Abbreviations

CSR - “Corporate Social Responsibility”, a collective term for a company’s environmental and social sustainability initiatives. CO2e - “Carbon dioxide equivalent”, a measure used to express the climate impact of greenhouse gases by relating them to carbon dioxide (1 CO2e = 1 ton of CO2). CER - “Certified Emission Reduction”, a carbon reduction unit (carbon offset) from a CDM - certified project under the Kyoto Protocol. One CER corresponds to one ton CO2e. CDM - “Clean Development Mechanism”, a framework for certifying and monitoring carbon reduction projects in developing countries, managed by the UNFCCC under the Kyoto Protocol. VER - “Voluntary Emission Reduction”, an emission reduction outside the regulatory framework provided by the Kyoto Protocol. There are numerous different VER standards of varying quality. Carbon Offsetting - Process of compensating for one’s carbon emissions by funding a corresponding emissions reduction somewhere else.