Brand Experience

The sensations, feelings, thoughts, and behavioral responses evoked by brand-related stimuli.  Such stimuli appear as part of a brand’s design and identity, packaging, communications, and environments.  Put another way, the brand experience integrates brands into people’s lifestyles, adding value to a consumer’s experience of the brand.  Brand experience is about engaging or captivating rather than interrupting consumers.  Read More

Ecosystem Function

The physical and biological processes and characteristic activities that allow an ecosystem to exist and maintain its integrity.  Read More

BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method)

BREEAM is a widely-used environmental assessment tool for buildings.  BREEAM provides metrics for measuring a building’s performance on a variety of environmental factors including sustainable design, energy conservation, indoor environment quality, natural resource conservation and minimizing waste.  BREEAM also incorporates consultants and trainings to facilitate environmentally sustainable design and construction of new buildings. Introduced... Read More

Systems

Systems are a set of elements or parts that is coherently organized and interconnected in a pattern or structure.  This pattern or structure thus produces a characteristic set of behaviors, often classified as its “function” or “purpose”  that form a united whole  (Meadows, 2008). Resources: Meadows, D. (2008). Thinking in Systems: A Primer. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.  Read More

Planetary Boundary

A Planetary Boundary is a limit which defines the safe operating space for humanity with respect to the Earth system and its associated biophysical subsystems and  processes.  Read More

350.org

An international campaign with the mission to raise awareness and fuel solutions to the climate crisis.  The number 350 represents the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (in parts per million) that scientists have calculated to be the maximum amount that Earth can sustain.  It is hypothesized that CO2 concentrations beyond 350ppm will accelerate the affects of global warming.  350.org organizes worldwide events to demonstrate the... Read More

Buycott

The inverse of a boycott. When consumers consciously leverage their buying power to throw their support behind companies whose actions and/or goals they advocate. Also referred to as “procot.”  Read More

Smart Grid

Smart grid technology enables suppliers & consumers to better monitor energy needs. Up until now, utility companies have had very little insight into the energy demands of their consumers and therefore they have not been prepared for peak energy consumption, which results in blackouts. Smart grid is a two-way communication between the consumer & supplier providing “smarter” energy supply. In some cases, it allows utility companies... Read More

Adaptive Management

In ecology, a method for managing land flexibly based on what methods of management obtain the best results.  The process of adaptive management is based on monitoring the results of management actions as part of a feedback loop to determine  if management actions have been successful at achieving the desired result. A key concept of adaptive management is that management decisions and objectives must be allowed to remain flexible to adapt... Read More

Backcasting

Backcasting is a planning methodology where a desired future is defined using either basic principles (i.e. conditions that must be met within the system) or scenarios (i.e. simplified images of the future). An assessment is then made of the current system and strategic actions are identified, prioritized according to their ability to achieve the desired outcome, implemented, and reviewed. An alternative to traditional forecasting, backcasting... Read More