Glossary

Alcumus ISOQAR - UKAS accredited ISO certification and CQI IRCA training provider.
Carbon footprint - The total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an individual, event, organisation, service, place or product, expressed as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
Carbon offsetting - The process of compensating for carbon dioxide emissions arising from industrial or other human activity, by participating in schemes designed to make equivalent reductions of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, (such as the planting of trees or carbon sequestration).
CO2 – Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
CO2e – Carbon dioxide equivalent, the standard unit in carbon accounting to quantify all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The effect of each greenhouse gas on global warming is defined relative to that of CO2 to make measurement and comparison easier.
Cyber essentials certification - UK Government backed scheme that helps organisations of all sizes protect themselves against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks.
DEFRA - UK Government Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs produce emission conversion factors annually for use by UK and international organisations to report on greenhouse gas emissions.
Ecovadis – A company which provides business sustainability ratings, with a global network of more than 85,000+ rated companies.
ESOS - Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme – UK Government’s mandatory energy assessment scheme for organisations in the UK. The Environment Agency is the UK scheme administrator.
FTE – Full time employee
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulations - laws to ensure that the personal data of citizens has robust protection.
GHGs – Greenhouse gases which include: carbon dioxide CO2, methane CH4, nitrous oxide N20, water vapour, fluorinated gases HFCs, PFCs, etc.
GHG protocol – Partnership of the World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) which establishes comprehensive global standardised frameworks to measure and manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from private and public sector operations, value chains and mitigation actions.
- Scope 1 – Direct GHG emissions from sources owned or controlled by the company e.g. furnaces, boilers and company vehicles.
- Scope 2 - Indirect GHG emissions from the generation of purchased electricity.
- Scope 3 – Indirect GHG emissions which are a result of an organisation’s operations, from upstream and downstream sources not owned or controlled by the company.

GRC – Governance, Risk and Compliance
ISO – International Organisation for Standardisation. ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organisation with a membership of 167 national standards bodies who develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant International Standards.
PCI DSS - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. An information security standard designed to reduce payment card fraud by increasing security controls around cardholder data.
Sabre Eco: Certified hotels - Hotels which have been certified by a partner whose standards closely align with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria.
Science Based Targets - A partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to drive ambitious climate action in the private sector by enabling companies to set science-based emissions reduction targets.
SECR - Streamlined Energy & Carbon Reporting – UK Government mandatory reporting requirement for large companies.
SOC2 - A voluntary compliance standard for service organisations, developed by the American Institute of Certified Practising Accountant (CPA) (AICPA), which specifies how organisations should manage customer data. The standard is based on the following Trust Services Criteria: security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, privacy.
Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) - an aviation fuel made from sustainable and renewable sources which can act as a substitute for fossil jet fuel.
United Nations Global Compact – UN’s global voluntary corporate sustainability initiative.