THESIS KPI Definitions
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| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| Absolute GHG reduction goal | A goal for GHG reduction based on a reduction in total emissions expressed as tons of CO2 equivalent per year. |
| Absolute science based goal | Defined by Science Based Targets as "Targets adopted by companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are considered “science-based” if they are in line with the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre- industrial temperatures, as described in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5)." |
| Absolute water reduction goal | An organization's goal for water use reduction expressed as liters of water per year. |
| Acidosis | Ruminal acidosis is a metabolic disease of cattle in which the ruminal pH-level decreases leading to a decrease in ruminal activity and the animal becoming atonic. The change in acidity effects the ruminal flora and causes acid-producing bacteria to become more active, making the acidosis worse. Acute acidosis often results in death, although illness and liver abscesses may be seen beforehand. |
| Additional issue | An activity in a product's life cycle that has a documented environmental or social impact that is supported by moderate evidence, or significant evidence that is contested, as described in TSC's decision tree. |
| Adequate | Sufficient to satisfy a requirement or meet a need. |
| Adverse Finding | Any unexpected, inappropriate, or undesired occurrence such as worker injury or worker exposure to harmful elements that result in a negative effect in human health and safety associated with the manufacturing and production of a product. |
| Aggregate exposure | Aggregate exposure is the total exposure to a consumer for a single ingredient from multiple product types. |
| Agricultural services | Farmers should be supported to improve their access to agricultural services that include, but are not limited to, seedlings, fertilizer, equipment, infrastructure, and mobile phones. These services can be provided as part of a certification program, but can also be provided outside a certification program or through external partnerships. |
| Agricultural training | A training program should provide the farmers with information and knowledge on how to improve their farming practices, increase productivity, and quality of their product. The trainings should be accessible for both male and female farmers, and should be designed in such a way that farmers are able to directly implement the acquired knowledge. Topics include, but are not limited to, pruning, weeding, shade management, harvesting, soil conservation and management practices, water conservation, integrated pest management (IPM) and fertilizer application. These services can be provided as part of a certification program, but can also be provided outside a certification program or through external partnerships. |
| Agricultural training, inputs, and services | Agricultural training, inputs, and services have been identified as provisions that have produced economic and social benefits for smallholder famers. These include technical agricultural services and training, infrastructure, seeds, fertilizer, equipment, crop protection technologies, credit and banking services, and mobile phones. |
| Agriculture growing regions | Sourcing regions are regions where this product's supply is produced. Sourcing regions may include but are not limited to: country/state/province boundaries, county/crop districts, terrestrial or aquatic ecoregions, or individual farms. |
| Allergen | A chemical that induces an allergic immune system response in sensitized individuals, typically by dermal or inhalation exposure. |
| Alternative materials | Materials that are substitutes for conventional materials, however are not commonly used. These materials can be used to reduce environmental and social impacts. |
| Ancient and Endangered Forests | Intact forest landscape mosaics, naturally rare forest types, forest types that have been made rare due to human activity, and/or other forests that are ecologically critical for the protection of biological diversity. As a starting point to geographically locate ancient and endangered forests, maps of High Conservation Value Forests (HCVF), as defined by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and of intact forest landscapes (IFL), can be used and paired with maps of other key ecological values like the habitat range of key endangered species and forests containing high concentrations of terrestrial carbon and High Carbon Stocks (HCS). |
| Animal farm operations | An area of land and its buildings, comprised of one or more locations managed together, that is used for rearing animals. This includes the growing of crops for animal feed on this land. |
| Animal health program | A farm-specific plan for how to maintain and improve animal health and welfare written and regularly updated by the farmer together with a veterinarian and other relevant technical advisors. |
| Animal welfare | Animal welfare refers to the well-being of an animal and how an animal is coping with the conditions in which it lives. A good state of welfare varies substantially between different contexts, but in general an animal is in a good state of welfare if it is healthy, comfortable, well-nourished, safe, able to express innate behavior, and not suffering from pain, fear, and distress. Ensuring animal welfare is a human responsibility that requires treatments such as good housing, good care, good feed, humane handling and humane slaughter/killing. The treatments that an animal receives is covered by other terms such as animal care, animal husbandry, and humane management (adapted from The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)). |
| Animal-based priority ingredients | Priority ingredients that come from animals, either as primary meat products or byproducts, such as beef, chicken, dairy, eggs, fish, pork, and turkey. |
| Antibiotic stewardship | Actions veterinarians and producers take to preserve the effectiveness and availability of antimicrobial drugs through conscientious oversight and responsible decision-making, while safeguarding animal health, public health, and the environment. |
| Antibiotics | Medicines that destroy or inhibit bacterial growth and infections that are used in food animals for treatment, prevention of disease, increased production performance or increased feed use efficiency. |
| Anti-fouling agent | Substances that are applied to protect ships, fishing gear and aquaculture infrastructure from unwanted living organisms, such as barnacles, algae, and microorganisms. |
| Aquaculture operations | An enterprise, or set of enterprises, for the cultivation of aquatic organisms, where there is a human intervention in the rearing process, such as feeding and protection from predators. |
| Automatic overfill protection | Devices used on liquid storage tanks to prevent spills such as alarms, automatic shutoff devices, and ball float valves. |
| Basic services | These services should be (made) accessible to farmers, and include but are not limited to water for irrigation, clean drinking water, quality education for farmers and their families, and healthcare. These services can be provided as part of a certification program, but can also be provided outside a certification program or through external partnerships. |
| Beak trimming | Beak trimming or debeaking is the partial removal of laying hen beak. The beak can be shortened permanently or can be allowed to regrow. Beak trimming is a preventive measure to reduce damage caused by pecking such as cannibalism and feather pecking. |
| Beef finishing farms | The final stage of a beef cattle production, where full-feeding and final conditioning of an animal for slaughter takes place in order to ensure satisfactory muscle and fat revenues. This excludes cow-calf and stocker farms. |
| Biodegradability | A property of matter in which it is able to be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. |
| Biodiversity | The diversity of plant and animal species on the planet which includes both number of species and abundance within a species. The rarity of species such as endemic or threatened and endangered status plays a role in biodiversity assessment and management. |
| Biodiversity footprint | The total impact of a commodity, product, ingredient, component, material, or company on biodiversity. |
| Biodiversity initiative | The biodiversity initiative should have time-bound, quantitative goals to conserve, enhance, and/or restore the biodiversity. |
| Biological oxygen demand (BOD) | An indicator for the amount of oxygen required/consumed for the microbiological decomposition (oxidation) of organic material in water bodies. |
| Biologically sustainable levels | Fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels are those that meet management targets which are consistent with biological reference points based on best available science, such as maximum sustainable yield (MSY) or suitable proxies, or those that can be otherwise shown to be a healthy stock under adequate management measures demonstrated through a past record of good management performance. |
| Bittering agents | Chemical flavorings that can be added to antifreeze formulations to make them less palatable to consumption. |
| Bloat | An increase of ruminal gases during the ruminal fermentation process. Bloat occurs when a loss of gas is prevented. |
| Body condition score | Values the animal's body condition taking into account the perspective of the breed, age, and lactation stage. An emaciated or skin body condition decreases the animal's welfare. |
| BPC_Definitions - Absolute GHG reduction goal | A goal for GHG reduction based on a reduction in total emissions expressed as tons of CO2 equivalent per year. |
| BPC_Definitions - Absolute science based goal | Defined by Science Based Targets as "Targets adopted by companies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are considered “science-based” if they are in line with the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre- industrial temperatures, as described in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR5)." |
| BPC_Definitions - Absolute water reduction goal | An organization's goal for water use reduction expressed as liters of water per year. |
| BPC_Definitions - Adverse Finding | Any unexpected, inappropriate, or undesired occurrence such as worker injury or worker exposure to harmful elements that result in a negative effect in human health and safety associated with the manufacturing and production of a product. |
| BPC_Definitions - Allergen | A chemical, substance, or ingredient that induces an allergic immune system response in sensitized individuals, typically by dermal or inhalation exposure. |
| BPC_Definitions - Biodegradability | A property of matter in which it is able to be decomposed by bacteria or other living organisms. |
| BPC_Definitions - Chemical footprint | Defined by the Chemical Footprint Project™ as the total mass of chemicals sold by a company, used in its manufacturing operations and by its suppliers, and contained in packaging that meet any of the following criteria: • Carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction (CMR); • Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance (PBT); • Any other chemical for which there is scientific evidence of probable serious effects to human health or the environment that give rise to an equivalent level of concern (for example, an endocrine disruptor or neurotoxicant); or • A chemical whose breakdown products result in a [chemical] that meets any of the above criteria. The Chemical Footprint Project™ provides other specific guidance that can be used to identify chemicals that meet these criteria. |
| BPC_Definitions - Company-owned or contract manufacturing facilities | Facilities responsible for manufacturing and assembly of final products, whether these facilities are internal or external to the respondent’s organization. |
| BPC_Definitions - Consumer Use Phase | The life cycle stage of a product during which it is being used by a consumer. |
| BPC_Definitions - Environmental fate | The fate of a chemical in the environment after its disposal by a consumer. |
| BPC_Definitions - Environmental Impact | Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization's activities, products or services. (ISO definition) |
| BPC_Definitions - Fragrance and flavor | Defined by SCCS: "Fragrance and flavour substances are organic compounds with characteristic, usually pleasant, odours. They are ubiquitously used in perfumes and other perfumed cosmetic products, but also in detergents, fabric softeners, and other household products where fragrance may be used to mask unpleasant odours from raw materials." Fragrances can be composed of natural and/or synthetic ingredients. |
| BPC_Definitions - Goals | Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. |
| BPC_Definitions - Greenhouse gas | Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation in the atmosphere, e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons. |
| BPC_Definitions - Human rights | Universal rights of all human beings as born free and equal in dignity and rights as described in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. |
| BPC_Definitions - Human rights incident | An incident which violates the human rights of workers within the value chain. |
| BPC_Definitions - Informed substitution | Informed substitution implies that factors such as cost and performance, technical feasibility, life cycle impacts, economic and social accountability, and potential to result in lasting change have been taken into consideration to ensure that substitutes and the final product are safer based on their health and environmental profiles (adapted from United States Environmental Protection Agency Design for Environment Program Alternative Assessment information). |
