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Dictionary of Sustainability - everything about the term sustainability

Dictionary of Sustainability

Sustainability explained simply

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
What is this post about?

With the help of our sustainability dictionary or sustainability glossary, we want to give you the opportunity to quickly and easily obtain brief explanations of the various terms relating to sustainability. A sustainability glossary is a list of terms and concepts related to the topic of sustainability.

It can be considered a reference work or encyclopedia that provides a definition and an explanation of the most important terms related to sustainability. Therefore, we have created this Sustainability Glossary for you to promote a common language and understanding of the concepts of sustainability.

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Promoting the development of knowledge in the area of sustainability

Sustainability reporting

Sustainability and sustainable action on the part of companies are becoming increasingly important and urgent. Accordingly, the annual sustainability reporting obligation (NHBE) for companies in accordance with the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) was adopted at EU level at the end of 2022.

This reporting obligation will be introduced for the first time from 2025 for the 2024 financial year. The reporting is intended to disclose material sustainability aspects, actions and behaviors of companies with regard to the ESG criteria (environment, social and governance) in the annual reports and make them comparable.

Building up know-how in a complex area

With the introduction of the NHBE and the associated measures, around 15,000 companies in Germany are facing the challenge of building up specific expertise in this complex area.

LEITWERK has also dealt intensively with this topic and has gradually built up comprehensive expertise. In order to be able to look up relevant information quickly and easily, we have compiled the most important terms relating to sustainability in a glossary. We still use our little “dictionary of sustainability” today for new employees in the area of green transformation, e.g. as part of onboarding, or for customers as part of our consulting activities.

As both our employees and our customers find the glossary very helpful, we would like to make it available to you too. You no longer need to research various terms individually, but can quickly look up relevant technical terms and abbreviations. This saves you time, which you can invest in building up comprehensive knowledge.

The following section shows an excerpt from our glossary to illustrate its structure and level of detail.

Definitions of CSR and CCF

Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) mainly follows the principle of voluntariness and is seen as the responsibility of companies for their impact on society. Only the ecological and social spheres are considered here - the economic sphere is not taken into account. CSR therefore encompasses aspects such as employee-oriented HR policy, resource management and climate and environmental protection.

Corporate Carbon Footprint

The “corporate carbon footprint”, also known as the “carbon footprint” or “carbon footprint” of a company, measures the total amount of carbon dioxide emissions caused directly or indirectly. This includes both the emissions generated directly (e.g. by the company's own production) and the emissions indirectly attributable to the company (Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3).

Legal requirements for sustainable action

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive

The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will replace the NFRD (Non-Financial Reporting Directive), which was previously mandatory for large companies. The CSRD is used for the annual disclosure of important non-financial indicators relating to environmental, social and employee matters. This includes information on the sustainability strategy, sustainability goals, risks, potential negative impacts in the product and service area, environmental factors (resource consumption), social components and certain governance factors.

Supply Chain Due Diligence Act

The Supply Chain Due Diligence Act obliges companies to respect and ensure both environmental and human rights due diligence (e.g. overfishing or child labor) in their respective supply chains.

Sustainability glossary: Scope emissions

Scope emissions (Scope 1, Scope 2, Scope 3)

A company's main sources of emissions can be categorized into Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions. All activities, processes and resources that are essential for the completion of a product/project are taken into account.

Emissions directly controlled or for which the company is responsible, such as fuels, energy sources or those of its own vehicle fleet, are assigned to Scope 1 emissions. Indirect emissions that are consumed by the company but not generated by it, e.g. district heating or electricity from purchased energy, are classified as Scope 2 emissions. Indirect emissions that occur along the corporate value chain are Scope 3 emissions. A distinction can be made between upstream emissions, which are associated with the acquisition of tangible or intangible goods, and downstream emissions, which are associated with the sale of tangible or intangible goods.

Increasing responsibility and transparency on the topic of sustainability
Applicable EU regulations

While the glossary is very well suited for initial knowledge building or as a later reference work, the graphic below serves to put certain terms into context or to gain a broad overview of a topic. As an example, it shows an overview of the EU regulations for increasing the responsibility and transparency of the topic of sustainability in companies. It shows how concrete guidelines are defined at EU level from international guidelines and agreements and then implemented in Germany. The lowest level lists the standards and guidelines according to which the reports can be prepared.

Applicable EU regulations in the area of sustainability

Among other things, we help you to develop a sustainability strategy

We hope that the glossary and the graphic will provide you with a valid supplement to your initial research on the topic of sustainability reporting and the development of a sustainability strategy. You can find more detailed information on the topic of sustainability reporting in accordance with the CSRD and its application in our blog post “Mandatory sustainability reporting”.

Feel free to contact us if you need support with sustainability reporting or the development of a sustainability strategy. We also welcome your feedback and suggestions for our glossary.

Do you have questions on this topic or are you interested in a consulting service?
Feel free to contact us!
LEITWERK Contact Florian Kröger
Your contact person
Florian Kröger
+49 89 189 235 96
florian.kroeger@leitwerk-consulting.com
...or write to us using our contact form.
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