Glossary

A recognition for companies meeting high standards of social, environmental, and governance performance. Certification evaluates transparency, stakeholder treatment, sustainability, and community impact; B Corps balance profit with purpose.

A continuous process of monitoring AI systems to detect, document, and reduce discriminatory bias. Audits assess datasets, algorithms, and outputs to ensure fairness, essential to trustworthy AI ecosystems.

Efforts to protect ecosystems, wildlife, and plant species from degradation or extinction, habitat conservation, sustainable land use, and restoration. Biodiversity safeguards ecological balance critical to planetary and human health.

The total greenhouse-gas emissions generated directly or indirectly by individuals, organizations, products, or events. Measured in CO2 equivalents, it captures the environmental burden across supply chains; reducing it supports climate goals.

A condition where generated CO2 emissions are balanced with equivalent reduction or offsetting, through energy efficiency, renewables, and certified carbon projects. An important milestone on the path to net zero.

Actions that compensate for emissions by funding external initiatives that reduce or remove greenhouse gases, tree planting, renewables, sustainable land use. Most effective when paired with emission-reduction strategies.

An economic model that minimizes waste and maximizes resource efficiency through repairing, reusing, recycling, and regenerating materials, replacing the linear take-make-dispose model with sustainable loops.

The capacity of individuals, communities, or organizations to anticipate, withstand, and recover from climate-related disruptions, combining sustainable infrastructure, risk planning, and adaptation strategies.

Collaborative efforts where businesses interact with community members to understand needs, share resources, and create shared value, through consultation, partnerships, and ongoing dialogue.

Initiatives where companies allocate resources to support local communities, programs, infrastructure, volunteering, or economic development, focused on long-term empowerment over short-term aid.

The idea that businesses should act as ethical members of society committed to positive social and environmental contributions, responsible decision-making, community engagement, and efforts that improve public wellbeing.

The structure of rules, processes, and oversight mechanisms that guide company leadership and decision-making, ensuring fairness, accountability, risk management, and transparency.

Organizations donating financial resources, goods, services, or employee time to charitable causes, through grants, sponsorships, strategic partnerships, or volunteer engagement.

Corporate self-regulation integrated into business models; companies monitor and comply with laws, ethical standards, and international norms to promote positive impacts on the environment, communities, employees, and other stakeholders, beyond profit.

Publicly documenting a company's sustainability performance, social initiatives, and governance practices, promoting transparency, stakeholder communication, and accountability while tracking progress.

Guiding principles for responsible data collection, storage, and usage to avoid harm and safeguard individuals, promoting fairness, transparency, accountability, and respectful treatment of sensitive information.

A condition where organizations or communities lack access to the high-quality data required to train effective AI systems, leading to exclusion and underrepresentation. Addressing it enables fairer AI and social inclusion.

Principles ensuring individuals control how their personal data is collected, used, and shared, protecting users from unauthorized access or misuse, with informed consent over their digital footprint.

Organizational strategies that promote representation, fairness, and belonging across diverse identities, equitable access, bias reduction, and cultural sensitivity that unlock innovation and strengthen wellbeing.

Efforts to ensure equitable access to digital tools, connectivity, and training so everyone can participate fully in the digital economy, reducing technological barriers and supporting social mobility.

Programs that enable employees to contribute time and skills to nonprofits or community efforts, often with paid hours and logistical support, fostering teamwork, purpose, and social responsibility.

A framework to assess how responsibly a company operates across environmental protection, social equity, and governance integrity, helping investors evaluate sustainability and long-term resilience.

External evaluations that assess a company's environmental, social, and governance performance, informing investors about risks and sustainability practices. Strong ratings reflect responsible operations and stakeholder trust.

Built-in constraints and safeguards that guide AI models away from harmful or inappropriate outcomes, limiting misuse and enforcing responsible behavior so organizations can deploy AI with confidence.

A leadership approach rooted in integrity, fairness, and responsibility toward employees, communities, and the environment, encouraging open communication and moral decision-making that shape culture and long-term trust.

Supply-chain management prioritizing fair labor practices, environmental stewardship, and responsible procurement, protecting workers and limiting ecological harm through transparency, audits, and sustainable partnerships.

A market-based approach ensuring producers, often farmers and artisans in developing regions, receive fair compensation and safe conditions, supporting sustainable farming and reducing exploitation and inequality.

The equal treatment, opportunity, and representation of individuals across gender identities, eliminating systemic discrimination through equitable policies, inclusive culture, and leadership diversity.

AI models that create new content, text, visuals, audio, code, or synthetic data, using learned patterns from large datasets, enabling creativity, automation, and personalization at scale.

Approaches that reduce AI's environmental footprint through energy efficiency, optimized resources, and lower computational waste, lighter models and sustainable infrastructure aligned with climate goals.

Energy from naturally replenishing sources, solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal, that reduces reliance on fossil fuels and lowers greenhouse-gas emissions, supporting climate goals and energy resilience.

A deceptive practice where companies exaggerate or fabricate environmental claims to appear more sustainable than they are, misleading stakeholders, eroding trust, and risking reputational and regulatory consequences.