| BPC_Definitions - Intensity based goals | A goal for GHG reduction based on decreased emissions per unit of output (e.g., tons CO2e per unit produced). |
| BPC_Definitions - Intensity based water goal | A goal for water use reduction expressed as liters per unit of output (e.g., liters per unit produced). |
| BPC_Definitions - Intentionally added chemical | A chemical that provides a function to the final formulation during consumer use or is present as a result of formulating a product for safe use by consumers (e.g., pH balancing by acids or bases). |
| BPC_Definitions - Intentionally added ingredient | An ingredient that provides a function in the final formulation or is present as a result of producing a final formulation for safe use by consumers. |
| BPC_Definitions - Limit of detection | Defined by the IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") as: "[the concentration, or the quantity, derived from the smallest measure that can be detected with reasonable certainty for a given analytical procedure.]" |
| BPC_Definitions - Material and process efficiency | The practice of minimizing material use and waste in production processes. |
| BPC_Definitions - Material elements | Defined by ILO as "workplaces, working environment, tools, machinery and equipment, chemical, physical and biological substances and agents, work processes. |
| BPC_Definitions - Nanomaterial | Nanomaterials are defined according to the Commission Recommendation of 18 October 2011 on the definition of nanomaterial (2011/696/EU) as “A natural, incidental or manufactured material containing particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and where, for 50% or more of the particles in the number size distribution, one or more external dimensions is in the size range 1 nm - 100 nm. In specific cases and where warranted by concerns for the environment, health, safety or competitiveness the number size distribution threshold of 50% may be replaced by a threshold between 1 and 50%. By derogation from the above, fullerenes, graphene flakes and single wall carbon nanotubes with one or more external dimensions below 1 nm should be considered as nanomaterials." |
| BPC_Definitions - Post market surveillance | The practice of monitoring the safety of beauty and personal care products after they have been released on the market. |
| BPC_Definitions - Post-consumer recycled (PCR) content | Materials obtained from a product that has been disposed of after its intended consumer use. |
| BPC_Definitions - Post-industrial recycled (PIR) content | Materials obtained from a manufacturing process that has been disposed of after its intended use. |
| BPC_Definitions - Public disclosure | The act of making information available and readily accessible to consumers. Including: Voluntary corporate reporting, sustainability reporting programs, or reporting as part of regulatory compliance. |
| BPC_Definitions - Raw material | The basic materials from which a product is made. Raw materials are composed of synthetic or naturally derived ingredients or ingredient blends and may contain unintentionally added chemicals that are incidental or contaminants. |
| BPC_Definitions - Recyclable content | Recyclable content is defined by Federal Trade Commission Green Guides: “materials collected, separated, or otherwise recovered from the waste stream.” Recyclable materials can include wood fiber-based materials, metals, single-color glass, rigid plastics with resin codes 1, 2, 4, and 5, and organic material. |
| BPC_Definitions - Risk assessment | A systematic process to evaluate potential risks related to product creation, consumer product use, and environmental impact. This process may involve on-site audits by second or third parties, country risk classification analyses, or assessments of ingredient and formulation hazards. |
| BPC_Definitions - Sales packaging | "Packaging that leaves a store with the consumer". (Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability 2.0:2011) |
| BPC_Definitions - Second-party audit | An audit conducted by a party having an interest in the organization, such as customers, or by another entity on their behalf. |
| BPC_Definitions - Sustainably sourced renewable content | Materials obtained from living biomass that is continually replenished at a rate equal to, or greater than, the rate of depletion. |
| BPC_Definitions - Third-party audit | An audit conducted by external, independent auditing organizations, such as those providing certification of conformity to a standard. |
| BPC_Definitions - Unintentionally added ingredient | An ingredient that provides no function in a final formulation and is not present as a result of formulating a product for safe use by consumers (e.g., pH balancing by acids or bases). Unintentionally added ingredients include chemical contaminants (naturally occurring impurities present in procured raw materials that are unintentionally incorporated into final formulations where they provide no function) and incidental chemicals (chemicals in raw materials present as a result of processing or for stabilization such as catalysts, solvents, residual monomers, reactive by-products, and raw material preservatives). |
| BPC_Definitions - Validated alternative methods | Testing methodologies that reduce, refine, or replace the use of animals and have been validated by ICVAAM in the United States and accepted by regulatory agencies for data collection. |
| BPC_Definitions - Verifiable | Having the ability to demonstrate, through a reputable assessor, the truth or accuracy of a claim. |
| BPC_Definitions - Water scarce area | A geographical area that lacks access to adequate quantities of water for use by humans and the environment. |
| BPC_Definitions - Water use | The total withdrawals from municipal and private water providers, surface water, groundwater, or wells. |
| BPC_Resources - Chemically-derived ingredients | Any material that originated from a chemical reaction that included palm oil or palm kernel oil as a raw material. Examples of ingredients that may be derived from palm oil or palm kernel oil include, but are not limited to: surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, and sodium dodecyl sulphate; emulsifiers such as glyceryl stearate, steareth-20, and cetyl alcohol, as well as emollients such as palmitic acid. |
| BPC_Resources - Physical certified sustainable palm oil | Palm oil certified through identity preserved, segregated, or mass balance processes. |
| Buffer zones | Areas directly adjacent to where crops are produced that are designed to provide food or shelter for pollinators. Buffer zones of non-blooming plants must be at least 60 feet wide between fields where pesticides are applied via air blast sprayer, and at least 125 feet wide between fields where neonicotinoid pesticides are applied and the pollinator habitat. In the event of a conflict between this definition and the pesticide label, the pesticide user has sole and complete responsibility to comply with the applicable laws and the pesticide label instructions. |
| Bycatch | All animals (including fish, mammals, birds and others) which are discarded from fishing operations, in addition to animals that die because of a direct encounter with fishing gear (including derelict and active gear). Bycatch of non-target species recognized by management authorities to be endangered, threatened, sensitive, or vulnerable is of particular importance. |
| Byproducts | Co-products or waste streams from other processes or supply chains that can be responsibly used as feed and would otherwise not be utilized. Examples include soybean meal, soy hulls, middlings, bran, brewer's grains, distillers grains, corn gluten feed, corn gluten meal, whole cottonseed, cottonseed meal, sunflower meal, molasses, and beet pulp. |
| Carcass | The body of a slaughtered animal where head, limbs and entrails are removed. |
| Category Sustainability Profile | A Category Sustainability Profile (CSP) summarizes the most materially relevant environmental and social hotspots and improvement opportunities within a consumer product's life cycle. The CSP is based on the best available scientific research, vetted through a multi-stakeholder process. The CSP is the basis for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be used by manufacturers to assess their sustainability performance in the product category. |
| Certified third-party e-waste vendors | "Vendors that demonstrate to an accredited, independent third-party auditor that they meet specific standards to safely recycle and manage electronics. These certification programs must be based on strong environmental standards which maximize reuse and recycling, minimize exposure to human health or the environment, ensure safe management of materials by downstream handlers, and require destruction of all data on used electronics. Two accredited certification standards are the Responsible Recycling Practices (R2) and the e-Stewards® standards."(Source: EPA, E-cycling certification definition) |
| CFC | Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are compounds commonly used as refrigerants and for other industrial aplications. Their production is being phased out by the Montreal Protocol because of their ozone depletion potential. They are also considered to be greenhouse gases, contributing to climate change. |
| Chemical exposure vulnerable populations | A group of individuals within the general population who, due to either greater susceptibility and/or greater exposure, may be at greater risk than the general population of experiencing adverse health effects from exposure to chemicals. |
| Chemical footprint | Defined by the Chemical Footprint Project™ as the total mass of chemicals sold by a company, used in its manufacturing operations and by its suppliers, and contained in packaging that meet any of the following criteria: • Carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction (CMR); • Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic substance (PBT); • Any other chemical for which there is scientific evidence of probable serious effects to human health or the environment that give rise to an equivalent level of concern (for example, an endocrine disruptor or neurotoxicant); or • A chemical whose breakdown products result in a [chemical] that meets any of the above criteria. The Chemical Footprint Project™ provides other specific guidance that can be used to identify chemicals that meet these criteria. |
| Chemical oxygen demand (COD) | An indicator for the amount of oxygen required to oxidize an organic compound to carbon dioxide, ammonia, and water. The measurement is a proxy for the amount of organic compounds in water. Measuring COD in wastewater provides an estimated level of organic pollutants. The standard for measurement can be referenced in ISO 6060. |
| Chemically-derived ingredients | Any material that originated from a chemical reaction that included palm oil or palm kernel oil as a raw material. Examples of ingredients that may be derived from palm oil or palm kernel oil include, but are not limited to: surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate, sodium laureth sulfate, and sodium dodecyl sulphate; emulsifiers such as glyceryl stearate, steareth-20, and cetyl alcohol, as well as emollients such as palmitic acid. |
| Child | Every human being below the age of 18 years, unless majority is attained earlier under the law applicable to the child (Convention on the Rights of the Child – CRC, Article 1). |
| Child labor | Working children under the minimum legal age to work with or without accompaniment by a guardian. |
| Chlorpyrifos | an organophosphate insecticide, acaricide, and miticide used primarily to control foliage and soil-borne insect pests on a variety of food and feed crops including tree fruit crops, small fruits including berries, vegetables, and tropical fruits. Lorsban is a common trade name in the US. |
| Climate and energy | Burning fossil fuels for electricity, transportation, and heat is the primary driver of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Agriculture and forestry can also cause the release of GHGs from carbon stored in soil. |
| Clothianidin | a neonicotinoid insecticide that has a broad spectrum of activity against many types of insect pests including aphids, thrips, beetles, stinkbugs, and others. In the US it is used on a wide variety of crops including root and tuber vegetables, tree fruits and nuts, berries, legumes, corn, soybean, cotton, and others. It is commonly used as a seed treatment on corn and soybean. |
| CO2e | Carbon dioxide equivalent; a metric that expresses the impact of a greenhouse gas in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that has the same global warming potential. |
| Collective bargaining | According to the ILO this is a key means through which employers and their organizations and trade unions can establish fair wages and working conditions and ensure equal opportunities between women and men. |
| Community | A community is an organized group of people who reside within or in the vicinity of a particular area. The community's culture, health, or economy are affected by the use of the area. |
| Community – Pollinator Health | For the purpose of this assessment, community is the general area you farm, including the closest city or the county. |
| Community health and safety | A community or community member's potential injury or exposure to harmful chemical, physical, or biological elements that occurs as a result of proximity to industrial activities such as those that occur at factories, farms, mines, trucks, and landfills. Examples of exposure include chronic interaction with chemicals, dusts, radiation, environmental elements, allergens, noise, and vibrations. |
| Community user | Community user is a person or group of people that are part of a community and use a particular area for cultural, economic, or health-related activities. |
| Community well-being | A community or community member's potential exposure to disruptions from industrial activities that impact the rights, economies, and way of life of local communities. |
