This section includes a selection of terms we come across regularly in our travels and our work. These definitions align with the way we see and view the world so some of them may be different to other definitions you have come across.

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Beliefs: Intellectually held ideas that can be changed more easily than values.

Biodiversity: The number and variety of living organisms on Earth. Biodiversity is characterized by species richness, ecosystem complexity and genetic variation.

Bottom 5/6: A term used to describe the world's poor (also known as Bottom of the Pyramid). This term has also been used to describe the sustainability strategies of companies targeting this group with appropriate products and/or services.

Biotechnology: The use of technology to alter or enhance the genetic makeup of an organism.

In the area of genetic modification, Ecos Corporation believes the social, environmental and economic implications require thorough, rigorous and holistic scientific assessment.

See also Guidelines for Minimizing the Potential Social and Ecological Dangers of Biotechnology at www.wri.org/wri/biodiv/b13-gbs.html

Carbon Emissions: Emission of gases containing carbon (i.e., CO2, CH4). Greenhouse gas emissions are often expressed in terms of carbon-equivalance, to enable comparison of emissions from different greenhouse gases.

Carbon Sink: A pool (or reservoir) that absorbs or takes up released carbon from another part of the carbon cycle. For example, if the net exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere is toward the atmosphere, the biosphere is the source, and the atmosphere is the sink.

Chlorofluorocarbons: A family of inert non-toxic and easily liquefied chemicals used in refrigeration, air conditioning, packaging, and insulation or as solvents or aerosol propellants. Because they are not destroyed in the lower atmosphere, they drift into the upper atmosphere where their chlorine components destroy ozone.

Civil Society: Organised groups of members of society whose interests are defined as being with the people generally rather than a specific sector, eg., business.

Climate Change: Defines the long-term fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, wind, and all other aspects of the Earth's climate. It's currently used to describe the dramatic changes in average annual temperature and other weather patters that are currently occurring, almost certainly because of human activity.

Corporate Footprint: The totality of a corporation's impact on human society and the planet through its existence. This footprint can be negative, neutral or positive.

Digital Divide: The gap between those with access to electronic information and communication tools and technologies, such as the Internet, and those who do not.

Digital Dividend: The benefits accruing to companies that make a business commitment to bridging the digital divide. For it to really be a dividend, it needs to incorporate the benefits accrued to the societies and people within which these companies operate.

Ecosystem: A complex, interdependent system whose parts consist of organic and sentient life (including humans) and the inorganic elements upon which they all depend.

Emissions: Materials (gases, particles, vapours, chemical compounds, etc.) that are released into the natural environment as a by-product of our industrial culture.

Environmental Sustainability: The ability of an activity to continue indefinitely, at current and projected levels, without depleting natural resources required to meet present and future needs.

Ethical Investment: See Socially Responsible Investment.

Environmental Footprint: A measure of the impact an activity has on the environment. It is also known as Ecological Footprint and/or Corporate Footprint.

Governance: Setting policy to guide an activity and then making sure that the money, people and institutions to do the work are in place. It also means making sure that people are accountable for the work they do, monitoring what happens and making new plans to carry the work forward

Greenhouse Effect: A popular term used to describe the roles of water vapour, carbon dioxide, and other trace gases in keeping the Earth's surface warmer than it would be otherwise. There is compelling evidence that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, and manmade chlorofluorocarbons, are enhancing the greenhouse effect and causing global warming.

Greenhouse Gases: A term for a gas such as carbon dioxide or methanol that increases global temperatures by trapping solar electromagnetic radiation.

Industrial Ecology: Using the waste of one industry or business, as feedstock for another industry or business.

Natural Capital: All environmental assets that provide ecosystem services, e.g., pollination, erosion prevention, and the absorption of emissions and pollutants resulting from human activities.

Natural Capitalism: The term for a market economy that fairly and appropriately values the economic contributions of natural capital to our industrial system and our quality-of-life.

Needs: Products and services that people must have to maintain a basic quality of life.

Nonrenewable Resources: A resource with economic value that exists in finite amounts or that cannot readily be regenerated.

Operationalising Sustainability: The practice of developing and/or embedding the principles of sustainable growth into core business operations.

Renewable Resources: A resource with economic value that exists in virtually infinite amounts or can readily be regenerated.

Socially Responsible Investing: Socially responsible investment (SRI), also known as ethical investment, refers to investment decisions that incorporate environmental and social criteria as well as traditional financial considerations in measuring a company's performance.

Shareholder Value (SHV): The traditional measure for valuing corporate success (technically speaking, it represents the discounted net current value of a company's free cash flow). In our context, it is that portion of sustainable value (see below) that a company can reap and measure by using this traditional mainstream investment calculation.

Societal Value: The social (including environmental) value that a company delivers through its actions and products.

Sustainable Growth: Growth which emphasises knowledge intensity over materials intensity; that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs; and that moves a business towards a positive social and environmental footprint.
Or
The ability to grow within the confines of remaining sustainable. Sustainable growth is one of the key challenges facing corporations as they attempt to meet the market's demand for growth in shareholder value, and their own commitment to achieving sustainability.

Sustainable: Able to endure over time. A sustainable society is one that is just, healthy, vital, resilient and able to creatively adapt over time.

Sustainable Value: Societal value and shareholder value in combination. Also, the driver for sustainable growth (see definitions of societal value, shareholder value, and sustainable growth, above)

Sustainability: There are many definitions of sustainability. At Ecos, we define it as 'managing our society in a way that:

• Preserves and restores ecological integrity (to ensure our life support system stays in place).
• Enhances the quality of life of all people (to underpin social, geo-political and market stability).
• Creates value from the process of achieving the above goals (to motivate business and to drive investment).'

Triple Bottom Line: Coined by John Elkington, one of the world's leading experts on sustainability, the 'Triple Bottom Line' refers to the need for corporations to be accountable for their social and environmental as well as financial performance.

Values to Value ('V2V'): An evolving business framework used by us at Ecos Corporation for integrating society's values into a corporation's strategizing, planning and operations to create sustainable value and to drive sustainable growth (see above)

Values: Deeply and emotionally-charged beliefs that are hard to change.

Wants: Products and services that while less essential than needs are objects of desire.