Page 406 - Design for Environment A Guide to Sustainable Product Development

Glossary 381

Management system A management approach that enables an organization
to identify, monitor and continuously improve its performance, including
financial, environmental, and/or social aspects.
Material intensity A measure of environmental efficiency in production,
calculated by dividing the net material consumption by the quantity or
monetary value of the output.
Materiality Importance of information about company performance to
decision making on the part of stakeholders, including company shareholders
and management.
Metric A specific unit of measure used to quantify a performance indicator.
An indicator (e.g., energy efficiency) can have many different metrics.
Natural capital Ecological resources and services that make possible all
economic activity. Ecological resource flows include edible organisms,
sand, wood, grass, metals, and minerals, while ecological services include
various forms of energy provided by the water cycle, wind, tides, soil, and
pollination.
Net present value The amount of cash today that is equivalent in value to a
payment, or to a stream expected future cash flows minus the cost.
Non-governmental organization (NGO) An organization, typically not-for-
profit, which is independent of both industry and government, e.g., chari-
table foundations, advocacy groups.

Non-financial performance The performance of a business measured
in terms of non-financial aspects such as environmental and social
responsibility.
Non-renewable energy Energy derived from sources that cannot be re -
plenished in a short period of time relative to a human life span. Examples
include fossil fuels, such as oil, natural gas, and coal, and nuclear fuels.
Non-renewable resource A natural resource that cannot be replaced within
the same time scale that it is consumed for industrial purposes, e.g., fossil
fuels.
Normalization The use of common denominators to adjust metrics for
purposes of comparison, e.g., emissions per pound of product is a measure
of emissions normalized by product mass.
Organic A product of organic agriculture, based on minimal use of syn -
thetic inputs as well as management practices that maintain and enhance
ecological harmony.
Persistent substance A chemical substance that persists in the environ -
ment, and is not easily biodegradable. Examples include industrial by-
products such as dioxins and pesticides such as DDT.
Pollution prevention (P2) Modification of production processes and tech -
no logies so that they generate less waste and pollution. Principal P2
techniques include source reduction, toxics avoidance, and recycling.