| Company-owned or contract manufacturing facilities | Facilities responsible for manufacturing and assembly of final products, whether these facilities are internal or external to the respondent’s organization. |
| Component | A component is an individual part used together with other parts to form a final product. |
| Component supplier | A manufacturer of a component used in the final product. If the manufacturing facility partner is responsible for fabrication of these devices, they are the supplier of interest for this question. |
| Comprehensive | Having the ability to be complete and detailed, including all or nearly all elements pertaining to relevant sustainability impacts. |
| Comprehensive plan | Complete and detailed proposal including all or nearly all elements pertaining to relevant sustainability impacts. |
| Conflict minerals | Conflict minerals are defined per "Section 1502(e)(4) of the [Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform] Act as (A) columbite-tantalite, also known as coltan (the metal ore from which tantalum is extracted); cassiterite (the metal ore from which tin is extracted); gold; wolframite (the metal ore from which tungsten is extracted); or their derivatives; or (B) any other mineral or its derivatives determined by the Secretary of State to be financing conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an adjoining country." (US Securities and Exchange Commission, 17 CFR Parts 240 and 249b, RIN: 3235-AK84, Conflict Minerals Final Rule) |
| Conflict-afflicted and high-risk areas | OECD definition of conflict-affected and high-risk areas: Conflict-affected and high-risk areas are identified by the presence of armed conflict, widespread violence or other risks of harm to people. Armed conflict may take a variety of forms, such as a conflict of international or non-international character, which may involve two or more states, or may consist of wars of liberation, or insurgencies, civil wars, etc. High-risk areas may include areas of political instability or repression, institutional weakness, insecurity, collapse of civil infrastructure and widespread violence. Such areas are often characterised by widespread human rights abuses and violations of national or international law. http://www.oecd.org/corporate/mne/mining.htm |
| Consumer engagement | Improvement opportunities by engaging with consumers. |
| Consumer goods manufacturer practices | Improvement opportunities in operations or facilities. |
| Consumer health and safety | Some products contain or release chemicals or materials that pose a risk to consumer health. |
| Consumer rights | Consumers may experience limitations to their rights to privacy, fair business practices, and information. |
| Consumer use phase | The life cycle stage of a product during which it is being used by a consumer. |
| Contaminants | Naturally occurring impurities present in procured raw materials that are unintentionally incorporated into final formulations where they provide no function. |
| Contract feed growers | Organizations responsible for growing and production of feed products, whether these organizations are internal or external to the respondent’s organization. |
| Controlled environment agriculture | A combination of engineering, plant science, and computer managed greenhouse control technologies used to optimize plant growing systems, plant quality, and production efficiency. |
| Cooling agent | Substances or mixtures of substances used for refrigeration, including CFCs, HFCs and HCFCs. |
| Corrective actions | Prompt actions taken to eliminate the causes of a problem, thus preventing their recurrence. |
| Country risk classification analysis | A systematic examination of sourcing countries' conditions, controls, and other mitigating factors. The tool should measure the strength of a country's ability to govern and enforce laws, regulations, and internationally recognized principles. This analysis may be a first party systematic review assessment, or external risk analyses tools may be utilized. |
| Cover crops | A crop planted to improve or maintain soil, water and biodiversity quality, and to help control pests and disease of agricultural fields. |
| Cow-calf farm operations | An area of land and its buildings, comprised of one or more locations managed together, that is used for rearing calves for later sale. This includes the growing of crops for animal feed on this land. |
| Crew welfare | Crew welfare is defined as all provisions that ensure the rights for every fisherman and -woman to decent working and living conditions, health and safety, medical care, welfare measures, and other forms of social protection on the fishing vessel. |
| Critically important antibiotics | An antimicrobial agent which is the sole, or one of limited available therapy, to treat serious human disease caused by either organisms that may be transmitted to humans from non-human sources, or by organisms that may acquire resistance genes from nonhuman sources. (Adapted from WHO) |
| Critically important antimicrobial (CIA) drugs | The WHO defines critically important antimicrobials as antimicrobial drugs used to treat a large number of people with infections for which limited antimicrobials are available, used with high frequency in human medicine or in certain high risk groups, and/or used to treat human infections for which an extensive evidence existson the transmission of resistant-bacteria or genes from non-human sources. Antimicrobial classes used in humans which meet both C1 and C2 are termed critically important for human medicine (C2): Criterion 1 (C1): The antimicrobial class is the sole, or one of limited available therapies, to treat serious bacterial infections in people. Criterion 2 (C2): The antimicrobial class is used to treat infections in people caused by either: (1) bacteria that may be transmitted to humans from non-human sources, or (2) bacteria that may acquire resistance genes from non-human sources. |
| Cube utilization | Cube utilization is the overall volumetric measurement of packaging design efficiency. |
| Culled cows | All dairy cows that have been removed from the dairy operation, either by natural death or sent off to slaughter but not those production purposes to other dairy farms. |
| Cullet | Glass waste or scrap that may be recycled for use. |
| Cumulative risk assessment | An analysis of the combined risks to health or the environment from multiple agents or stressors. |
| Cut-off dates | The point in time after which organizations cannot have engaged in unsustainable practices. |
| Dark, firm, and dry meat | Dark, firm, and dry meat is often referred to as dark cutting beef. This condition is a result of an animal’s depleted muscle glycogen reserves prior to slaughter, which can be attributed to pre-slaughter stress like transport exhaustion, fear, or hunger. |
| Dead-on-arrival | Dead-on-arrival (DOA) or brought-in-dead (BID), is a term that indicates an animal is clinically dead upon the moment of arrival. |
| Decision tree | The decision tree is The Sustainability Consortium's methodology for determining significant impacts in a product life cycle based on levels of evidence within publicly available resources. |
| Deforestation | The direct human-induced conversion of forested land to non-forested land. |
| Dehorning | Removal of the horns after they have formed from the horn bud. |
| Derelict gear | Fishing gear, such as nets, pots, and traps, that is lost or abandoned during fishing operations and can lead to trapping, entanglement, and killing of animals (ghost fishing). |
| Detachment | Separation of soil particles from the soil mass. |
| Developing countries | Countries with little industrial and economic activity and where people generally have low incomes. Developing countries include all countries other than industrialized countries and countries in transition, namely: all countries in Africa except South Africa, all countries in Asia except Israel and Japan, all countries in Oceania except Australia and New Zealand, and all countries in North and Central America except Canada, USA and Mexico, and all countries in South America except Brazil and Chile. |
| Dinotefuran | a neonicotinoid insecticide used to control a wide range of pests, such as whiteflies, thrips, leafhoppers, aphids, mealy bugs, stink bugs, leaf miners, ants, cockroaches, fleas, flies, crickets, and gnats. |
| Direct Suppliers | Manufacturer or supplier from whom materials, ingredients, chemicals or components are purchased and then directly incorporated into the manufacturing of a products. |
| Direct supplies | Materials, ingredients, chemicals, or components that are directly incorporated into the manufacturing of a product. |
| Disbudding | Removal of the horn-producing cells (corium) of the horn bud. |
| Discharge | Discharge of wastewater from manufacturing and processing facilities into groundwater and surface waters, such as streams, rivers, lakes and seas by way of a discrete conveyance such as a pipe or a man-made ditch. |
| Discrimination | Discrimination is defined under ILO Convention No. 111 as any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin (among other characteristics), "which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity and treatment in employment or occupation". |
| Disposal and end-of-life | A number of health and environmental risks are associated with disposing products in landfills, wastewater, and incineration. When the materials in these products are not recovered, more must be produced to meet demand. |
| Downer | A downer is a non-ambulatory animal that cannot stand on its own. The most likely reason for cattle to go down is a trauma, for example: metabolic, traumatic, infectious, degenerative, and toxic disorders. |
| Downstream partners for used electronics | "Downstream partners" means both internal corporate organizations and external contracted parties who handle products brought in under a product takeback program. |
| Downstream takeback program partners | Downstream takeback program partners include internal corporate organizations and external contracted parties who handle products brought in under a product takeback program. |
| Dry matter intake | The amount of feed an animal consumes on a moisture-free basis. |
| Durable good | A durable good is a product whose expected lifespan is three years or more. |
| Ecologically sensitive regions | Include but are not limited to High Conservation Value Areas, Protected Areas, and World Wildlife Fund's Priority 200 Ecoregions. |
| Elemental chlorine free | Pulp bleaching processes that substitute chlorine dioxide for chlorine gas as the bleaching agent. |
| Emission reduction techniques | Technologies that have been scientifically proven to reduce gaseous emissions from animal farm operations. |
| End-of-life | A product life cycle phase that begins at the end of a product’s useful life, including reuse and refurbishment cycles. |
| Energy efficiency attributes | Product design attributes such as low power motors or more efficient air circulation that increase the energy efficiency of a product above market average. |
| Enteric fermentation | Fermentation that takes place in the digestive systems of ruminant animals. During this process, complex carbohydrates that cannot be digested by monogastrics are broken down into soluble products that can be utilized by the animal. |
| Environmental enrichment | Enrichment is a dynamic process for enhancing animal environments within the context of the animals' behavioral biology and natural history. Environmental changes are made with the goal of increasing the animals' behavioral choices and drawing out their species-appropriate behaviors. |
| Environmental fate | The fate of a chemical in the environment after its disposal by a consumer. |
| Environmental impact | Any change to the environment, whether adverse or beneficial, wholly or partially resulting from an organization's activities, products or services. (ISO definition) |
| Environmental initiatives - Cotton | Examples of environmental initiatives include integrated pest management, precision agriculture, and water management programs. |
| Fair working hours | Fair working hours are 48 hours per week or less, with at least one non-work day within any seven day period. Work above 48 hours is considered overtime, which is compensated at a premium rate, and is voluntary unless agreed upon through collective bargaining. |
| Fallow Fields and Set-Asides | Fallow and unproductive lands, especially when sown with native flowers, can provide food or shelter to pollinators. |
| Farming operation | An area of land and its buildings, comprised of one or more locations managed together that is used for growing crops that are delivered for further processing or as ingredients to other final products. |
| Feed conversion ratio (FCR) | The mass (e.g., kg) of feed used compared to the mass of the product produced (e.g., kg meat). FCR includes mortality, product and feed losses. High mortality, product and feed losses will result in a significant increase in FCR. |
| Feed formulation | Feed formulation is the process of combining different feed ingredients in proportions necessary to provide the animal with proper amounts of nutrients needed at a particular stage of production. |
| Fertilizer | Any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soils or to plant tissues (usually leaves) to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. |
| Financial services and markets | Smallholder farmers should have access to financial services, which include but are not limited to (micro) credit and banking services, pre-and post-harvest finance arrangements, fair prices, favorable terms of trade. In addition, smallholder farmers should be supported to get better access to markets via for example providing them with reliable and timely market information (on domestic, and international markets), and supporting farmers to become part of a producer organization. These services can be provided as part of a certification program, but can also be provided outside a certification program or through external partnerships. |
