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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
Clear Cutting
A process where all trees in a selected area are felled in a logging operation. Although some areas may be planted, seeded or naturally regenerated, the effect on the environment can be extremely destructive. The act of clear cutting is not only damaging to the structure and function of the forest, but in particularly erosion-prone […]
Cheater Capitalism
A term coined by Randy Hayes to describe the ability for companies to exploit economic policies that insufficiently attribute externalities. As long as these external costs are not addressed by business, the economy will, ultimately, be unsustainable.
Caux Round Table Principles
The Caux Principles were developed in 1994 by a group of international business leaders as a guide for ethical and responsible corporate behavior. These principals are meant to be a cornerstone for business leadership to raise the moral and ethical standards by which corporations and governments operate in order to promote moral capitalism so that […]
Carbon Disclosure Project
An initiative by leading institutional investors (with assets of $10T) to research and rate global companies based on their risks due to climate change. The 2003 CDP report estimated that a single carbon-intensive manufacturing company might carry as much risk (in energy prices, availability, and potential carbon taxes) equal to 40% of it’s market capitalization. […]
Biomass
Organic, non-fossil material that is available on a renewable basis. Biomass includes all biological organisms, dead or alive, and their metabolic by products, that have not been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum. Examples of biomass are forest and mill residues, agricultural crops and wastes, wood and wood wastes, animal […]