A leading international organization providing standardized frameworks for sustainability reporting, helping companies disclose ESG performance consistently and comparably for stakeholders.

Processes to identify, prevent, and mitigate adverse human-rights impacts across operations, suppliers, or partners, including risk assessments, monitoring, corrective actions, and transparent reporting.

A structured methodology to evaluate potential environmental, social, and economic consequences of projects before implementation, helping decision-makers understand risks and plan mitigation for sustainable outcomes.

Investments made to generate measurable environmental or social impact alongside financial returns, targeting sectors like renewable energy, affordable housing, education, or healthcare.

Quantifying the positive and negative outcomes generated by a company's social, environmental, or economic activities, supporting accountability, strategy refinement, and evidence-based decision-making.

The use of ML, analytics, or AI-powered platforms to assess environmental, social, or economic outcomes, enhancing accuracy, reducing manual work, and revealing insights at scale.

Collaborative initiatives among companies, nonprofits, governments, and communities to amplify social or environmental benefits, leveraging shared resources, expertise, and scale for collective impact.

Economic development that benefits all segments of society, including marginalized communities, prioritizing equal access to opportunity, fair distribution of resources, and social mobility.

A work environment ensuring equal respect, voice, and opportunity regardless of identity or background, promoting diversity in leadership and equitable access to growth, where employees feel safe and valued.

A subset of AI where models learn from data to recognize patterns, predict outcomes, or automate tasks without explicit rules, improving over time and underpinning applications from recommendations to fraud detection.

A principle in sustainability reporting that determines which issues are most critical to business success and stakeholder interests, guiding which topics to prioritize and disclose.

Systemic prejudice within AI models caused by unbalanced data, flawed assumptions, or incomplete representation, which can produce discriminatory behavior. Detecting and mitigating it is essential for equitable AI.

A climate target where total greenhouse-gas emissions are balanced with an equal amount removed, pursued through emission reduction, carbon-removal technologies, and offsetting, helping stabilize global temperatures.

The practice of crafting precise instructions for AI models to yield accurate, contextually relevant, high-quality outputs, improving usability without modifying the underlying model.

The development and deployment of AI systems that prioritize fairness, accountability, and safety, minimizing harm, preventing bias, and aligning technology with human values through ethical governance.

A governance style prioritizing ethical accountability, transparency, and compliance while balancing stakeholder interests, incorporating sustainable practices, risk management, and clear decision structures.

Procurement practices ensuring materials and products are obtained ethically, sustainably, and with respect for human rights, requiring supply-chain transparency, labor-standard compliance, and environmental responsibility.

Industry-specific reporting standards that guide companies in disclosing financially material sustainability information to investors, focused on topics most likely to influence financial performance and market value.

A classification for greenhouse-gas accounting. Scope 1 covers direct emissions from company-controlled sources; Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity, heating, or cooling; Scope 3 covers all other value-chain emissions, suppliers, logistics, and consumer use.

Volunteering where employees donate professional expertise, design, legal, marketing, or technical skills, to social-impact organizations, creating deeper, more sustainable contributions than generic tasks.

The enduring, measurable changes, positive or negative, resulting from a company's programs, operations, or investments, affecting wellbeing, community growth, environmental conditions, or economic stability.

A measurement framework evaluating how much social, environmental, or economic value is created relative to resources invested, translating qualitative outcomes into quantitative indicators for accountability.

A consistent, two-way process of listening to and collaborating with individuals or groups affected by organizational decisions, building trust, transparency, and mutual understanding.

A principle guiding organizations to meet present needs without hindering future generations, covering environmental stewardship, social wellbeing, and responsible economic growth through long-term decision-making.

A UN framework of 17 goals to achieve a better, more equitable world by 2030, addressing poverty, climate change, gender equality, clean energy, and peace. Used to align policies and partnerships.

A financial discipline that incorporates environmental, social, and ethical considerations into investment and capital allocation, directing resources toward long-term, low-risk opportunities for equitable growth.

Artificially generated data that replicates real-world patterns without exposing private information, helping train AI models, address data scarcity, and reduce privacy risks when used responsibly.

Honest, open communication regarding corporate practices, decisions, and results, strengthening stakeholder trust and reducing reputational risk. Transparent organizations invite scrutiny and foster credibility.

An expanded measurement system evaluating business outcomes across three dimensions, people, planet, and profit, encouraging companies to consider community and environmental wellbeing alongside financial success.

A voluntary corporate initiative encouraging organizations to adopt universal principles on human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, committing participants to integrate sustainability across operations and culture.

AI-enabled systems that pair volunteers with relevant opportunities based on skills, interest, availability, and location, improving nonprofit capacity, participant satisfaction, and community impact.

Strategies for reducing, recycling, and disposing of waste in environmentally responsible ways, composting, sustainable packaging, and circular material use that minimize landfill burden.

Programs and policies that nurture employees' mental, emotional, and physical health, stress management, wellness activities, safe environments, and supportive cultures that improve productivity and retention.