| Finished beef | Beef products derived from beef cattle that were fattened on finishing farms. |
| Finishing farm operations | An area of land and its buildings, comprised of one or more locations managed together that is used for finishing beef cattle. This includes the full-feeding and final conditioning of an animal for slaughter. |
| Finishing stage | The final stage of livestock production where full-feeding and final conditioning of an animal for slaughter takes place in order to ensure satisfactory muscle and fat revenues. This excludes breeding, cow-calf, and stocker farms. |
| First party audit | A first party audit is conducted by the organization itself for management review and other internal purposes and may form the basis for an organization’s declaration of conformity. |
| First party systematic risk assessment | A first party systematic risk assessment is conducted by the organization itself for management review and other internal purposes and may form the basis for an organization’s declaration of conformity. |
| First-party review | A first-party review is a documented, systematic, periodic, and objective evaluation of data or a program performed by an organization on itself. It may also be referred to as an internal review or self review. |
| Fish escapement rate | The number of fish allowed to escape the fishery. |
| Fish feed equivalency ratio | The weight of wild fish used for feed per weight of farmed fish or shellfish produced. |
| Fish meal | FAO defines fish meal as a solid product obtained by removing most of the water and some or all of the oil from fish or fish waste, often otherwise treated (e.g., grinding), to which no other matter has been added. Fish meal is generally sold as a powder and is used mostly in compound foods and animal fodder. |
| Fishery-based management program | A program that operates within a fishery that has steps to address community concerns relating to operations, works to respect traditional and civil rights, and can ensure free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is received. |
| Fishing operations | An enterprise, or set of enterprises, for the harvesting of wild seafood from the ocean or inland waters. |
| Floral resources | Pollen and nectar from a diverse mix of native species that bloom continuously throughout the growing season. |
| Fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-GHGs) | Fluorine-containing gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation in the atmosphere. The F-GHG emissions of primary concern in electronics manufacturing are of perfluorocarbons (PFCs), trifluoromethane (CHF3 or HFCs), nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), which are more potent than carbon dioxide. |
| Food loss and waste | Food is intended for human consumption and is wasted or lost when it gets diverted to another destination (e.g., animal feed, biofuel, compost, incineration, or landfill). |
| Food waste | Food that is sent to landfill, incineration, or wastewater. Food that is repurposed (e.g., donations, biofuel, compost, or animal feed) is not considered food waste. |
| Forced labor | Any task or service performed by a person against their will or under threat of negative consequence. Forced labor includes debt bondage, human trafficking, withholding of wages or identity papers, threats of violence, unreasonable restriction of movement, and exploitation of marginalized workers. |
| Forest | An area of land that is dominantly covered by trees and that is established naturally or by management activities such as planting or seeding. It does not include land areas that are predominantly under agricultural or urban land use. It includes Primary forest and Secondary forest. |
| Forest Plantation | A forest plantation is an area of land with trees established by planting or seeding. The features of uniformity, shape, and intensity of management distinguish these sites from natural forests. |
| Fossil resources | The world's finite fossil resources, including oil, natural gas, and coal, are used to produce materials used in many products. |
| Fragrance and flavor | Defined by SCCS: "Fragrance and flavour substances are organic compounds with characteristic, usually pleasant, odours. They are ubiquitously used in perfumes and other perfumed cosmetic products, but also in detergents, fabric softeners, and other household products where fragrance may be used to mask unpleasant odours from raw materials." Fragrances can be composed of natural and/or synthetic ingredients. |
| Free stall | A free stall permits cattle to move freely between the resting and feeding areas. Examples of free stall systems are cubicle and deep litter housing systems. |
| Free, Prior, and Informed Consent | Free, prior, and informed consent is a right under international law and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It gives indigenous peoples the right to be involved in decisions that impact their traditional lands and resources. |
| Freedom of association | The right of workers to join or form trade union or other worker organizations of their choosing/or refrain from doing so/and could bargain collectively without fear of retaliation or repercussion as long as it not contrary to local law. |
| Freedom of collective bargaining | The right to negotiate the conditions of employment as a group rather than individually without fear of repercussions. |
| Freshwater | Water occurring naturally on the Earth's surface (in lakes, rivers, streams, bogs, ice caps, ice sheets, icebergs, and glaciers) and underground (aquifers and underground streams). |
| Freshwater environments | Pollution and mismanagement from human activities can disturb and harm plants and animals living in freshwater environments such as rivers and lakes. |
| Freshwater salinization | The increasing concentration of water-soluble salts in freshwater sources. Can occur as a result of irrigation, when evaporation removes water and leaves salt behind, or groundwater pumping, when reduced water levels draw seawater into aquifers and other freshwater sources. |
| Fugitive emissions | Non-stack emissions released from a facility or operation and can include such constituents as volatile organic compounds and dust. |
| Gender discrimination on smallholder farms | Women's limited access to land ownership, agricultural inputs, information, credit, and technology compared to men. |
| Geographic origin | The geographic origin is the country, region, or farm from which this product's priority ingredients are sourced. A country is defined as a nation-state recognized by the United Nations. A region is defined as a sub-country area such as an agricultural zone or region, eco-region, or geo-political boundary (e.g., state, county, department). A farm is an area of land and its buildings that may be comprised of one or more locations that are managed together. |
| Goals | Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. |
| Grazing land | Land where grass or grass-like vegetation grows and is the mainly used for animal production. |
| Grazing management plan | An annually updated document that allows producers to organize their land, improve forage production, determine livestock sustainability, allocate budget resources, and determine the effort and time to achieve long-term livestock production goals. The grazing management plan should summarize concrete goals and a plan how to achieve these goals. |
| Greenhouse gas | Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect by absorbing infrared radiation in the atmosphere, e.g., carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons. |
| Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint | The total GHG emissions generated by a commodity, product, ingredient, component, material, or company. |
| Groundwater depletion | Reduction in the volume of groundwater that largely results from sustained groundwater pumping activities. |
| Groundwater extraction | The process of removing water from ground sources such as aquifers or underground streams. |
| Growing operation | An area of land and its buildings (including greenhouses), comprised of one or more locations managed together, that is used for growing crops delivered fresh to market or to processors. |
| Guaranteed anonymity | A worker should be able to report a grievance anonymously without fear of repercussions. The victim should not have to reveal name, place, sex, or any other detail that could be traced back to the individual's identity. |
| Habitat loss | Changing or fragmenting existing habitat causing a reduction in area for plants, animals, other species to carry out their lifecycles. |
| Hazardous materials and components - Used electronics | The phrase "...hazardous materials and components..." indicates materials and components that are regulated or require special handling. This list may include components such as mercury lamps, rechargeable batteries, CRT displays, and circuit boards. (Source: US EPA e-Cycling Regulations and Standards) |
| Hazardous substance | A chemical that meets the criteria for classification as a carcinogen, mutagen, reproductive toxicant, or is persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic; or any chemical for which there is "scientific evidence of probable serious effects to human health or the environment which give rise to an equivalent level of concern" (REACH Title VII, Chapter 1, Article 57). Hazardous substances are identified on a case-by-case basis. |
| Hazardous work | Work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety, or moral of children (Article 3(d) of the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 182). Hazardous work activities include work that is abusive, work underground, underwater, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces, work with dangerous machinery and tools, work with heavy loads, work involving hazardous substances and environments, work for long hours, work at night, work that interferes with schooling, or work in which the worker is unreasonably restricted from movement outside the premises. |
| HCFC | Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are compounds which are being used to replace CFCs for refrigeration and other industrial applications. They also contribute to ozone depletion and climate change, but to a lower extent than CFCs. |
| Hedgerows | Hedgerows with a wide variety of plants that have overlapping flowering periods provide pollinator habitat throughout the growing season and strengthen populations of natural enemies of crop pest. |
| HFC | Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are compounds which are being used to replace CFCs. They do not contribute to ozone layer depletion, but some of them have a high global warming potential, contributing to climate change. |
| High Carbon Stock (HCS) forest | Forest areas with a significant amount of carbon stored within the vegetation and soil. Burning and clearing HCS forests releases stored carbon as greenhouse gas emissions. Different initiatives have set thresholds for identifying High Carbon Stock forests. |
| High Conservation Value (HCV) forest | Forested areas that support natural concentrations and distribution of species including significant species and ecosystems (e.g., endemic or endangered species, refuges), provide the basic services of nature in critical conditions (e.g., watershed protection, erosion control), and are fundamental to meeting the basic needs and traditional cultural identity of local communities. |
| Highly aromatic oils | Base oil extracts that contain high levels of (polycyclic) aromatic compounds, often used in the production of rubber products. |
| Homeworkers | Contracted or subcontracted employees who perform their duties outside of traditional employment facilities, typically within their residence. |
| Hot and standardized carcass weight | Un-chilled weight of the carcass. The standardized carcass is the body of a slaughtered animal where head, hide, limbs, fat, intestinal tract, and internal organs are removed. |
| Hotspot | An activity in a product's life cycle that has a documented environmental or social impact that is supported by significant evidence, as described in TSC's decision tree. Hotspots may be geographically specific. |
| Human rights | Universal rights of all human beings as born free and equal in dignity and rights as described in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. |
| Human rights incident | An incident which violates the human rights of workers within the value chain. |
| Hydroponic agriculture | A production method where the crops are grown in a nutrient solution rather than in soil. |
| Imidacloprid | a neonicotinoid insecticide that controls a wide variety of sucking and piercing insects including thrips, aphids and whiteflies, as well as soil insects such as beetles, grubs and wireworms. Imidacloprid is used on a wide variety of agricultural and non-agricultural sites including vegetable crops, tree fruits, tree nuts, field crops, forestry, turf and ornamental plants. Seed treatments represent the largest use of imidacloprid, primarily on corn, cotton, soybean, potato and wheat, as well as some vegetable crops. |
| Impact group | Impact groups are the broadest aggregation of impacts in the TSC impact classification. They can be characterized as aspects of the natural environment and society that humans value and would like to preserve. Each impact group has one or more domains which further specify where an impact is occurring. |
| Improvement opportunity | A practice that improves a product's environmental and/or social performance relevant to one or more hotspot, additional issue, and/or stakeholder concern. |
| Incidental chemicals | Chemicals in raw materials present as a result of processing or for stabilization such as catalysts, solvents, residual monomers, reactive by-products, and raw material preservatives. |
