Appendix 2: Glossary
These terms from ICLEI’s US Community Protocol, unless otherwise noted.
Activity Refers to a community use activity (or activities), which is defined as the use of energy, materials, and/or services by members of the community that result in the creation of GHG emissions either directly (e.g., use of household furnaces and vehicles with internal combustion engines) or indirectly (e.g., use of electricity created through combustion of fossil fuels at a power plant, consumption of goods and services whose production, transport and/or disposal resulted in creation of GHG emissions directly or indirectly).
Activity Data Data on the magnitude of a human activity resulting in emissions taking place during a given period of time. Data on energy use, fuel used, miles traveled, input material flow, and product output are all examples of activity data that might be used to compute GHG emissions.
Annual A frequency of once a year; unless otherwise noted, annual events such as reporting requirements will be based on the calendar year.
Anthropogenic emissions GHG emissions that are a direct result of human activities or are the result of natural processes that have been affected by human activities.
Analysis year The single year timeframe for which GHG emissions are being quantified and reported. Typically, the analysis year refers to when the emissions occur, but in some cases it refers to when the activity occurs (e.g., future emissions resulting from disposal of waste in the analysis year).
Base year emissions GHG emissions in chosen year against which a community’s emissions are compared over time.
Biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅) The oxygen used in meeting the metabolic needs of aerobic microorganisms in water rich in organic matter (as water polluted with sewage).
Biofuel Fuel made from biomass, including wood and wood waste, sulphite lyes (black liquor), vegetal waste (straw, hay, grass, leaves, roots, bark, crops), animal materials/waste (fish and food meal, manure, sewage sludge, fat, oil and tallow), turpentine, charcoal, landfill gas, sludge gas, and other biogas, bioethanol, biomethanol, bioETBE, bioMTBE, biodiesel, biodimethylether, fischer tropsch, bio oil, and all other liquid biofuels which are added to, blended with, or used straight as transportation diesel fuel.
Boundaries GHG emission accounting and reporting boundaries for a community have two dimensions, in-boundary and trans-boundary. In-boundary emissions are GHG emissions released within the jurisdictional boundary of a community. Examples include GHG emissions from natural gas combustion in household furnaces and gasoline combustion in motor vehicles driven on roads within the community’s jurisdictional boundary. Trans-boundary emissions are GHG emissions occurring outside the jurisdictional boundary of a community as a result of activities occurring within the community boundary (see “Trans-boundary Emissions” for more details). Note: community boundaries are distinct from boundaries as defined in the Local Government Operations Protocol in which a boundary can have several dimensions, i.e., organizational, operational, and geographic. Those latter boundaries determine which emissions are accounted for and reported by the local governmental entity.
British thermal unit (Btu) The quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit at about 39.2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Carbon dioxide (CO₂) The most common of the six primary GHGs, consisting of a single carbon atom and two oxygen atoms, and providing the reference point for the GWP of other gases. (Thus, the GWP of CO2is equal to 1.)
Carbon footprint The total volume of GHG emissions caused by a community, organization, event, product, or person.
Carbon sink A biological system or other natural environment, such as a forest or a body of water, that absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases.
Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) The universal unit for comparing emissions of different GHGs expressed in terms of the GWP of one unit of carbon dioxide.
Community Community traditionally refers to residents, businesses, industries, and government co-located within a jurisdictionally defined area.
Community use activities Use of energy, materials, and services by all members of the community that result in the creation of GHG emissions either directly (e.g., use of household furnaces and vehicles with internal combustion engines) or indirectly (e.g., use of electricity created through combustion of fossil fuels at a power plant, consumption of goods and services whose production, transport and/or disposal resulted in creation of GHG emissions directly or indirectly). Also see “Use” defined below.
Double counting Two or more reporting entities taking ownership of the same emissions or reductions, or the same reporting entity counting the same emissions twice.
Emission factor A unique value for determining an amount of a GHG emitted on a per unit activity basis (for example, metric tons of CO2 emitted per million Btus of coal combusted, or metric tons of CO2 emitted per kWh of electricity consumed).
Entity Any business, corporation, institution, organization, government agency, etc., recognized under U.S. law and comprised of all the facilities and emission sources delimited by the organizational boundary developed by the entity, taken in their entirety.
