Glossary of terms related to
carbon footprint measurement

End-of-life carbon covers the greenhouse gas emissions released when a product is discarded. It is a key, often overlooked life-cycle stage and a typical Scope 3 category in corporate carbon accounting.

The end-of-life carbon footprint quantifies the emissions, and the avoided emissions, linked to what happens to a product once it is discarded: collection, recycling, recovery or disposal.

A practical guide to energy efficiency: what it is, how it is calculated, the EU rules that drive it, and why it is one of the cheapest ways to cut emissions and costs.

The EU energy label is a mandatory A to G rating that shows a product's energy efficiency. Since 2021 it has been rescaled to remove the old A+/A++/A+++ classes.

Environmental aspects are the points where an organisation's activities interact with the environment, from emissions and discharges to resource use. Identifying them is the basis of environmental management.

What environmental governance is, why it matters for climate action, its key components, and how it connects to measuring and reducing the corporate carbon footprint.

What environmental impact means, how it is classified and measured, and why quantifying it (starting with your carbon footprint) is the first step to reducing it.

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is the procedure that identifies, predicts and mitigates the environmental effects of a project before it is approved, supporting informed and sustainable decisions.

Environmental legislation is the set of international, EU and national laws that protect the environment, control emissions and increasingly require companies to measure and disclose their impact.

Environmental neutrality is the state in which an activity's negative impacts on the environment are minimised and then offset or restored to reach a net-zero or net-positive balance.

Learn what an environmental policy is, why companies need one, the elements of an effective policy and how to implement it, with links to the regulations that shape it.

An EPD is a verified, registered document that reports the life-cycle environmental performance of a product in a standardised, comparable way under ISO 14025.

What environmental responsibility means for companies, why it matters strategically, and the tools and legal framework, from carbon measurement to Spain's Law 26/2007, that support it.

Spain's Law 26/2007 transposes the EU Environmental Liability Directive, holding operators financially responsible for preventing and repairing the environmental damage they cause.

Environmental rights guarantee a healthy and sustainable environment and the rights to information, participation and justice. Learn what they are, how they evolved and what they mean for companies.

Environmental sustainability indicators (KPIs) are quantitative metrics that track resource use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste, helping organisations measure and manage their environmental impact.

Environmental sustainability indicators (KPIs) are metrics that measure an organisation's environmental performance, from scope emissions to carbon intensity or recycling.

A set of environmental, social and governance criteria used by investors, regulators and customers to assess a company's sustainable and responsible performance.

The EDCI is a private-markets initiative that standardises a core set of ESG metrics so general partners and limited partners can compare performance. Its anonymised benchmark is aggregated by Boston Consulting Group.

An overview of ESG due diligence obligations: what they cover, the EU rules after the Omnibus I simplification, and the international standards companies use to comply.

ESG reporting in Argentina's capital market rests on four pieces. CNV General Resolution 1115/2026, published on 2 March 2026, requires issuers to disclose their environmental or sustainability policy and their main performance indicators in the annual directors' report, or explain why they are not relevant. The Corporate Governance Code of General Resolution 797/2019 works on the same comply or explain basis. The Guidelines for the issuance of thematic securities govern social, green and sustainable bonds. And FACPCE Technical Resolution 60 sets out how a sustainability report is prepared.

ESRS 1 establishes the architecture, concepts and general principles of the ESRS, including double materiality. It contains no specific disclosures: it sets the rules of the game.

ESRS E2 is the European Sustainability Reporting Standard covering air, water and soil pollution, applied when pollution is a material topic under the CSRD.

ESRS E3 is the European Sustainability Reporting Standard for water and marine resources, covering water consumption, water risk and impacts on oceans within CSRD reporting.

ESRS E4 is the European Sustainability Reporting Standard for biodiversity and ecosystems, requiring companies to assess and disclose how they affect and depend on nature.

What ESRS E5 (resource use and circular economy) is, what information it requires on resource inputs and outputs, waste and circularity, who it applies to within the CSRD and how it changes with the 2026 ESRS review.

ESRS S1 is the social standard within the ESRS that requires companies to disclose how they treat and protect their own workforce, from working conditions to labour rights.

ESRS S2 'Workers in the value chain' is the CSRD social standard that requires companies to disclose the impacts, risks and opportunities relating to workers in their upstream and downstream value chain.

ESRS S3 is the social standard within the ESRS that addresses how a company's operations and value chain affect communities, from human rights to access to resources.

ESRS S4 is the European Sustainability Reporting Standard covering impacts, risks and opportunities related to consumers and end-users, from product safety to responsible consumption.

Adopted in 2021, the EU Adaptation Strategy aims for a climate-resilient Europe by 2050, organised around four objectives: smarter, faster and more systemic adaptation, plus stepped-up international action.

The EU Circular Economy Action Plan (2020) is a pillar of the European Green Deal that aims to make products more durable, repairable and recyclable, and to use resources far more efficiently.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 banning the placing on the EU market of seven deforestation-linked commodities unless they are deforestation-free, legal and traceable.

The EU Ecodesign Directive (2009/125/EC) introduced mandatory energy and environmental requirements for energy-related products. It has been repealed by the ESPR (Regulation (EU) 2024/1781), which extends ecodesign to almost all products.

Official EU voluntary eco-label awarded to goods and services that meet strict, life-cycle-based environmental criteria, governed by Regulation (EC) 66/2010.

The European Circular Economy Strategy, anchored in the European Green Deal and the 2020 Circular Economy Action Plan, drives the EU towards a regenerative, resource-efficient and climate-neutral economy.

Regulation (EU) 2024/1781 (ESPR) replaces the old Ecodesign Directive and extends sustainability and circularity requirements to nearly all products sold in the EU, introducing the Digital Product Passport.

The European Green Deal is the EU's growth strategy to become climate neutral by 2050, with binding 2030 and 2040 targets that increasingly shape how companies report.

The 2018 European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy was the EU's first comprehensive framework to rethink how plastics are designed, used and recycled, and the basis for later single-use plastics and packaging rules.

The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) define the sustainability information companies report under the CSRD. A simplified revised set is on its way for financial years from 2027.

The ESRS are the standards that develop the CSRD and define what a company must disclose on environment, social matters and governance. Learn about their structure and status in 2026.

End of waste status lets recovered materials such as scrap metal, glass or recycled plastic re-enter the market as products once they meet legal criteria, removing administrative burdens and opening new business lines.

An energy recovery facility recovers the energy content of non-recyclable waste, sitting in the EU waste hierarchy just after recycling and before disposal as a complement, not a substitute, for recycling.

How ESG reporting captures waste generation, recycling and circularity, why it matters for CSRD compliance and investors, and which standards and indicators companies use to report it.

Implementing an ESG strategy means embedding environmental, social and governance criteria into the business model to manage risk, build trust and create long-term value.

Mexican technical and legal instrument that projects potentially harmful to the environment must submit to SEMARNAT so their impacts can be identified, assessed and mitigated before approval.

End-of-life tyres (ELTs) are a high-volume, hard-to-degrade waste stream, but also a valuable source of secondary raw materials in the circular economy.

Energy recovery turns the energy content of non-recyclable waste into electricity, heat or fuels. A guide to the technologies, the rules, the benefits and the controversies, and its place in the circular economy.