| Indigenous Peoples | Indigenous Peoples have the following characteristics: 1) They are a group of people that have an historical continuity with their ancestors who inhabited land areas prior to colonization or present political boundaries. 2) They identify with their land, both culturally and economically. 3) They possess language(s), culture(s), belief(s), or social, political, and economic systems that are distinct from that of the internationally-recognized governments that have political boundaries in the region, and 4) They identify themselves as an indigenous person or peoples. |
| Indigenous Peoples' Rights | Rights held by Indigenous Peoples including, but not limited to, the right to cultural survival and the right to use traditional lands. |
| Indirect supplies | Materials, ingredients, chemicals, or components that are not directly incorporated into the manufacturing of a product, for example, safety equipment, computers, or office or janitorial supplies. |
| Indoor vertical farming | The practice of growing crops stacked one above another in a closed and controlled environment. |
| Inert ingredient | Any non-active ingredient included in a pesticide formulation. Also called a "co-formulant" (EU). |
| Information feedback loop | The phrase "... formal information feedback loop..." indicates a program established internally between the product takeback team and the design team to ensure designers have the knowledge to enable design for responsible end-of-life product management. |
| Informed substitution | Informed substitution implies that factors such as cost and performance, technical feasibility, life cycle impacts, economic and social accountability, and potential to result in lasting change have been taken into consideration to ensure that substitutes and the final product are safer based on their health and environmental profiles (Adapted from United States Environmental Protection Agency Design for Environment Program Alternative Assessment information). |
| Ingredient function | The function that an ingredient provides in a final formulation (e.g., surfactant, colorant, astringent) or its purpose for existing in the final formulation (e.g., acids or bases may be added to adjust pH). |
| Ingredient production laborers | Persons that directly contribute to the farming, harvesting, or processing of priority ingredients. |
| Integrated Pest Management (IPM) | Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a sustainable, science-based, decision-making process that combines biological, cultural, physical and chemical tools to identify, manage and reduce risk from pests and pest management tools and strategies in a way that minimizes overall economic, health and environmental risks (7 U.S.C. § 136r). |
| Intensity based goals | A goal for GHG reduction based on decreased emissions per unit of output (e.g., tons CO2e per unit produced). |
| Intensity based water reduction goal | A goal for water use reduction expressed as liters per unit of output (e.g., liters per unit produced). |
| Intentionally added chemical | A chemical that provides a function to the final formulation during consumer use or is present as a result of formulating a product for safe use by consumers (e.g., pH balancing by acids or bases). |
| Intentionally added ingredient | An ingredient that provides a function in the final formulation or is present as a result of producing a final formulation for safe use by consumers. |
| Intermodal facility | An intermodal facility is one where goods and materials are transferred from one model of transportation to another, e.g., from sea to rail, or rail to road. |
| Internationally-recognized labor principles | Internationally-recognized labor principles include the United Nations Global Compact and International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work or equivalent. |
| Invasive species | Plants and animals that are introduced to an area where they are not native, and subsequently have negative impacts on the area's ecosystem. |
| Irrigation optimization programs | Irrigaiton optimization programs include, but are not limited to, combinations of water recycling systems, laser leveling, drip irrigation, furrow diking, irrigation based on weather and soil moisture data, or tillage-minimization practices. |
| Irrigation water use | Total withdrawals from municipal and private water providers, surface water, groundwater, or wells for purposes of crop irrigation. Collected rainwater is not included. |
| Key Performance Indicators | The Sustainability Consortium(R) (TSC(R)) has developed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the form of questions that can be used to assess and track performance towards addressing the critical sustainability issues for consumer goods. The KPIs focus on the relevant environmental and social issues for a single product category or family of consumer goods. |
| Labor rights | The universal rights of workers, regardless of race, gender, nationality, or other distinguishing characteristic. These include protection from the worst forms of child labor, forced labor, and discrimination, as well as freedom of association and collective bargaining as outlined by the United Nations Global Compact or the International Labour Organization Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. |
| Lactating dairy cattle | Dairy cows that have calved and produce milk. |
| Land acquisition | Use of traditional lands without free, prior, and informed consent by Indigenous Peoples and others in the local community. |
| Land conversion | The human-induced change of the prevailing physical and ecological conditions of an area of land to facilitate a new use or function. Examples include conversion of forests for pasture; conversion of native grasslands or other ecosystems for crop production, grazing, or other uses; conversion of farmland for urban development; and draining marshes or wetlands to create dry land. |
| Land occupation | The total amount of land required for the production of a crop. Strategies to reduce land area required include optimizing yield, maintaining current agricultural lands, re-using degraded lands, and implementing other practices that minimize the need for land conversion to agriculture. |
| Land resources | Most supply chains rely on land itself as a valuable resource. Healthy soil, in particular, is important for any agricultural product. |
| Land use change footprint | The total land use change generated by a commodity, product, ingredient, component, material, or company. |
| Land-based environments | Pollution and mismanagement from human activities can disturb and harm plants and animals living in land-based environments such as forests and grasslands. |
| Landfill | A solid waste disposal site managed through burying and soil covering. |
| Lifetime milk yield | Volume of milk produced by a dairy cow through its productive lifetime from first calving until culling. |
| Limit of detection | Defined by the IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") as: "[the concentration, or the quantity, derived from the smallest measure that can be detected with reasonable certainty for a given analytical procedure.]" |
| Live weight | The weight of a living animal before it has been slaughtered. |
| Logistics carrier | A logistics carrier is a person or business that transports goods from one location to another by any transportation mode. |
| Luminous efficacy | "Luminous efficacy" refers to the ratio of the perceived intensity of light generated to the electrical power a light source consumes as measured by a standard electrical and photometric test method, such as the Illuminating Engineering Society's IES LM-9-09. |
| Management plan | An annually updated document that farmers can demonstrate on-site. The management plan should summarize concrete goals and a plan how to achieve these goals. |
| Manufacturing facility partners | Manufacturing facility partners are defined as organizations responsible for manufacturing and assembly of final products, whether these organizations are internal or external to the respondent's organization. |
| Marine debris prevention program | Marine debris refers to persistent solid waste materials that are discarded or lost at sea, such as fishing gear, trash, or other equipment. Prevention programs include adequate trash disposal, secure storage of trash and equipment, and avoidance of derelict fishing gear generation. |
| Marine environments | Pollution and mismanagement from human activities can disturb and harm plants and animals living in the world's oceans and seas. |
| Material and process efficiency | Material efficiency is the ratio between the material input and the benefits derived. Resource conservation (source reduction) of material inputs and/or improving the functionality of the packaging can positively impact material efficiency. Process efficiency is the ratio between the time spent on production steps to the output. Opportunities to improve material and process efficiency include process improvement, product redesign, and technology changes to packaging equipment. It should be noted that continual source reduction has benefits, but there are trade-offs that must be assessed. |
| Material and process efficiency - Home and Personal Care | The practice of minimizing material use and waste in production processes. |
| Material elements | Defined by ILO as "workplaces, working environment, tools, machinery and equipment, chemical, physical and biological substances and agents, work processes. |
| Maximum sustainable yield | The theoretical maximum amount of biomass that may be harvested from a fishery and sustained for an indefinite period. |
| Medically important antimicrobial drugs | FDA’s Guidance for the Industry #209 defines medically important antimicrobial drugs as antimicrobial drugs that are important for therapeutic use in humans (C1). FDA’s Guidance for Industry #213 states that all antimicrobial drugs and their associated classes listed in Appendix A of FDA’s Guidance for Industry #152 are considered “medically important” in human medical therapy in the context of implementing the recommendations outlined in GFI #209. |
| Medically important antimicrobials | Antimicrobials used in human medicine, and therefore listed on the WHO CIA list. Medically important antimicrobials are categorized on the WHO CIA list, according to specific criteria, as either “Critically important”, “Highly important”, or “Important” for human medicine. |
| Microfiber release | Small synthetic fibers less than 10 micrometers in diameter that are released into the environment via wastewater during textile manufacturing that cause a variety of impacts to humans and wildlife, in addition to persisting in rivers, streams, and oceans. |
| Milk recording | Periodic record keeping of volume and composition of milk production of individual animals. |
| Mineral resources | Minerals are extracted for metals and many other materials used to produce consumer goods. Because minerals are finite resources, poor management can decrease their availability. Phosphorous, used in fertilizer, is of particular concern for agricultural products. |
| Mining | Mining can be a resource intensive process, using energy, land, and materials. There are also associated environmental, health, and safety issues. |
| Mortality | The uncontrolled death of animals and cases of euthanasia and emergency slaughter at the farm. |
| Multi-stakeholder initiatives | Multi-stakeholder initiatives can be internal or external and are defined as those that utilize collaboration and consensus-based techniques to create a set of principles, criteria, and indicators for more responsible production, sourcing, and manufacturing practices within or across a given sector or product. This may result in a standard that is used to verify, accredit, or certify a product. MSIs do not always result in certification schemes, but they may develop measurement tools or share best management practices (BMP). |
| Mycotoxin | Mycotoxins are poisonous chemical compounds produced by certain fungi. |
| Nanomaterial | Nanomaterials are defined according to the EU adopted definition of 2011 as "A natural, incidental or manufactured material containing particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and where, for 50 % or more of the particles in the number size distribution, one or more external dimensions is in the size range 1 nm - 100 nm. In specific cases and where warranted by concerns for the environment, health, safety or competitiveness the number size distribution threshold of 50 % may be replaced by a threshold between 1 and 50 %. By derogation from the above, fullerenes, graphene flakes and single wall carbon nanotubes with one or more external dimensions below 1 nm should be considered as nanomaterials." http://ec.europa.eu/environment/chemicals/nanotech/faq/definition_en.htm |
| Native ecosystems | Lands that have not been previously cultivated, cleared, drained or otherwise irrevocably altered that retain a dominant and characteristic native community of living organisms (as opposed to invasive or introduced species) which collectively function to provide unique value and services. |
| Native species | Native species are species that are naturally found in your region. Native plants are adapted to the local climate and soil conditions where they naturally occur and are particularly valuable to pollinators, either as food or habitat. |
| Natural or Undeveloped Areas | Nearby natural areas that meet specific nesting requirements may provide food or shelter to pollinators (see Nesting resources for more information). |
| Neonicotinoids | Neonicotinoids are a group of pesticides that includes nitro-substituted (clothiandin, dinotefuran, imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, and nitenpyram) or cyano-substituted (acetamiprid and thiacloprid) compounds. |
