ESS terms in Foundation

A non-binding United Nations action plan for sustainable development agreed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, to be carried out by governments and organisations from the global to the local level.

The proportion of incoming solar radiation reflected by a surface, from 0 to 1; snow and ice have a high albedo, dark ocean and forest a low one.

Two or more different conditions in which the same system can persist under similar circumstances, each maintained by its own feedback loops.

An environmental perspective that views humankind as the central and most important element of existence, valuing nature mainly for what it provides to people; it includes careful management and stewardship views.

The part of the Earth system made or modified by humans, including cities, farmland, infrastructure, industry and the flows of materials they create.

A planetary boundary process covering the amount of fine particles added to the atmosphere by human activity, which affects climate, rainfall patterns and health.

A graph that shows how a behaviour, such as smoking or meat eating, changes in a group over time, often annotated with the events or campaigns that may have influenced it.

The capacity of a biologically productive area to generate an ongoing supply of renewable resources and to absorb its wastes; measured in global hectares.

A planetary boundary process covering human additions of nitrogen and phosphorus to the environment, mainly from fertilisers, which disrupt their natural cycles.

The part of the circular economy in which biodegradable materials, such as food and wood, are cascaded into other uses and then returned safely to the soil by composting or anaerobic digestion.

A sealed research facility in Arizona, USA, built to test a materially closed life-support system; its 1991–1993 mission showed how hard such a system is to keep in balance.

The 1987 report Our Common Future by the UN World Commission on Environment and Development, chaired by Gro Harlem Brundtland, which gave the standard definition of sustainable development.

A model of the circular economy by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, showing materials looping back through a technical cycle on one side and a biological cycle on the other.

The total amount of greenhouse gases produced directly and indirectly by a person, product, organisation or country, expressed in tonnes of CO₂ equivalent.

An economic model that aims to decouple economic activity from the consumption of finite resources by eliminating waste and pollution, circulating products and materials, and regenerating nature.

Scientific research in which members of the public take part, often by collecting, recording or analysing data, usually in collaboration with professional scientists.

Distress, worry or fear about climate change and its threat to the future, which can affect people's feelings, thoughts and daily functioning, especially among young people.

A system that exchanges energy but not matter with its surroundings; Biosphere 2 and, approximately, the Earth and its global cycles are examples.

A unit that expresses the amount of any greenhouse gas as the amount of carbon dioxide that would cause the same warming, so different gases can be added together.

All the frozen water of the Earth system, including ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice, snow cover and permafrost.

A computer model of an imaginary planet with black and white daisies, published by Watson and Lovelock in 1983, showing how negative feedback through albedo can regulate a planet's temperature.

Breaking the link between economic activity and environmental pressure, so that output or well-being can rise while resource use or pollution stays the same or falls.

The clearing of forest and conversion of the land to another use, such as farming, mining or settlement, removing the forest's storages of biomass and much of its diversity.

An economy designed to share value and opportunity far more equitably among all stakeholders, rather than relying on growth to reduce poverty.

A framework for a regenerative and distributive economy that meets the needs of all people within the means of the planet, shown as a ring between a social foundation and an ecological ceiling.

The planet viewed as a single integrated system in which the biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, atmosphere and anthroposphere are linked by flows of energy and matter.

An environmental perspective that gives the natural world pre-eminent importance and intrinsic value, putting ecological processes and all living things ahead of human wants.

The outer boundary of the doughnut economics model, based on the planetary boundaries, beyond which human pressure overshoots the Earth's life-supporting systems.

The area of land and water required to sustainably provide all the resources a population consumes and absorb all the wastes it produces, at its current rates; measured in global hectares.

The situation in which a population's ecological footprint exceeds the biocapacity available to it, so that natural capital is depleted and wastes accumulate.

The maintenance of economic structures and systems that support the production and consumption of goods and services to meet human needs into the future.

A change in which an ecosystem loses its defining species, structure or functions and shifts to a different, usually less valuable state from which recovery is slow or impossible.

A characteristic of a system that arises from the interactions between its components and is not shown by any component on its own.

A person who campaigns publicly, through protest, advocacy, writing or direct action, to change attitudes, behaviour or policy on an environmental issue.

The right of all people to live in a pollution-free environment and to have equitable access to natural resources, regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status or nationality.

The broad social and political movement of individuals, groups and organisations that works to protect the natural environment and change human behaviour, policy and law towards it.

The use and management of natural resources in a way that allows resources to be replaced and ecosystems to recover and regenerate, avoiding depletion, pollution and biodiversity loss.

A model of a person's or society's environmental perspective as a system, showing the inputs that shape it (such as education, media and worldviews) and the outputs that result (judgements, choices and actions).

A state of balance in a system, in which opposing flows or processes cancel out so that there is no overall change in the system.

Fairness in the distribution of resources, opportunities, costs and benefits, so that no group is systematically disadvantaged; equitable does not necessarily mean equal.

The return of part of the output of a process to affect the same process, so that a change in a system either reduces itself (negative) or increases itself (positive).

The movement of energy or matter between storages, or into or out of a system, measured as a rate and drawn as an arrow in systems diagrams.

A planetary boundary process covering human disturbance of the water cycle, measured by changes in river flows (blue water) and in soil moisture (green water).

The model, proposed by James Lovelock and developed with Lynn Margulis, of the Earth as a single self-regulating system in which life and its surroundings interact through feedback to keep conditions suitable for life.

The solid, non-living part of the Earth system, made of rocks, minerals, sediments and soil, including the lithosphere.

A unit of area equal to one hectare of land or water with the world-average biological productivity, used to measure ecological footprints and biocapacity.

