Glossary
Biodegradable Waste – Waste composed mainly of constituent parts that occur naturally, are able to be decomposed by bacteria or fungi, and are absorbed into the ecosystem.
Biological Contamination – Contamination of a building environment caused by bacteria, molds and their spores, pollen, viruses, and other biological materials. It is often linked to poorly designed and maintained HVAC systems. People exposed to biologically contaminated environments may display allergic-type responses or physical symptoms such as coughing, muscle aches, and respiratory congestion.
Biomimicry – The process of emulating nature to design and produce products, systems, and buildings.
Brown-fields – Abandoned, idled, or underused industrial and commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental contamination.
Building-related Illness – Diagnosable illness whose cause and symptoms can be directly attributed to a specific pollutant source within a building. Also called Sick Building Syndrome.
Carbon Credits – The purchase of carbon-generating items, such as trees, that help offset the amount of pollution emitted from a process or system.
Carbon Footprint – A Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide.
Climate Change – Used to refer to all forms of climactic inconsistency. While Climate Change includes Global Warming, it is a broader term that refers to natural changes in climate.
Close-Loop Recycling – When a used product is recycled into a similar product; a recycling system in which a particular mass of material is remanufactured into a product of similar or higher use.
Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) – a bulb that can be used in an ordinary lamp, but actually uses the same technology as a tubular fluorescent light, using up to 75% less electricity than a incandescent light of similar output, and lasting up to five years.
Cradle-to-Cradle – term used in life-cycle analysis to describe a material or product that is recycled into a new product at the end of its defined life.
Dioxin – Any of several heterocyclic hydrocarbons that occur especially as persistent toxic impurities in herbicides. Also formed by burning plastics that contain chlorine.
Dual-Flush Toilets – These commodes are designed to flush with a different quantity of water based on the user’s choice, reducing water usage by offering the option for a lower-volume flush.
ENERGY STAR – an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that promotes more energy-efficient appliances and fixtures.
Environmental Footprint – A company’s environmental impact, determined by the amount of raw materials and non-renewable resources it consumes to make its products, and the quantity of wastes and emissions that are generated in the process.
Greenhouse Gas – Greenhouse gases are gases that, when released into the atmosphere, trap the low-frequency heat, causing a warming effect.
Global Warming – A process that raises the air temperature in the lower atmosphere due to heat trapped by greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, CFCs and Ozone. It can occur as the result of natural influences, but the term is most often applied to the warming predicted to occur as a result of human activities.
Green Design – A design, usually architectural, which conforms to environmentally sound principles of building, materials management and energy use.
Greenhouse Effect – The warming of the earth’s surface and lower atmosphere as a result of carbon dioxide and water vapor in the atmosphere, which absorb and reradiate infrared radiation.
HSPF – Heating Season Performance Factor, or HSPF, like SEER, is a measurement to measure the efficiency of a heating unit. This is determined by dividing the total heat provided during the season by the total energy consumed by the system. The higher the rating, the more efficient the heat pump is over the entire heating season.
Indoor Air Quality – A measure of the air’s level of contaminants and impact on exposed persons. This can be impacted by chemicals in building supplies, microbes, and outdoor air taken into the system.
LEED – Short for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, this Green Building rating system sets standards to allow consumers to compare green homes in an apples-to-apples fashion.
Life Cycle Analysis – The assessment of a products full environmental costs, from raw material to final disposal or recycling, in terms of consumption of resources, energy, and waste.
Ozone layer – The protective layer in the atmosphere, about 12-15 miles above sea level, that absorbs some of the sun’s ultraviolet rays, thereby reducing the amount of potentially harmful radiation that reaches the earth’s surface.
Pervious Concrete – Pervious concrete is designed to be porous and to allow water to pass through as ordinary ground cover would. When used in houses for driveways and walkways, they help to prevent erosion and save money on irrigation by allowing rain to seep into the ground rather than run off.
Post-consumer Material – Any household or commercial product that has served its original, intended use.
Post-consumer Recycled Content – A product composition that contains some percentage of material that has been reclaimed from the same or another end use of its former, useful life.
Post-industrial material – Industrial manufacturing scrap or waste, also called pre-consumer material
Post-industrial Recycled Content – Product composition that contains some percentage of manufacturing waste material that has been reclaimed from a process generating the same or a similar product. Also called pre-consumer recycled content.
Product Life Cycle – All stages of a product’s development, from extraction of fuel for power to production, marketing, use, and disposal and recycling.
Reclamation – Restoration of materials found in the waste stream to a beneficial use that may be other than the original use.
Recycling – Process by which materials that would otherwise become solid waste are collected, separated, or processes and returned to the economic mainstream to be reused in the form of raw materials or finished goods.
Renewable Resources – A resource that can be replenished at a rate equal to or greater than its rate of depletion; i.e. solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass resources.
Resource Conservation – Practices that protect, preserve, or renew natural resources in a manner that will ensure their highest economic or social benefits.
SEER – the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio, or SEER is a measurement system, developed by the department of energy, that assigns a rating to every air conditioning unit for sale in the United States. A higher number represents a more efficient unit. The current federal minimum is SEER 13, and more efficient units are rated SEER 16 or 18.
Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) – Structurally Insulated Panels are a building material that helps to reduce a home’s energy usage by creating a tighter seal and reducing heat lost through walls and seams.
Sustainability – Practices that ensure the continued viability of a product, practice, ecosystem, or the plant for a long-term (typically defined as at least seven generations into the future).
Sustainable Development – Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
VOC – Volatile organic chemicals, or VOCs, are gases given off by many products used in construction and remodeling. Research has suggested exposure to these chemicals can cause respiratory dysfunction and increase risk for cancer.
Xeriscaping – Xeriscaping is the practice of planning landscaping to not require additional irrigation. Xeriscaping emphasizes the use of plants adapted to local climates rather than importing non-native plants.
Zero-energy – A process or building that produces as much energy as it uses.
Zero-waste – A process of building that has a closed waste loop, where all outputs are used again as inputs and no waste is created.