| Nesting resources | Places for ground, cavity, and wood-nesting pollinators to reproduce. - Ground-nesting bees prefer well-drained bare ground and sparse grassy areas. Not tilling some sections of ground will also help keep nesting sites safe. - Cavity-nesting bees prefer dead wood, brush, and plants with hollow stems. - Wood-nesting bees prefer beetle tunnels in dead standing trees. |
| Nitrogen use intensity | The mass of nitrogen applied divided by the mass of crop harvested. |
| Non-ambulatory cattle | An animal that cannot stand on its own. Cattle may become non-ambulatory due to trauma such as metabolic, traumatic, infectious, degenerative, and toxic disorders. |
| Non-forest | An area of land that is no longer dominated by trees. |
| Non-therapeutic (sub-therapeutic) antibiotic use | Administration of antibiotics to farm animals not intended to treat or prevent diseases. |
| Normal cubic meter of air | A normal cubic meter of air is a cubic meter of air measured at zero degrees Celcius and one atmosphere of pressure. |
| Number of fish escapes | The number of fish escaped from an aquaculture operation in one productive cycle. |
| Nutrient management | The complex of activities farmers carry out to manage the amount, form, placement, and timing of the application of manure and fertilizers to fields or crops. It also includes the minimization of emissions from storage of manure and fertilizers. The purpose is to minimize airborne emissions and pollution of ground and surface water. |
| Nutritional requirement | The daily dietary need of carbohydrates, fats, fiber, minerals, proteins, vitamins, and water for animal species at all stages of life and production. |
| Offsite interview | An interview or a conversation with a worker that is taking place outside the working premises without the presence of a supervisor. The aim is to get sensitive information about the working conditions. |
| Optimum | A state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced. |
| Optimum feed formulation | Optimum feed formulation takes into account the sustainability of feed ingredients, composition and quality, nutrient variability, nutrient digestibility and availability, relative value, palatability, inclusion rates, effect on meat, egg, or milk quality, cost, and other factors. |
| Organic fertilizers | Fertilizers derived from animal or vegetable matter. Examples include peat, animal waste (manure or other wastes), plant waste from agriculture, and sewage sludge. |
| Organic waste | The biodegradable component of the waste stream that is of biological origin but does not contain any Listed Waste, Radioactive Waste, or Hazardous Waste. These organic materials can be composted to formulate valuable recycled organic compost. Suitability of compostable organic waste as feedstock is dependent on the location, site design, processes and potential to cause harm. |
| Overfishing | A level of fishing activity that jeopardizes the capacity of fish or shellfish stocks to remain within biologically sustainable levels. |
| Packaging | The inefficient use of packaging materials contributes to all impacts in the supply chain, particularly when treated as waste, rather than recycled. |
| Palm oil | Palm oil is a leading cause of tropical deforestation and biodiversity loss, and has impacted local communities. |
| Parbaked products | Parbaked products are bakery products that are partially baked and then stored, produced by products manufacturers. |
| Particulate matter | Small particles or liquid droplets, typically considered 10 micrometers or less in diameter, which can have negative health consequences when inhaled by humans. |
| Pest | (1) any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, weed, or (2) any other form of terrestrial or aquatic plant or animal life or virus, bacteria, or other micro-organism (except viruses, bacteria, or other micro-organisms on or in living man or other living animals), as defined in the Section 2(t) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. § 136 (t)). |
| Pesticide | A substance or mixture of substances used to prevent, destroy, or control a pest (e.g., weeds, fungi, bacteria, unwanted animal species) that are harmful to or interfere with the production, processing, storage, transport, or marketing of agricultural products. |
| Pesticide – Pollinator Health | (1) any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest, (2) any substance or mixture of substances intended for use as a plant regulator, defoliant, or desiccant, and (3) any nitrogen stabilizer, as defined in Section 2(u) of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (7 U.S.C. § 136 (u)). |
| pH | A measure of a substance's acidity or basicity. The measurement is based upon the molar concentration of hydrogen (H) ions in an aqueous solution of the substance. Pure water is at a neutral pH of 7. For wastewater quality testing, measuring pH allows for benchmarking pH levels to ambient conditions existing naturally in the surrounding environment. |
| Phosphorus surplus | The mass of phosphorus applied to a crop minus the mass of phosphorus recommended, divided by the mass of crop harvested. |
| Physical certified sustainable palm oil | Palm oil certified through identity preserved, segregated, or mass balance processes. |
| Pig finishing farms | The final stage of pig production, where pigs are fattened. This excludes pig breeding farms. |
| Pipped egg | An egg prior to hatching where the chick has started to find a way with its beak to the air cell within the egg shell. |
| Plant-based priority ingredients | Ingredients that come from plants either as primary products or byproducts including vegetables, fruit, beans, nuts, seed oils, grains, sugar, coffee, and tea. |
| Polled breed | A breed that naturally does not have horns through selective breeding. |
| Pollinator habitat | Plants and landscape features that provide floral and nesting resources for pollinators throughout the season, and that are protected from (not exposed to) pesticides toxic to pollinators. Hectares devoted to crops are not considered pollinator habitat. Rotational or temporary habitat is not considered pollinator habitat. Examples of pollinator habitat include buffer zones, transitional areas, field borders, hedgerows, natural or undeveloped areas, and fallow fields and set-asides. |
| Pollinators | Insects and other animals, such as bees, beetles, wasps, moths, butterflies, birds, flies, and small mammals, including bats whose normal activities are key to transferring pollen which helps to complete the reproductive cycle of plants. |
| Post market surveillance | The practice of monitoring the safety of products after they have been released on the market. |
| Post-consumer recycled (PCR) content | Materials obtained from a product that has been disposed of after its intended consumer use. |
| Post-consumer recycled material | Material generated by households or by commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities in their role as end‐users of the product that can no longer be used for its intended purpose. This includes returns of materials from the distribution chain.” (ISO 14021:2016 - Environmental labels and declarations — Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling)) |
| Post-industrial recycled (PIR) content | Materials obtained from a manufacturing process that has been disposed of after its intended use. |
| Power management features | Product design features that enable users to manage product energy use, such as variable heat or speed settings, or that automatically control energy use, such as auto-off after a set time. |
| Pre-consumer recycled material | Material diverted from the waste stream during the manufacturing process. Excluded is reutilization of materials such as rework, regrind or scrap generated in a process and capable of being reclaimed within the same process that generated it.” (ISO 14021:2016 - Environmental labels and declarations — Self-declared environmental claims (Type II environmental labelling)) |
| Pre-harvest burning | Refers to burning of fields prior to harvesting, which is a common practice in sugarcane production. Prescribed burn management programs may include monitoring fire weather forecasts and wind direction and identify nearby smoke-sensitive areas, such as public highways, airports, medical facilities, schools, and housing areas ahead of time. |
| Prescription drug monitoring programs | Government-run plans that track prescriptions made for controlled substances in a centralized database in an effort to reduce prescription drug abuse, misuse, and diversion. |
| Primary forest | A forest that has never been logged or cut and has developed following natural disturbances and under natural processes, regardless of its age. |
| Primary packaging | According to the Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability 2.0 (2011), primary packaging is the packaging "designed to come into direct contact with the product" (p. 13). |
| Priority chemical | A chemical that meets the criteria for classification as a carcinogen, mutagen, reproductive toxicant, or is persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic; or any chemical for which there is "scientific evidence of probable serious effects to human health or the environment which give rise to an equivalent level of concern" (REACH Title VII, Chapter 1, Article 57). Priority chemicals are identified on a case-by-case basis. |
| Priority ingredients | Those ingredients that are estimated to have the greatest environmental and social impacts in the product, based on their relative mass in the product or on the contribution to key issues. Priority ingredients are listed in the Background Information below. |
| Process chlorine free | Pulp containing recycled material that was not bleached after recycling by using chlorine-based processes. |
| Processing facility | The stage of the supply chain in which a series of operations are performed for the making, treatment, preparation, or conversion of a product. |
| Product attributes | Improvement opportunities in a product's design features. |
| Product design | Strategies such as design for disassembly, reuse, recycled content, recyclability, and compostability. |
| Product efficiency | The performance of a product with respect to the use of energy, water, or materials. |
| Product stewardship | The set of activities by which those who participate in a product’s life cycle share responsibility for its total life cycle impacts. |
| Product Sustainability Toolkit | The CSP and KPIs together make a Product Sustainability Toolkit. Toolkits and developed and managed by the Sustainability Consortium. |
| Production region | Country of product origin can be used as a regional unit. Increased specificity of the production location, such as areas within a nation like state, county, or watershed, helps to identify potential sustainability risks in order to take action where needed. |
| Program | An annually updated document that farmers can demonstrate on-site. The program should summarize concrete goals and a plan for how to achieve these goals. |
| Program comparable in scope | A program that is comparable in scope and effect to the minimum FDA requirements must contain the following elements: 1. A veterinarian has assumed the responsibility for making medical judgments regarding the health of (an) animal(s) and the need for medical treatment, and the client (the owner of the animal or animals or other caretaker) has agreed to follow the instructions of the veterinarian. 2. There is sufficient knowledge of the animal(s) by the veterinarian to initiate at least a general or preliminary diagnosis of the medical condition of the animal(s). 3. The practicing veterinarian is readily available for follow-up in case of adverse reactions or failure of the therapy regimen. Such a relationship can exist only when the veterinarian has recently seen and is personally acquainted with the keeping and care of the animal(s) by virtue of examination of the animal(s), and/or by medically appropriate and timely visits to the premises where the animal(s) are kept. |
| Program to increase smallholder farmer opportunities | A program to increase smallholder farmer opportunities includes a documented strategy to identify, engage with, and provide support to smallholder farmers in the supply chain. This program can be developed internally or through external partnerships. |
| Protected agriculture | Use of technology to modify the natural environment (e.g., temperature, rainfall, humidity, wind, etc.) that surrounds a crop to harvest higher yields, of better quality, during an extended season. |
| Public disclosure | Manufacturer-based acts of making information available and readily accessible to the public through one or more forms of media (e.g., online, print, telephone). Print media includes product labels and also includes, but is not limited to, books, magazines, newspapers, and readily accessible journal articles. Online disclosure includes, but is not limited to, publicly accessible websites (desktop or mobile) as well as making information electronically available through reporting platforms or mobile apps. |
| Public disclosure - Home and Personal Care | The act of making information available and readily accessible to consumers. Including: Voluntary corporate reporting, sustainability reporting programs, or reporting as part of regulatory compliance. |
| Public reporting - audits | Audit results publicly reported may be aggregate pass/fail and summary results with action plans. |
| Raw material | The basic materials from which a product is made. Raw materials are composed of synthetic or naturally derived ingredients or ingredient blends and may contain unintentionally added chemicals that are incidental or contaminants. |
| Raw milk | Volume of unprocessed milk collected from the dairy operations. |
| Ready biodegradability | Ready biodegradability is defined by OECD 301 test methods. This does not include compounds that do not exceed a concentration of 0.1% in any of your formulations. |
| Recordkeeping | Recordkeeping is the act of keeping track of the history of a person’s or organization’s activities, generally by creating and storing consistent, formal records. |
