| Accord | Formal agreement between parties |
| Accreditation | Indicates that an organisation or scheme conforms to a specified standard (typically using the principles and requirements of ISO/PAS 17001:2005). |
| Action Plan | This is a table that helps users manage their environmental improvement actions. Recommended actions can be loaded into the Action Plan, and each can be assigned a location, status, priority, cost, due date and person responsible for implementation. |
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| Approved Auditor | A person or organisation that has been approved by the Envirostep Administrator. See the approved auditor page for further information. |
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| Audit | This is the process where an approved auditor visits your site to validate whether the responses in your assessment questionnaire accurately represent the activities and facilities at your site. Also see 'Validation' in this section. |
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| Benchmark | A standard or reference by which others can be measured or judged (typically used as a comparison with competitors) |
| Biodiversity | The number and variety of organisms found within a specified geographic region (within and between species) |
| Carbon Credits | Tradable unit to quantify the offset or reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, generated by greenhouse gas mitigation schemes. |
| Carbon Neutrality | Zero net carbon footprint by balancing carbon emissions with an equivalent amount of carbon removal (via purchase of carbon credits or sequestation) |
| Carbon Offset | Financial instrument describing the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions achieved by a project (in tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent). |
| Category | The Envirostep questionnaire assesses users against ten categories of environmental performance questions (i.e. energy, water, waste, transport, site, planning, compliance, operations, information and output). |
| Certification | Formal evaluation to confirm whether a product or organisation meets a specified standard |
| Corporate Social Responsibility | Assessment of a business' compliance with law, ethical standards and international norms, and their impact on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and the public |
| Designation | District Plan notice of intent to use land in the future for a particular work or project |
| Ecosystem Services | Beneficial resources and processes supplied by natural ecosystems |
| Emergency Procedures | Formalised response to potential emergency scenarios |
| Environmental Accounting | Financial accounting which incorporates consideration of environmental costs and benefits |
| Environmental Award | Formal recognition of environmental performance by an organisation |
| Environmental Commitment | This is your opportunity to indicate whether you are:- just beginning to look at the impacts of your business upon the environment
- already adopting initiatives to improve your performance, but would like to learn more, or
- would like to become a high performing business.
Your Environmental Commitment will determine how many questions you are asked during your assessment and the maximum score you can achieve. |
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| Environmental Impact Assessment | Positive or negative effect on the environment from an activity or facility |
| Environmental Management Plan | Systematic approach to assessing and improving environmental performance |
| Environmental Policy | Published statement or organisational commitment to environmental compliance and performance, which may also summarise organisational priorities and a commitment to continual improvement. |
| Environmental Report | This is an organisational statement of environmental performance. The Environmental Report in Envirostep provides the results of your assessment and the recommendations for improvement. Any auditing of environmental reports should be consistent with NZS5911 (General guidelines on the verification, validation and assurance of environmental and sustainability reports.) |
| Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) | Government department responsible for administering the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act |
| Ethical Investment | Investments which take environmental, social, governance or ethical considerations into account |
| GHG Emissions | Emissions of specified gases which contribute to global warming (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride) |
| Improvement Plan | Systematic approach to prioritise and implement environmental improvement actions, and monitor progress. An improvement plan typically contains objectives and targets, actions, timelines for implementation, responsible person(s). It may also include risk and cost estimates and priorities. |
| Independent Verification | See Audit |
| Module | An optional category of questions in Envirostep, which is specific to a theme, sector or organisation. Answering the questions in a module will not affect your Envirostep score. Modules may be public (available to all users) or private (available by invitation only). The organisation that develops a module is able to see the scores of those who complete it, but can only identify users in the case of a private module. If you would like to request a new module for Envirostep, contact the Envirostep Administrator using the feedback link. |
| Operating Procedures | Document describing correct work practices |
| Policy Statement | Formal commitment to environmental compliance and performance |
| Project Information Memorandum (PIM) | Local authority report summarising information relevant to the feasibility and design of a proposed project |
| Recommendations | These are the actions a business can take to improve their environmental performance (and Envirostep score). All Envirostep recommendations have links to supporting information, which can be viewed by clicking the information icon. |
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| Responsible Investment | See Ethical Investment |
| Scope 1 GHG emissions | Direct greenhouse gas emissions (from sources that are owned or controlled by the company, e.g. from boilers, furnaces and vehicles). |
| Scope 2 GHG emissions | Electricity indirect greenhouse gas emissions (from the generation of purchased electricity consumed by the company). |
| Scope 3 GHG emissions | Other indirect greenhouse gas emissions (as a consequence of company activities, but not from sources owned or controlled by the company, e.g. emissions from waste, the extraction and production of purchased materials; and employee travel to and from work). |
| Sustainability | Meeting the needs of today without adversely impacting on the needs of tomorrow. In a business sense, sustainability incorporates sound business practices, such as reducing resource consumption and the production of waste. |
| Sustainability Report | Report summarising corporate sustainability objectives and performance |
| Sustainable Procurement | Purchasing decisions that seek to minimise adverse impacts upon the environment and society |
| Triple Bottom Line | Full cost accounting & reporting approach (i.e. considering profit, people and the environment) |
| Validation | see Audit |
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| Weighting | Each question and category has a pre-determined Weighting, which defines its relative importance. All weightings used in Envirostep were determined by using 1000minds decision support software to ensure they are appropriate and defensible. | /tr>
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