Facility Any property, plant, building, structure, stationary source, stationary equipment or grouping of stationary equipment or stationary sources located on one or more contiguous or adjacent properties, in actual physical contact or separated solely by a public roadway or other public right-of way, and under common operational or financial control, that emits or may emit any greenhouse gas.
Fossil fuel A fuel, such as coal, oil, and natural gas, produced by the decomposition of ancient (fossilized) plants and animals.
Fugitive emissions Emissions that are not physically controlled but result from the intentional or unintentional release of GHGs. They commonly arise from the production, processing, transmission, storage and use of fuels or other substances, often through joints, seals, packing, gaskets, etc. Examples include HFCs from refrigeration leaks, SF6 from electrical power distributors, and CH4 from solid waste landfills.
General Improvement District (GID) An entity that provides county and municipal governments in the State of Nevada with a financing tool flexible enough and capable enough to finance a variety of infrastructure projects designed to encourage private sector investment in property-based projects. The governing body responsible for the creation and administration of the GID may collect property tax revenues from the GID and issue debt for a wide range of projects ranging from the development and maintenance of cemeteries, swimming pools, streets, alleys, curbs, gutters and sidewalks to the furnishing of fencing, facilities needed for the protection from fire and the control and eradication of noxious weeds. (Source: UNR Extension School)
Global warming potential (GWP) The ratio of radiative forcing (degree of warming to the atmosphere) that would result from the emission of one mass-based unit of a given GHG compared to one equivalent unit of carbon dioxide (CO2) over a given period of time.
Greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) Greenhouse gas emissions are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. Some greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide occur naturally and are emitted into the atmosphere through natural processes and human activities. Other greenhouse gases are created and emitted solely through human activities. The principal greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere because of human activities are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and fluorinated gases (hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride).
GHG emission sources and associated activities GHG emission sources are any physical process or activity that releases GHG emissions into the atmosphere. Examples of emission sources include: vehicle exhaust from combustion of gasoline, furnace exhaust from the combustion of natural gas, power plant exhaust from the combustion of coal for the production of electricity, fugitive emissions from leaking refrigerants, and methane emissions from a landfill. Activities associated with GHG emission sources are human activities that result in the production of GHG emissions. An example is electricity use, which requires the generation of electricity at a power plant that may produce a quantity of GHG emissions in the process of generating the electricity.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) One of the six primary GHGs, a group of manmade chemicals with various commercial uses (e.g., refrigerants) composed of one or two carbon atoms and varying numbers of hydrogen and fluorine atoms. Most HFCs are highly potent GHGs with 100-year GWPs in the thousands.
In-boundary emissions GHG emissions released within the jurisdictional boundary of a community. Examples include GHG emissions from natural gas combustion in household furnaces and gasoline combustion in motor vehicles driven on roads within the community’s jurisdictional boundary.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) International body of climate change scientists. The role of the IPCC is to assess the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to the understanding of the risk of human-induced climate change (www.ipcc.ch).
Inventory A comprehensive, quantified list of a community’s or organization’s GHG emissions and sources.
Inventory boundary An imaginary line that encompasses the GHG emissions included in the inventory. It results from the chosen organizational and operational boundaries.
Kilowatt hour (kWh) The electrical energy unit of measure equal to one thousand watts of power supplied to, or taken from, an electric circuit steadily for one hour. (A Watt is the unit of electrical power equal to one ampere under a pressure of one volt, or 1/746 horsepower.)
Liquid petroleum gas (LPG) A group of hydrocarbon-based gases derived from crude oil refining or natural gas fractionation. They include propane, propylene, normal butane, butane, butylene, isobutene A-14 and isobutylene. For convenience of transportation, these gases are liquefied through pressurization.
Methane (CH₄) One of the six primary GHGs, consisting of a single carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, possessing a GWP of 21, and produced through the anaerobic decomposition of waste in landfills, animal digestion, decomposition of animal wastes, production and distribution of natural gas and petroleum, coal production, and incomplete fossil fuel combustion.
Metric ton (MT) Common international measurement for the quantity of GHG emissions, equivalent to about 2,204.6 pounds or 1.1 short tons.
Mobile combustion Emissions from the combustion of fuels in transportation sources (e.g., cars, trucks, buses, trains, airplanes, and marine vessels) and emissions from off-road equipment such as what is used in construction, agriculture, and forestry. A piece of equipment that cannot move under its own power, but that is transported from site to site (e.g., an emergency generator) is a stationary, not a mobile, combustion source.