| Recyclable content | Recyclable content is defined by Federal Trade Commission Green Guides: “materials collected, separated, or otherwise recovered from the wastestream.” Recyclable materials can include wood fiber-based materials, metals, single-color glass, rigid plastics with resin codes 1, 2, 4, and 5, and organic material. |
| Refined products | Refined products are those produced by oil and gas refineries. |
| Refrigerants | Substances used in cooling systems to regulate temperature such as those in refrigerators, freezers, or air conditioners. The hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs) commonly used in commercial refrigeration are more potent greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. |
| Region | A sub-country area such as an agricultural zone or region, eco-region, or geo-political boundary (e.g. state, county, department). |
| Relevant components for F-GHG emissions | Components or devices that use and emit F-GHGs during their manufacture and include flat panel displays (LCD panels), semiconductors (including light-emitting diodes), micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMs), and photovoltaic cells. |
| Renewable energy | "The fuel sources that restore themselves over short periods of time and do not diminish. Such fuel sources include the sun, wind, moving water, organic plant and waste materials and geothermal." (US EPA, 2018) |
| Renewable material | “Material that is composed of biomass from a living source and that can be continually replenished. To be defined as renewable, virgin materials shall come from sources which are replenished at a rate equal to or greater than the rate of depletion.” (FTC Green Guides:2012) |
| Resource conservation | Practices that reduce the consumption and waste of energy and natural resources. |
| Responsible catching practices | Responsible catching practices ensure no harm to fish, marine plants and animals, the environment, and respect habitats and ensuring people who depend on fishing can maintain their livelihoods, and not overfishing the fisheries. |
| Responsible final disposition | Takeback programs may achieve the goal of responsible final material disposition by doing one or more of the following: 1. Including contractual requirements regarding downstream partner responsibility, all the way to final material disposition; 2. Verifying responsible final disposition by tracking a sampling of materials to final disposition; and/or; 3. Contracting exclusively with certified third-party e-waste vendors to ensure responsible final disposition. |
| Restored | The recovery of specific ecosystem services in a degraded ecosystem or habitat. |
| Retail practices | Improvement opportunities in retail operations or retail facilities. |
| Retreading service | A process by which used automotive tires, typically truck tires, are returned to a service provider who refurbishes the tire for extended use. |
| Risk assessment | A systematic process to evaluate potential risks within an operation, system, or supply chain. It can include an on-site audit by a second party or third party or a country risk classification analysis that judges the site risk due to prevailing conditions, controls, or other mitigating factors. |
| Risk assessment - Home and Personal Care [Threaded comment] Your version of Excel allows you to read this threaded comment; however, any edits to it will get removed if the file is opened in a newer version of Excel. Learn more: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=870924 [Tasks] There is a task anchored to this comment that cannot be viewed in your client. Comment: Duplicate @Emil Georgiev do you mind reviewing? Let me know if you cannot answer Reply: @Sienna Santiago this is the definition used in BPC aligned KPIs. This is the definition we should use. Not the others | A systematic process to evaluate the potential risks associated with consumer exposure to individual ingredient hazards or final formulations when used in products under conditions of instructed use or foreseeable misuse. |
| Risk assessment for environmental risk | A systematic process to evaluate the potential risks associated with environmental release of individual ingredients or final formulations. |
| Risk assessment for ingredients | A systematic process to evaluate the potential risks associated with consumer exposure to individual ingredient hazards or final formulations when used in products under conditions of instructed use or foreseeable misuse. |
| Risk management services | These services should make smallholder farmers more resilient, and less vulnerable to external risks such as large price fluctuations, and crop failures. These services include, but are not limited to 1) diversification of sources of income, such as farming food or other cash crops, or off-farm activities; 2) long term contracts, and a stable demand, and 3) insurances. These services can be provided as part of a certification program, but can also be provided outside a certification program or through external partnerships. |
| Rolling resistance | The force opposing the motion of an object as it rolls across a surface. |
| Sales packaging | "Packaging that leaves a store with the consumer". (Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability 2.0:2011) |
| Seafloor ecosystem degradation | Disturbance of seafloor habitats and biota, including changes in species composition, removing biomass from ecosystems, and suspension of sediments. |
| Secondary forest | A forest that has been logged and has recovered naturally or artificially. It also includes degraded forest which is a secondary forest that has lost, through human activities, the structure, function, species composition or productivity normally associated with a natural forest type expected on that site. |
| Secondary packaging | According to GPPS 2.0 (2011), secondary packaging "groups a given number of primary packaging units together into a convenient unit at the point of sale" (p. 13). |
| Second-party audit | An audit conducted by a party having an interest in the organization, such as customers, or by another entity on their behalf. |
| Sensitizer | A chemical that induces a specific immune cell memory response by repeated allergen exposure which later results in an elicitation of an allergic immune system response in sensitized individuals that may be exposed to the sensitizer, typically at lower levels than during induction. |
| Shared-class antibiotics | Antibiotics that are used both in animals and humans. |
| Shelf life | Shelf life is the length of time that a product may be stored without becoming unfit for use or consumption. |
| Shellfish seed | Immature shellfish individuals collected from the wild, such as seed, larvae, postlarvae and spat. |
| Site specific analyses - fiber sourcing | Auditing methods that include a representative sample of forest management or operating units. The number of units sampled should be determined by certification standards or standard auditing methodology. |
| Site-based environmental health, and safety program | A program that seeks to protect workers, communities and the environment by accounting for the specific conditions and circumstances of each physical site or facility. |
| Site-based management program | A program that operates on-site that has steps to address community concerns relating to operations, works to respect traditional and civil rights, and can ensure free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is received. |
| Site-specific insurance | Site-specific insurance for storage tanks is that which indemnifies tank owners against loses accrued from the clean-up cost of spills and leaks on a site-by-site or operation-by-operation basis rather than on a tank-by-tank basis. |
| Smallholder farms | Farms managed and operated by a family and predominantly reliant on family labor, where seasonal workers work alongside family members in peak seasons (e.g., harvest). The size of smallholder farms ranges generally from two hectares (approximately 5 acres) or less in size up to 50 hectares (approximately 124 acres), depending on the crop type and geographic region of production. |
| Social initiatives - Cotton | Examples of social initiatives for cotton include worker health and safety programs, social compliance programs, and community engagement programs. |
| Soil erosion | The loss of soil from a field due to wind or surface water runoff. |
| Soil erosion K Factor | The soil erosion K Factor represents the relative susceptibility of the soil to erosion. K Factor values range from 0.02 for the least erodible soils to 0.64 for the most erodible soils. |
| Soil erosion T Factor | The soil erosion T Factor is the maximum amount of annual erosion that can occur while still maintaining soil fertility and productive capacity indefinitely. T Factor values range from 1 ton of soil per acre per year for fragile soils to 5 tons of soil per acre per year for soils that can sustain more erosion. |
| Soil management programs | Include practices and technologies that reduce erosion or improve soil structure and fertility. |
| Somatic cell count | A somatic cell count (SCC) is a cell count of somatic cells in milk and used as quality indicator for milk and is quantified as cell per milliliter. The majority of somatic cells are white blood cells. The number of somatic cells increases in response to pathogenic bacteria, for example Staphylococcus aureus, a cause of mastitis. |
| Spent laying hen | A hen has stopped laying eggs or no longer performs adequately. |
| Staff responsible for procurement activities | All both full-time and contracted employees responsible for attaining raw materials, parts, components, products and services at a facility that are being evaluated via KPIs on labor rights improvements in the supply chain. |
| Stage-II vapor recovery systems | Technologies that recapture fuel vapors generated during vehicle refueling. |
| Stakeholder concern | An activity in a product's life cycle that has a documented environmental or social impact that is supported by minimal evidence, as described in TSC's decision tree. |
| Stanchion stall | A stanchion or tied stall is a lying and standing place in which a single cow is tethered to a stanchion. |
| Standard operating procedure | Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are written instructions to document how to perform a routine activity. SOPs document the steps of key processes to help ensure the consistency and quality of the output. |
| Stewardship list | The "stewardship list" is comprised of all of the chemicals on the following published lists: • CA EPA Prop 65 – Reproductive and Developmental Toxicants, Carcinogens • EPA Toxics Release Inventory PBTs • EU – Cosmetics Regulation Annex II • EU – Priority Endocrine Disruptors (Categories 1, 2) • EU REACH – Annex XVII CMRs (Appendices 1 - 6) • IARC – Categories 1, 2A, 2B These published lists have been referenced in public retailer chemical policies. Where a chemical is accompanied by a specific route of exposure on these published lists and the exposure route is relevant to the product during consumer use or foreseeable misuse, then the chemical is relevant to this KPI. |
| Stillborn | A calf that is dead at birth or dies within 48 hours after birth after at least 260 days of gestation. |
| Stockperson | A professional manager of animals. A stockperson's attitude and behavior effects animal welfare and productivity. |
| Stripping | Removal of the eggs from a mouth brooding fish. |
| Stunning | Stunning is the process of rendering the animal unconscious prior to slaughter. |
| Subassembly | A subassembly is an assembled unit used together with other units to form a final product. |
| Supplemental feeds | Supplemental feeds can be made up of a single ingredient or a combination of ingredients, that supply nutrients to livestock that are lacking in their primary diet. |
| Supply chain engagement | Improvement opportunities in how issues or risks are managed across the supply chain. |
| Supply chain transparency | A lack of knowledge about the supply chain is often a key barrier to addressing sustainability issues, particularly those that occur far upstream. |
| Supplyshed | A group of agricultural producers, including the land on which they grow or raise food, feed or fiber, within a specified geographic region, that are within a given company's supply chain. |
| Sustainable agriculture | Agriculture can directly impact land, water, and human health, particularly from the use of chemicals and poor land management. |
| Sustainable fisheries | Harvesting fish and other seafood sources faster than they can grow risks a collapse in the resource and extinction of some species. |
| Sustainable forestry | Harvesting trees for pulp or wood products can directly impact land, water, and human health, particularly from the use of chemicals and poor land management. |
| Sustainable landscapes | A place where people steward natural capital alongside sustainable production systems at a scale that encompasses multiple levels of governance, a wide range of uses, and essential natural capital, to enhance long-term human well-being in a changing world. |
| Sustainably sourced renewable content | Materials obtained from living biomass that is continually replenished at a rate equal to, or greater than, the rate of depletion. |
| Sustainably-sourced material | Material for which it can be demonstrated through second- or third-party verification that the virgin raw material has been harvested or produced legally and in a way that minimizes damage to the environment, workers, and communities. Materials such as paper can be included in this definition if the source of the packaging content comes from sustainably-managed forests with no deforestation. |
| Synthetic fertilizers | Fertilizers produced by chemical synthesis from inorganic starting materials. |
| Takeback program | A collection method whereby consumers return specific products or classes of products at the end of their useful lives for potential reuse and refurbishment, followed by material recovery and appropriate disposal. |
