Glossary · 26 terms
The language of trusted environmental data
Precise, sourced definitions of the standards, regulations and concepts behind EPDs, product carbon footprints, LCAs and their verification. Written for practitioners and for the assistants that increasingly read on their behalf.
Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
The EU regulation that puts a carbon price on the embedded emissions of certain imported goods, so that importers pay the equivalent of what EU producers pay under the EU Emissions Trading System.
Catena-X
The automotive industry's open data ecosystem for secure, standardised data exchange along the supply chain, including a rulebook and data model for product carbon footprints and other sustainability data.
Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)
The EU directive that requires large companies and listed SMEs to report sustainability information under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), applying double materiality and subject to assurance.
Critical review
The independent review process defined in ISO 14044 that checks whether an LCA study is consistent with the standard's methodology, data, interpretation and reporting requirements; a panel review is required for comparative assertions disclosed to the public.
Data quality rating (DQR)
A structured assessment of how well the data in an LCA or carbon footprint represent the process being modelled, scored on criteria such as technological, geographical and time representativeness, precision and completeness.
Digital Product Passport (DPP)
A machine-readable record, introduced by the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, that carries product information such as composition, environmental footprint, repairability and provenance across the value chain.
Double materiality
The reporting principle, central to the CSRD and ESRS, that a sustainability topic is material if it matters from an impact perspective (the company's effect on people and environment) or a financial perspective (its effect on the company), or both.
Emission factor
A coefficient that converts a quantity of activity, such as a kilowatt-hour of electricity or a kilogram of steel, into an estimated quantity of greenhouse gas emissions or other environmental impact.
EN 15804
The European standard that provides the core Product Category Rules for Environmental Product Declarations of construction products and services, aligning them with ISO 14025 and the EU Product Environmental Footprint impact categories.
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
A standardised, independently verified document that reports the life-cycle environmental impacts of a product, produced according to ISO 14025 and the relevant Product Category Rules.
ISO 14025
The international standard that sets the principles and procedures for Type III environmental declarations, including the use of Product Category Rules, independent verification and programme operation.
ISO 14040 and ISO 14044
The pair of international standards that define the principles, framework, requirements and guidelines for life cycle assessment, including the four phases of an LCA and the rules for critical review.
ISO 14067
The international standard specifying principles, requirements and guidelines for quantifying the carbon footprint of a product, based on ISO 14040 and ISO 14044 and limited to the impact category of climate change.
ISO 21930
The international standard providing core rules for Environmental Product Declarations of construction products and services, serving as the global counterpart to EN 15804.
PACT Pathfinder Framework
A WBCSD-led initiative that defines a common methodology (the Pathfinder Framework) and technical specifications for calculating and exchanging cradle-to-gate product carbon footprints between companies.
Primary and secondary data
In life cycle assessment and carbon accounting, primary data are measured or collected directly from the processes in the product's own supply chain, while secondary data come from databases, literature or industry averages.
Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)
The total greenhouse gas emissions attributable to a product over all or part of its life cycle, expressed in kilograms of CO2 equivalent per unit of product.
Product Category Rules (PCR)
A set of specific rules, requirements and guidelines for developing Type III environmental declarations for one or more product categories, so that EPDs within a category are calculated and presented consistently.
Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
The European Commission's harmonised life-cycle method for measuring the environmental performance of products (PEF) and organisations (OEF), using sixteen impact categories and product-specific rules called PEFCRs.
Programme operator
The organisation that runs an EPD programme under ISO 14025: it publishes the general programme instructions, develops and maintains Product Category Rules, manages verification and registers and publishes EPDs.
Scope 3 emissions
All indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur in a company's value chain, upstream and downstream, other than the purchased energy counted in Scope 2, as defined by the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard.
System boundary
The set of processes included in a life cycle assessment or carbon footprint, defined by which life-cycle stages, activities and flows are inside the study and which are excluded.
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