Glossary

Glossary for TrainSustain Units 1 – 7

(g) Google is the source. Rest is Wikipedia.

Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by non-human animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech recognition, computer vision, translation between (natural) languages, as well as other mappings of inputs.

Biocapacity The biocapacity or biological capacity of an ecosystem is an estimate of its production of certain biological materials such as natural resources, and its absorption and filtering of other materials such as carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Biodiversity Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (genetic variability), species (species diversity), and ecosystem (ecosystem diversity) level.

Carbon footprint A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organization, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)

Carbon handprint (g) A carbon handprint is the opposite of a footprint. It recognises the actions you take to have a positive impact on the climate, over and above reducing your own carbon footprint if you do enough of these, they might even outweigh the size of your carbon footprint.

Circular economy A circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible

Decarbonization (g) The term decarbonization literally means the reduction of carbon. Precisely meant is the conversion to an economic system that sustainably reduces and compensates the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂)

Deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use.[3] Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated deforestation occurs in tropical rainforests

Eco-design Ecological design or ecodesign is an approach to designing products and services that gives special consideration to the environmental impacts of a product over its entire lifecycle

Ecological footprint The ecological footprint is a method promoted by the Global Footprint Network to measure 

Energy-efficient (g) Energy efficiency is the use of less energy to perform the same task or produce the same result. Energy-efficient homes and buildings use less energy to heat, cool, and run appliances and electronics, and energy-efficient manufacturing facilities use less energy to produce goods.

Environmentally friendly Environment friendly processes, or environmental-friendly processes (also referred to as eco-friendly, nature-friendly, and green), are sustainability and marketing terms referring to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies that claim reduced, minimal, or no harm upon ecosystems or the environment.

European circular economy action plan (g) The EU’s Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) was a comprehensive body of legislative and non-legislative actions adopted in 2015, which aimed to transition the European economy from a linear to a circular model. The Action Plan mapped out 54 actions, as well as four legislative proposals on waste.

Fertilisers Fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients.

Fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth’s crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas.

Greenhouse emission Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and large oil and gas companies.

Greenwashing is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization’s products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.

Holistic process relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems rather than with the individual parts.

Innovation Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas that result in the introduction of new goods or services or improvement in offering goods or services

Lean management Lean manufacturing is a production method aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system as well as response times from suppliers and to customers.

Lean principles (g) The five principles are considered a recipe for improving workplace efficiency and include: 1) defining value, 2) mapping the value stream, 3) creating flow, 4) using a pull system, and 5) pursuing perfection.

Linear economy (g) The traditional model where raw materials are collected and transformed into products that consumers use until discarding them as waste, with no concern for their ecological footprint and consequences.

Muda, Mura, Muri (g) Muda, mura and muri are three types of wasteful actions that negatively impact workflow, productivity and ultimately, customer satisfaction.

Organic farming Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming, is an agricultural system that uses fertilizers of organic origin such as compost manure, green manure, and bone meal and places emphasis on techniques such as crop rotation and companion planting.

Pesticides In general, a pesticide is a chemical (such as carbamate) or biological agent (such as a virus, bacterium, or fungus) that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests

Product Life cycle Product life-cycle management is the succession of strategies by business management as a product goes through its life cycle. The conditions in which a product is sold changes over time and must be managed as it moves through its succession of stages. 

Product-as-a-service Product as a service is the concept of selling the services and outcomes a product can provide rather than the product itself. 

Pull production (g) A method of production control in which downstream activities signal their needs to upstream activities. Pull production strives to eliminate overproduction and is one of the three major components of a complete just-in-time production system.

Recycling Recycling is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. The recovery of energy from waste materials is often included in this concept. The recyclability of a material depends on its ability to reacquire the properties it had in its original state

Renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale.] It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat

Sustainability Sustainability is a societal goal that relates to the ability of people to safely co-exist on Earth over a long time.

Sustainable household (g) A sustainable home is one that is built or retrofitted in a way that conserves resources, optimizes energy and water use and that will last longer with quality systems. A sustainable house is built with low-impact, high-performance materials. They are efficient in terms of manufacturing, shipping, and installing.

Sustainable label (g) Eco labels set minimum environmental and health standards and verify products that meet the criteria. They’re designed to inform consumers, brands, and manufacturers that labelled products are more environmentally friendly than most.

Sway (g) Sway is a digital storytelling app that helps you create professional, interactive designs for your images, text, videos, and other media in minutes.

The 5s (g) 5S stands for the 5 steps of this methodology: Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain. These steps involve going through everything in a space, deciding what’s necessary and what isn’t, putting things in order, cleaning, and setting up procedures for performing these tasks on a regular basis.

The European action Plan (g) It aims to: Re-orient capital flows towards sustainable investment, in order to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth; Manage financial risks stemming from climate change, natural disasters, environmental degradation and social issues; and foster transparency and long-termism in financial and economic activity.

Value chain A value chain is a progression of activities that a firm operating in a specific industry performs in order to deliver a valuable product (i.e., good and/or service) to the end customer.

Value stream A value stream is the set of actions that take place to add value to a customer from the initial request through realization of value by the customer. The value stream begins with the initial concept, moves through various stages of development and on through delivery and support. A value stream always begins and ends with a customer.

Waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring and regulation of the waste management process and waste-related laws, technologies, economic mechanisms.