Glossary of terms related to
carbon footprint measurement

Used oils, both industrial and cooking, are a hazardous waste stream but also a clear opportunity for circularity when they are managed and recovered correctly.

Voluntary Mexican distinction awarded by CEMEFI and AliaRSE that recognises companies meeting high standards of ethics, quality of working life, community engagement and environmental care.

The Spanish Circular Economy Strategy 2030 (EEEC 2030) is Spain's national framework for moving from a linear to a circular, resource-efficient and climate-neutral economy, with measurable 2030 targets.

Specialised Mexican institutes promote sustainable design, construction and operation of buildings, supporting standards such as LEED, WELL and EDGE. The best-documented body is IMES, the Instituto Mexicano del Edificio Sustentable.

Spanish waste law is built on Law 7/2022 on waste and contaminated land, complemented by Royal Decrees on packaging, landfill and other streams. It transposes EU rules and drives the circular economy.

The Spanish Climate Change Office (OECC) is the body within Spain's Ministry for the Ecological Transition that designs and coordinates national climate change policy.

The PECC is Mexico's federal planning instrument for coordinating greenhouse gas mitigation and climate adaptation actions across government.

Mexico City's PCES is a voluntary scheme that certifies buildings designed, built and operated under sustainability and resource-efficiency criteria.

The UN Global Compact Mexico is the local network of the United Nations Global Compact, mobilising Mexican businesses to align their strategies with its Ten Principles and the SDGs.

The SFDR (Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation) is the EU rule that governs sustainability disclosures by investors and financial advisers, built around its Article 6, 8 and 9 product categories.

A federal SEMARNAT authorisation that brings together, in a single procedure, the air-emission obligations of federally regulated stationary sources, complemented by the Annual Operating Report.

The social dimension of the carbon footprint: how consumption, equity and governance influence emissions, and how a just transition makes climate action fair as well as effective.

Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) integrates environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into investment decisions, seeking financial returns alongside positive impact.

Legislative Decree 1278, Peru's Integrated Solid Waste Management Law, and its regulations set the duties of non-municipal waste generators: recovery as the first option, an internal register, a Minimisation and Management Plan inside the environmental management instrument, and annual and quarterly filings through SIGERSOL.

SQAS (Safety and Quality Assessment for Sustainability) is a CEFIC assessment system that evaluates logistics service providers and chemical distributors against a standardised questionnaire.

Strategic water replenishment returns water to nature in volumes equivalent to what a company consumes, helping it move towards water neutrality or a net-positive water impact.

SUMe (Sustentabilidad para México) is a multi-sector non-profit and Mexico's member of the World Green Building Council, promoting sustainable construction, energy efficiency and responsible use of natural resources.

Supply risk measures how likely and how damaging a disruption to critical resources would be, combining availability, dependency, volatility and vulnerability across the value chain.

The SASB Standards are industry-specific sustainability disclosure standards, maintained since 2022 by the ISSB within the IFRS Foundation.

External, independent verification that lends credibility to sustainability information. The CSRD requires limited assurance, using standards such as the IAASB's ISAE 3000 and ISSA 5000.

Sustainability disclosure in Colombia is driven by Financial Superintendence circulars, chiefly External Circular 031 of 2021 for securities issuers and External Circular 015 of 2025 on environmental, social and climate risk. IFRS S1 and S2 are not mandatory: they sit in a voluntary convergence process led by the CTCP.

Bonds whose financial characteristics, such as the coupon, change if the issuer fails to meet predefined sustainability performance targets (SPTs) measured through KPIs.

What a sustainability report is, why it matters, what it should contain, how to prepare one step by step, and the standards and EU rules, from GRI to the CSRD, that govern it.

The Sustainability Reporting Standards (NIS) are the framework issued by the CINIF in Mexico to standardise the reporting of environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts.

Sustainable conferences and events follow UNFCCC guidance to measure and reduce their environmental footprint, covering energy, mobility, catering, waste and carbon, often certified to ISO 20121.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are 17 interconnected goals adopted by the UN in 2015 to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all by 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the 17 goals adopted by the UN in 2015 as part of Agenda 2030 to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all people.

A set of strategies to reduce the emissions and environmental impact of the final delivery leg to the customer, the most cost- and emission-intensive stretch.

A set of practices to reduce the environmental impact of the logistics chain, from transport and storage to packaging and last-mile delivery.

Managing the supply chain to minimise environmental, social and economic impacts, with a focus on Scope 3 emissions, supplier selection and the EU due diligence rules.

The TCFD framework for climate-related financial disclosure was disbanded in 2023, with its four-pillar structure now fully incorporated into the ISSB's IFRS S2 standard.

Temporary storage of hazardous waste is an intermediate, controlled phase before treatment, subject to strict time limits, containment, labelling and traceability requirements under Spanish and EU law.

Greenhouse gas emissions generated within a territory (municipality or region), calculated with a production-based inventory approach and used as the basis for local climate plans.

The TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures) is a global framework for reporting nature-related risks and opportunities. Its final recommendations were released in 2023 and the ISSB is now building on them.

The UNDP is the UN's lead agency for development, working in more than 170 countries to reduce poverty and inequality, strengthen governance and support climate action under the 2030 Agenda.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading environmental authority within the UN system, coordinating science, policy and action on climate, pollution and biodiversity.

The UNFCCC is the international UN treaty, adopted in 1992, that lays the foundations for global climate action and from which the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement derive.

The UN Global Compact is a voluntary United Nations initiative that asks companies to align their operations with Ten Principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

Upcycling repurposes discarded materials into items of higher value or quality, reducing waste and resource use while encouraging creative, sustainable design.

Upstream describes the initial stages of a value chain, such as sourcing, extraction and collection. We explain its meaning and its role in the circular economy.

Urban sustainability manages cities to balance growth with resource conservation, cutting greenhouse gas emissions through mobility, clean energy, waste management and green spaces.

The use-phase carbon footprint captures the emissions generated while a product is in operation, often the largest contribution for energy-using goods such as vehicles, appliances and buildings.

Uncontrolled dumping explained: definition, causes, environmental and health consequences, the Spanish and EU legal framework, and why it is the opposite of a circular economy.

The value chain describes every activity involved in creating and delivering a product or service. Each stage generates emissions, which makes it key to understanding a company's full carbon footprint.

Discover how the value chain impacts your company's carbon footprint. Learn to identify and reduce emissions at every stage of the life cycle of your products with Manglai.

Value chain traceability makes it possible to track every stage of a product's life cycle, from raw material to end of life. It is key to measuring scope 3 emissions and complying with due diligence regulations.

The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), managed by Verra, is the most widely used certification programme for voluntary carbon-market projects.

Virtual water is the hidden water embedded in goods and services. When products are traded internationally, this water effectively moves between regions and river basins.