| Takeback program operation | The phrase "... operate programs in regions or countries globally where required by law or regulation" means programs that are created in response to laws or regulations. This includes State-level or Province-level legislation in North America, and national levels in other regions, such as the European Union or Japan. |
| Tertiary packaging | Tertiary packaging, or transportation packaging, according to GPPS 2.0 (2011), is "designed to ensure damage-free handling and transport of a number of sales or grouped packages" (p. 13). It includes items such as pallets and crates, but does not include road, rail, ship or air containers. |
| Thiamethoxan | a neonicotinoid insecticide that has a broad spectrum of activity against many types of insect pests including aphids, whiteflies, thrips, caterpillars, beetles, flies, stinkbugs and others. In the US it is used on a wide variety of crops including root and tuber vegetables, tree fruits and nuts, berries, legumes, corn, soybean, cotton and others. It is commonly used as a seed treatment on corn and soybean. |
| Third-party audit | An audit conducted by external, independent auditing organizations, such as those providing certification of conformity to a standard. |
| Total suspended solids (TSS) | A water quality measurement that reflects the amount of particulates in a sample. The dry weight of residue in a filter is used to calculate units in milligrams per liter (mg/L). |
| Totally chlorine free | Bleaching processes which bleach virgin pulp without the use of any chlorine-based compounds. |
| Traditional and civil rights | Traditional rights require community approval to occupy and/or use land, fishing grounds, or other natural resources. These rights exist due to habitual and frequent use of an area over a long period of time. Such rights may predate government or private claims to the area. Sometimes referred to as customary rights, civil rights are the rights of individuals or communities to be treated fairly and honestly. The principle of free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) is an expression of civil rights. |
| Transitional areas | Areas between agricultural land and natural habitat that meet specific nesting requirements can provide food and shelter for pollinators (see Nesting resources for more information). |
| Transportation and logistics | Transportation and logistics are associated with energy consumption, pollution, worker health and safety, and local community impacts. |
| Unannounced Audit | According to Social Accountability International (SA8000) an unannounced audit by its very nature does not contemplate any notification of the organization prior to the audit. It generally takes place between 4-8 months after the first surveillance audit. Unannounced audits should take place in areas that have higher risk. |
| Unintentionally added ingredient | An ingredient that provides no function in a final formulation and is not present as a result of formulating a product for safe use by consumers (e.g., pH balancing by acids or bases). |
| Utilized meat | The carcass that ends up as the closely trimmed, mostly boneless, retail product from the round, loin, rib, and chuck. |
| Validated alternative methods | Testing methodologies that reduce, refine, or replace the use of animals and have been validated by ICVAAM in the United States and accepted by regulatory agencies for data collection. |
| Verifiable | Having the ability to demonstrate, through a reputable assessor, the truth or accuracy of a claim. |
| Verifiable worker health and safety risk assessment | A verifiable worker health and safety risk assessment is one whose standards are based on internationally-recognized principles, such as International Labour Organization's International Labour Standards on Occupational Safety and Health or equivalent. An assessment is sufficiently verifiable if the assessor has a reputation in good standing, and can provide a full report of the assessment. |
| Verified | Having previously demonstrated, through a reputable assessor, the truth or accuracy of a claim. |
| Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship (VCPR) | A cooperative relationship between a veterinarian, a client and the patient. A VCPR is an essential basis for interaction between veterinarians and their clients and is critical to providing quality veterinary care. Veterinarians and their clients may choose to establish a VCPR, and to decide on veterinary medical care under the terms of the VCPR. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) licenses and regulates the VCPR in the US, which is defined in AVMA Principles of Veterinary Medical Ethics. |
| Virgin Wood | Wood derived from natural or managed forests that has had no previous use in products. This includes co-products and mill residues from virgin wood processing and forestry waste but excludes post-consumer or post-industrial recycled or recovered wood. |
| Volatile organic compounds | Volatile organic compounds are defined as those which participate in atmospheric photochemical reactions. Specific exclusions, including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, carbonic acid, metallic carbides or carbonates, ammonium carbonate, and others, are provided by federal and state regulations United States 40 CFR 51.100, United States 40 CFR 59.203, and Title 17 of the California Code of Regulations, Division 3, Chapter 1, Subchapter 8.5, Article 2, Consumer Products, Sections 94507-94517. |
| Voluntary takeback program | The phrase "... voluntarily in regions or countries where not required by law" means a program that collects products from consumers where no laws or regulations require such a program. |
| Commitments and initiatives | Commitment or initiatives can be internal or external and are defined as utilizing collaboration and consensus-based techniques to create a set of principles, criteria, and indicators for more responsible production, sourcing, and manufacturing practices within or across a given sector or product, with the intent of preventing deforestation and Land Conversion and improving biodiversity, Ecosystems and water. This may result in a standard that is used to verify, accredit, or certify a product. MSIs do not always result in certification schemes, but they may develop measurement tools or share best management practices (BMP). [Threaded comment] Your version of Excel allows you to read this threaded comment; however, any edits to it will get removed if the file is opened in a newer version of Excel. Learn more: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=870924 [Tasks] There is a task anchored to this comment that cannot be viewed in your client. Comment: @Emil Georgiev Please review my new draft |
| Vulnerable populations | Vulnerable populations who are often denied fundamental rights and are at higher risk of labor rights abuses. Examples of workers exposed to these greater risks include, but are not limited to, migrant workers, temporary workers, indigenous workers, (pregnant) women, children, and illiterate workers. |
| Vulnerable workers | Workers who are often denied fundamental rights and are at higher risk of labor rights abuses. Examples of workers exposed to these greater risks include, but are not limited to, migrant workers, temporary workers, indigenous workers, (pregnant) women, children, and illiterate workers. |
| Water footprint | The total impact of a commodity, product, ingredient, component, material, or company on water quality and quantity. |
| water quality | Reduced water table levels caused by groundwater pumping can alter the physical, chemical, and biological properties of aquatic ecosystems. Water quality changes include increased water temperature, sediment loading, and salinization, which can alter plant species composition and disrupt the food supply and breeding grounds for fish and other wildlife. |
| Water scarce area | A geographical area that lacks access to adequate quantities of water for use by humans and the environment. |
| Water use | Water use is defined as total withdrawals from municipal and private water providers, surface water, groundwater, or wells. |
| water withdrawl | Water withdrawals are defined as freshwater taken from ground or surface water sources, either permanently or temporarily, and conveyed to a place of use |
| Weaning | The transfer from a milk-based diet to an adult fibrous diet. |
| Weight or volume optimization | "Process for the achievement of a minimum adequate weight or volume (source reduction) for meeting the necessary requirements of primary or secondary or transport packaging, when performance and user/consumer acceptability remain unchanged or adequate, thereby reducing the impact on the environment.” (ISO 18601:2013 - Packaging and the environment--General requirements for the use of ISO standards in the field of packaging and the environment) |
| Wild-harvested | Gathered or harvested from the natural environment; not cultivated or under agricultural management. |
| Withdrawal period - dairy | The withdrawal period is the interval between the last time the animal received a drug and the time when the milk can be consumed by people. |
| Withdrawal period - eggs | The withdrawal period is the interval between the last time the animal received a drug and the time when the eggs can be consumed by people. |
| Withdrawal period - livestock | The withdrawal period is the interval between the last time the animal received a drug and the time when the animal can be slaughtered for human food. |
| Withdrawal period - poultry | The withdrawal period is the interval between the last time the animal received a drug and the time when the animal can be slaughtered for human food. |
| Wood sourcing certifications | Certification programs should address worker rights (child labor, gender inequality, racial discrimination, and lack of fair wages) during wood sourcing; illegal logging, biodiversity and ecosystem impacts from wood sourcing; rights of local communities during wood sourcing (land use and timber rights, marginalization of communities, loss of cultural heritage, and lack of access to material resources or income); pesticide use during wood sourcing; soil disturbance and compaction during wood sourcing; and forestry worker health and safety. |
| Worker exposure to harmful elements | Contact with potentially harmful chemical, physical, or biological elements that occurs as a result of one's job-related activities. Examples include chronic interaction with chemicals, dusts, radiation, environmental elements, allergens, noise, and vibrations. |
| Worker health and safety | Worker health and safety consists of worker injury and worker exposure to harmful elements. Please see the corresponding terms. |
| Worker injury | Physical damage to an individual due to a single act that causes immediate damage or repetitive acts that cause damage over time. Examples of causes of injury include repetitive motions, non-ergonomic motions, damage from use of tools and machinery, falls, and burns. |
| Worker representative organizations | This refers to the engagement of workers with supervisors, managers, or employers on an individual basis rather than through collective representatives. It implies that they are consulted individually and encouraged to become involved in determining their work environment or work organization (ILO). |
| Worst forms of child labor | Labor that negatively affects a child's health, safety, morals, or reasonable ability to receive an education. This includes forced labor, prostitution or pornography, labor for illicit activities, and hazardous work. Hazardous work activities include work that is abusive, work underground, underwater, at dangerous heights or in confined spaces, work with dangerous machinery and tools, work with heavy loads, work involving hazardous substances and environments, work for long hours, work at night, or work in which the worker is unreasonably restricted from movement outside the premises. |
| Zero Deforestation | No existing forest is converted to plantation or non-forest use. This does not include sustainable harvesting of trees for wood or fiber production. Offsets or zero-net deforestation are not included in this definition. Land on which deforestation has occurred may be considered to have zero deforestation if restored to its previous state as determined by tree cover, species composition, stored carbon, and all other relevant factors. |
| Social and environmental risks [Threaded comment] Your version of Excel allows you to read this threaded comment; however, any edits to it will get removed if the file is opened in a newer version of Excel. Learn more: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=870924 [Tasks] There is a task anchored to this comment that cannot be viewed in your client. Comment: @Emil Georgiev How detailed do we need these definitions to be. Can you check this one? I pulled the language from a helpdesk ticket. Reply: @Emil Georgiev Following up! Can you check the language for this definition! Reply: @Sienna Santiago Thanks Sienna! I provided also an alternative, see B451 | Potential adverse effects arising from activities, operations, or products that negatively impact the environment or human well-being. Examples of these risks include pollution, resource depletion, habitat destruction, climate change, threats to human health and safety (affecting workers, communities, or consumers), labor rights violations, and disruptions to local livelihoods |
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Comment:
@Sienna Santiago can we use this definition regarding your question for THESIS Start Nature module: what qualifies as commitment or initiative
We have some specific initiatives already, would these suffice?
We need to modify this definition a bit in terms of participating in it, but I guess these suffice
Reply:
I have made a new definitions "Commitments and initiatives" for you to review