Glossary Of Terms for Sustainability.

Myths & Facts Glossary - Two Sides

Afforestation: The conversion from other land uses into forest, or the increase of the canopy cover to above the 10% threshold.

Biodiversity: The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.

Bioenergy: Renewable energy is made from biomass or biofuel.

Biomass: Biodegradable fraction of products, waste and residues of biological origin from agriculture (including vegetal and animal substances), forestry and related industries including fisheries and aquaculture, as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste.

Chain of Custody (CoC): A wood flow accounting system applied by an enterprise to trace the flow of wood from certified forests or non-certified forests to the end product.

Climate change: Long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region over an appropriately significant period of time.

Collection (of paper and board): Separate collection of paper and paper products from industrial and commercial outlets, from households and offices for recycling. (Collection includes transport to the sorting, processing or recycling plant, or paper mill.)

Consumer: Industrial, commercial or private end-user.

Deforestation: The conversion of forest to other land use or the long-term reduction of the tree canopy cover below the minimum 10% threshold.

Eco-label: A labelling system that verifies that consumer products are made in a way that environmental aspects are considered and negative effects are minimised.

Fibres: Derived from wood, non-wood fibre sources such as fibre crops (straw, bamboo, bagasse, etc.) or alternatively paper for recycling through a recycling process.

Forest: Land within a contiguous area with trees higher than five meters and a canopy cover of more than 10%, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ. It does not include land that is predominantly under agricultural or urban land use.

Forest certification: A system for verifying that a forest is being managed according to the requirements of a forest management standard.

Forest management: A range of human interventions that affect forest ecosystems.

Forest restoration: Renewing a degraded, damaged, or destroyed forest ecosystem through active human intervention.

Paper: Term used to cover all grades of paper and board.

Paper for recycling: Natural fibre-based paper and board suitable for recycling and consisting of paper and board in any shape and products made predominately from paper and board. This may include other constituents that cannot be removed by dry sorting, such as coatings and laminates, spiral bindings, etc.

Primary forest: Naturally regenerated forest of native species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed.

Production forest: Forest area designated primarily for the production of wood, fibre, bio-energy and/or non-wood forest products.

Recovered paper: Outdated term used for paper for recycling.

Recyclability: The design, manufacture and conversion of paper-based products in such a way as to enable the high-quality recycling of fibres and other materials in a manufacturing process in compliance – where appropriate – with current standards in the community. As a minimum, recyclability requires that sufficient information is exchanged for appropriate risk management and safe re-use of fibres.

Recycling: Reprocessing of used paper in a production process into new paper and board.

Recycling rate: The ratio between recycling of used paper, including net trade of paper for recycling, and paper and board consumption.

Reforestation: The re-establishment of forest formations after a temporary condition with less than 10% canopy cover due to human-induced or natural causes e.g. forest fires.

Sustainable: Something that can be continued or a practice that maintains a condition without harming the environment. An example of sustainability is the practice of reduce, reuse and recycle.

Sustainable forest management: The stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.

Virgin pulp/primary pulp: Pulp consisting of unused fibres. It contains no secondary or recycled fibres.

Bio-based products: Material of biological origin excluding material embedded in geological formations and/or fossilized.

Biofuels: Bioliquids are liquid fuels for energy purposes other than for transport, including electricity and heating and cooling, produced from biomass.

Bioeconomy: Includes primary production, such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture, and industries using/processing biological resources, such as the food and pulp and paper industries, and parts of the chemical, biotechnological and energy industries.

Bioenergy: Renewable energy made from biomass or biofuel.

Carbon dioxide (CO2): A naturally occurring gas, also a by-product of burning fossil fuels from fossil carbon deposits, such as oil, gas and coal, of burning biomass, of land use changes and of industrial processes (e.g. cement production).

Carbon footprint: The amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organisation or community.

Carbon sequestration: A natural or artificial process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in solid or liquid form.

