EBITA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, and Amortization)

An accounting measure that is a snapshot of a company’s financial standing. EBITA is the company’s financial picture with regard to earnings. However, what is missing from the concept of earnings, and the EBITA snapshot, is the cost and depletion of “free” natural resources that are part of production processes and consumption behaviors. If these were included to balance sheet equations, earnings snapshots like EBITA would... Read More

Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Created in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index is one of the first global indexes watching the financial performance leading companies with an emphasis on sustainability in economic, social, and environmental capacities. The DJSIs emphasize long-term corporate performance and positive risk/returns. The DJSIs are audited using a special framework from the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), called ISAE 3000, designed... Read More

Diversity

In nature, diversity is a source of ecosystem strength since failures are unlikely to eliminate all species. Therefore, the ecosystem will recover in some form and continue. In business or investing, diversity can provide a similar source of robustness against market instability or failures. Specifically, when applied to a human context, diversity refers to a wide variety of cultures, ethnic groups, physical features (and race), socio-economic backgrounds,... Read More

Distributed Collaborative Intelligence

Distributed collaborative intelligence is group collaboration within a virtual sphere of interaction, where group members can interact in real time even though they are not located within the same physical space. Examples are instant messaging capabilities, as well as group conferencing ability over the Internet. New ways of collaborating without having to travel, has significant benefits to our environment, and allows peopel around the world to interact... Read More

Discounted Cash Flow

A financial term referring to the value of an investment adjusted for the time value of money. Since money loses value over time, future cash to be received must be discounted to express its present value (today) in order to properly determine the value of a company or project under consideration. As the payment gets further into the future, its present value drops. Also, increasing the interest rate would further reduce the present value. It is an... Read More

Demand-Side Management

Also known as energy demand management, DSM is used in the electric utility industry as a technique to reduce peak demand under periods where the systems are constrained. This peak demand management does not necessarily decrease total energy consumption but does reduce the need for future investments in networks and/or power plants by increasing efficiency.  Read More

Debt Swap

Also referred to as a debt-for-nature swap, debt swap involves purchasing a portion of a nation’s public debt at a discount, and converting the debt into local currency to be used to finance local conservation activities, such as preserving land. This process traditionally occurs between a developing nation with large debt and one or more of its creditors, and is facilitated by international conservation organizations.  Read More

Clarkson Principles

Developed by the Clarkson Centre for Business Ethics under the leadership of Max Clarkson, these principles represent an early stage general awareness of corporate governance concerns that have been widely discussed in connection with the business scandals of 2002. In many ways, the Clarkson Principles are “meta-principles” that encourage management to embrace specific stakeholder principles and then to implement them in accordance with the norms... Read More

Collective Intelligence

Defined by George Pór, in The Quest for Collective Intelligence (1995), as the capacity of a human community to evolve toward higher order complexity thought, problem-solving and integration through collaboration and innovation. James Surowiecki, in The Wisdom of Crowds, says “The more influence a group’s members exert on each other, and the more personal contact they have with each other, the less likely it is that that group’s... Read More

Cogeneration

Cogeneration is the simultaneous production of electrical and thermal energy from the same fuel source. For example, surplus heat from an electric generating plant can be used for industrial processes, or space and water heating purposes. Or, waste heat from an industrial process can be used to power an electric generator.  Read More