Natural gas A naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbons (e.g., methane, ethane, or propane) produced in geological formations beneath the earth's surface that maintains a gaseous state at standard atmospheric temperature and pressure under ordinary conditions.
Nitrous oxide (N₂O) One of the six primary GHGs, consisting of two nitrogen atoms and a single oxygen atom, possessing a GWP of 310, and typically generated as a result of soil cultivation practices, particularly the use of commercial and organic fertilizers, fossil fuel combustion, nitric acid production, and biomass burning.
Operator The entity having operational control of a facility or other entity.
Paris Agreement A legally binding international treaty on climate change. It was adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris, France, in 2015. Its overarching goal is to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels” and pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.” (Source: United Nations Climate Change)
Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) One of the six primary GHGs, A group of man-made chemicals composed of one or two carbon atoms and four to six fluorine atoms, containing no chlorine. Originally introduced as alternatives to ozone depleting substances, PFCs have few commercial uses and are typically emitted as by-products of industrial and manufacturing processes. PFCs have very high GWPs and are very long-lived in the atmosphere.
Process emissions Emissions from physical or chemical processing rather than from fuel combustion. Examples include emissions from manufacturing cement, aluminum, adipic acid, ammonia, etc.
Propane A normally straight chain hydrocarbon that boils at -43.67 degrees Fahrenheit and is represented by the chemical formula C3H8.
Science-Based Targets Calculated climate goals, in line with the latest climate science, that represent your community’s fair share of the ambition necessary to meet the Paris Agreement commitment of keeping warming below 1.5°C. To achieve this goal, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that we must reduce global emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Equitably reducing global emissions by 50% requires that high-emitting, wealthy nations reduce their emissions by more than 50%.
Scope(s) Scopes are used in the context of reporting on GHG emissions associated with individual organizational entities (e.g., the operations of a business or local government). In that context, the scopes framework can be used to categorize direct (scope 1) emissions (e.g., smoke stacks or tailpipes that release emissions within an organizational boundary), indirect energy-related (scope 2) emissions (e.g., the use of purchased or acquired electricity, heating, cooling, or steam regardless of where the energy is generated), and other indirect (scope 3) emissions not covered in scope 2 (e.g., upstream and downstream emissions from the extraction and production of purchased materials and fuels).
The Community Protocol does not use scopes as a framework for categorizing emissions in community inventories because the organization-related definitions of scopes do not translate to the community scale in a manner that is applicable, clear, and valuable.
Short ton (ton) Common measurement for a ton in the U.S. and equivalent to 2,000 pounds or about 0.907 metric tons.
Source(s) Any physical process or activity that releases GHG emissions into the atmosphere (e.g., vehicle exhaust from combustion of gasoline, furnace exhaust from the combustion of natural gas, power plant exhaust from combustion of coal for the production of electricity).
Standard cubic foot (scf) The amount of gas that would occupy a volume of one cubic foot if free of combined water at standard conditions.
Stationary combustion Emissions from the combustion of fuels to produce electricity, steam, heat, or power using equipment (boilers, furnaces, etc.) in a fixed location.
Sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆) One of the six primary GHGs, consisting of a single sulfur atom and six fluoride atoms, possessing a very high GWP of 23,900, and primarily used in electrical transmission and distribution systems.
Therm A measure of one hundred thousand (105) Btu.
Use Putting into action or service energy, water, materials, or services. In this Protocol, the term “use” is not the same as “consumption”. The term “use” refers to any and all use, by all potential users of energy, water, materials, or services, while “consumption” is a subset of “use”, limited to the use of resources - typically purchased - by “consumers”. “Consumers”, in turn, are usually limited to just households and governments, and not businesses, although a subcategory of business expenses (described in Chapter 3.4.7 of the US Community Protocol: Consumption-Based Emissions) are sometimes also included in “consumption”. In the language of this Protocol, businesses, governments, and households all “use” electricity, but only governments and households “consume” electricity, since businesses use it to create products and services for consumers. For households and governments, “consumption” and “use” of electricity are the same. Although “use” and “consumption” are often used interchangeably in common speech, this distinction is important when it comes to accounting and reporting of consumption-based emissions. For more details on these distinctions, see Appendix I of the US Community Protocol – Consumption-based Emission Activities and Sources.