provide material information for investors and financial markets through the integration of climate change-related information into mainstream financial reporting. CDSB operates on the premise that investors and financial institutions can make better and informed decisions if companies are open, transparent and analyse the risks and opportunities associated with climate change-related information. To this end, CDSB acts as a forum for collaboration on how existing standards and practices can be used to link financial and climate change-related information using its Framework for reporting environmental information, natural capital and associated business impacts.
The Woodland Carbon Code is the UK standard for afforestation projects for climate change mitigation. It provides independent validation and verification and assurance about the levels of carbon sequestration from woodland creation projects and their contribution to climate change mitigation.
The Natural Forest Standard (NFS) is a voluntary carbon standard designed specifically for medium- to large-scale REDD+ projects. The standard places equal emphasis on the combined carbon, social and biodiversity benefits of a project and requires a holistic approach to ensure compliance with the standards requirements and to achieve certification. The NFS applies a standardised risk-based approach to carbon quantification for consistent and comparable baseline calculations and aims to link local actions into national frameworks for reducing the loss of natural forests.
Global net zero emissions describes the state where emissions of carbon dioxide due to human activities and removals of these gases are in balance over a given period. It is often called simply net zero. In some cases, "emissions" refers to emissions of all greenhouse gases, and in others it refers only to emissions of carbon dioxide.
The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard is an initiative for the global standardisation of emission of Greenhouse Gases in order that corporate entities should measure, quantify, and provide reportage of their own emission levels so that global emissions are made manageable. The relevant gases, as described by the 11 December 1997 Kyoto Protocol, that was implemented 16 February 2005, are: carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbons, methane, nitrous oxide, nitrogen trifluoride, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. The protocol itself is under the management of the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The GHGP was launched in 1998 and introduced in 2001.