Cartonboard: May be single or multiply, coated or uncoated. It is made from virgin and/or recovered fibres, and has good folding properties, stiffness and scoring ability. It is mainly used in cartons for consumer products such as frozen food, cosmetics and for liquid containers. Includes solid board, solid bleached board, solid unbleached board, folding box board, white lined chipboard, boxboard or carrier board.

Climate change: Long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region over an appropriately significant period of time.

Collection (of paper and board): Separate collection of paper and paper products from industrial and commercial outlets, householdsand offices for recycling. (Collection includes transport to the sorting/processing or recycling plant/paper mill.)

Containerboard: Papers and boards mainly used in the manufacture of corrugated board. They are made from any combination of virgin and recovered fibres and can be bleached, unbleached or mottled. Main uses are corrugated boxes, transport packaging, storage and product display.

Consumer: Industrial, commercial or private end-user.

Deforestation: The conversion of forest to other land use or the long-term reduction of the tree canopy cover below the minimum 10% threshold.

E-commerce: Commercial transactions conducted electronically on the internet.

Eco-design: Consists of integrating environmental protection criteria over a service or a product’s lifecycle. The main goal of eco-design is to anticipate and minimise negative environmental impacts (of manufacturing, using and disposing of products).

Emissions: The direct or indirect release of substances, vibrations, heat or noise from individual or diffuse sources into air, water or land.

Energy: All energy products, consisting of hard coal and derivatives, lignite and derivatives, peat and derivatives, crude oil and petroleum products (such as LPG, refinery gas, motor spirit, kerosene, gas/diesel oil, residual fuel oil, refuse-derived fuels, solid recovered fuel), natural gas, manufactured gases, derived heat, renewable energies, electrical energy and nuclear energy.

Fibres: Derived from wood, non-wood fibre sources such as fibre crops (straw, bamboo, bagasse, etc.) or alternatively paper for recycling, through a recycling process.

Forest certification: A system for verifying that a forest is being managed sustainably according to the requirements of a forest management standard.

Fossil fuels: A fuel formed by natural processes, such as decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing organic molecules originating in ancient photosynthesis that release energy in combustion. Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum, coal and natural gas.

Global warming: a gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs and other pollutants.

Greenhouse gas (GHG): The gaseous constituents of the Earth’s atmosphere, both natural and anthropogenic, with properties that cause the greenhouse effect. Water vapour (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and ozone (O3) are the primary greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Paper and board: The paper and paperboard category is an aggregate category. In production and trade statistics, it represents the sum of graphic papers, sanitary and household papers, packaging materials and other paper and paperboard. It excludes manufactured paper products such as boxes, cartons, books and magazines, etc.

Paper mill: A factory or plant location where various pulps in slurry form are mechanically treated, mixed with the proper dyes, additives, and chemicals, and converted into a sheet of paper by the processes of drainage, formation, and drying on a paper machine.

Planted forest: Forest predominantly composed of trees established through planting and/or deliberate seeding.

Primary forest: Naturally regenerated forest of native species, where there are no clearly visible indications of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed.

Recyclability: Design, manufacturing and converting of paper-based products in such a way as to enable a high quality recycling of fibres and other materials in a manufacturing process in compliance – where appropriate – with current standards in the community: as a minimum, recyclability requires that sufficient information is exchanged for appropriate risk management and safe re-use of fibres.

Recycling: Reprocessing of used paper in a production process into new paper and board.

Recycling rate: The ratio between recycling of used paper, including net trade of paper for recycling, and paper and board consumption.

Sustainable: Something that can be continued or a practice that maintains a condition without harming the environment. An example of sustainability is the practice of reduce, reuse and recycle.

Sustainable forest management: The stewardship and use of forests and forest land in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biodiversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfil, now and in the future, relevant ecological, economic and social functions, at local, national, and global levels, and that does not cause damage to other ecosystems.

Virgin pulp/primary pulp: Pulp consisting of unused fibres. It contains no secondary or recycled fibres.