A measure of economic output that subtracts the monetary value of environmental costs, such as resource depletion and pollution damage, from gross domestic product.

The total monetary value of all final goods and services produced and sold in a country in a given period, usually one year.

An index of collective well-being used by the government of Bhutan as an alternative to GDP, covering domains such as health, education, culture, good governance and ecological resilience.

A way of studying a situation by looking at the whole system and the interactions between its parts, rather than at each part separately.

The geological epoch of roughly the last 12,000 years, a period of unusually stable climate in which agriculture, cities and human civilisations developed.

All the liquid water on and near the Earth's surface, including oceans, lakes, rivers and groundwater, considered as one part of the Earth system.

The property of a system in which the path of recovery differs from the path of collapse, so a pressure must be reduced well below the level that caused a regime shift before the original state returns.

A flow of energy or matter that crosses the boundary into a system, such as sunlight or rainfall entering an ecosystem.

The value something has as a means to an end, because it is useful to people, such as a forest valued for timber, water supply or tourism income.

Fairness between generations, so that people living now do not use resources or cause damage in ways that leave future generations with fewer opportunities.

An organisation whose members are national governments, set up by treaty to cooperate on shared issues, such as the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The value something has in and for itself, regardless of whether it is useful to people, as when a species is considered worth protecting simply because it exists.

A theoretical system that exchanges neither energy nor matter with its surroundings; no true example exists on Earth.

A planetary boundary process covering the conversion of forests, grasslands and wetlands to farmland, settlements and other uses, measured by remaining forest cover.

A rating scale on which respondents show how strongly they agree or disagree with a statement, usually with five or seven points from strongly disagree to strongly agree.

An economic model in which raw materials are extracted, made into products, used and then discarded as waste; often summarised as take, make, waste.

The rigid outer layer of the solid Earth, made of the crust and the uppermost mantle, which forms the base of soils and landforms.

A toxic organic compound of mercury that is absorbed easily by living things and becomes concentrated along food chains, damaging the nervous system; the cause of Minamata disease.

A simplified representation of reality, such as a diagram, graph, equation, simulation or description, used to understand how a system works and to predict its response to change.

The stock of natural resources and ecosystems, such as forests, soils, fish stocks, groundwater and the atmosphere, that provides goods and services of value to people.

A feedback loop in which the output of a process inhibits or reverses the same process, reducing change and stabilising a system around its equilibrium.

A not-for-profit organisation that operates independently of government, such as Greenpeace or WWF, often campaigning, researching or running projects on environmental and social issues.

Human-made substances and materials, such as synthetic chemicals, plastics and pesticides, released into the environment; one of the nine planetary boundaries.

A system that exchanges both energy and matter with its surroundings across its boundary; almost all natural ecosystems are open systems.

A level at which decisions and actions for sustainability are taken: individual, business, community, city, country or global.

A flow of energy or matter that crosses the boundary out of a system, such as heat lost by respiration or water leaving in a river.

The use of a renewable resource at a rate greater than its natural rate of replacement, so that the stock declines over time.

The way an individual views and understands a situation, based on a mix of personal and collective assumptions, values and beliefs.

The three dimensions on which sustainability rests: environmental, social and economic, each of which must be maintained for a practice or system to be sustainable.

A model identifying nine Earth system processes that have kept the planet stable during the Holocene, with a limit to human disturbance of each; crossing a limit raises the risk of abrupt, irreversible change.

A feedback loop in which a disturbance leads to amplification of that disturbance, destabilising a system and driving it away from its equilibrium.

An approach to decisions under uncertainty: where an activity threatens serious or irreversible harm, lack of full scientific certainty is not a reason to postpone preventive action.

Regular, linked rises and falls in the populations of a predator and its prey, with the predator lagging behind the prey; an emergent property of their interaction.

A set of written questions given to a sample of people to collect data on their knowledge, behaviour, attitudes or values, using open or closed questions.

A way of studying a situation by breaking it into its separate parts and investigating each part or relationship on its own, often by controlled experiment.

An economy designed to work with and within the cycles and limits of the living world, so that materials are reused and ecosystems restored rather than depleted.

A large, rapid and persistent change in the structure and functioning of a system as it moves from one stable state to an alternative stable state.

The tendency of an ecological or social system to avoid tipping points and maintain stability; its capacity to resist damage and to recover from, or adapt to, disturbance.

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992, which produced Agenda 21 and opened the climate change and biodiversity conventions for signature.

The space between the social foundation and the ecological ceiling of the doughnut model, in which everyone's needs are met without degrading the planet.

The range of conditions within all nine planetary boundaries in which the Earth system is expected to remain in a stable, Holocene-like state that supports human societies.

The inner boundary of the doughnut economics model, based on the social goals of the SDGs, below which people lack life's essentials such as food, water, health and political voice.

The creation of structures and systems, such as health care, education, equity and community, that support human well-being and the survival of societies and their cultures over the long term.

A system in which a natural ecosystem and a human society are linked so closely, through resource use and management, that each can only be understood together with the other.

The shared, often unwritten rules and expectations of a society or cultural group about how people should behave, which influence individual perspectives and choices.

An equilibrium to which a system tends to return after a disturbance, because negative feedback restores its previous state.

A person, group or organisation with an interest in an issue or decision because they affect it or are affected by it, such as residents, companies, governments or NGOs.

The condition of an open system in which flows continue but inputs are balanced by outputs, so its storages stay approximately constant over time.

An approach to the environment in which people see themselves as responsible caretakers who manage natural resources carefully for others and for future generations.

A part of a system in which matter or energy is held for a period of time, such as water in a lake or carbon in forest biomass; drawn as a box in systems diagrams.

A view that natural capital cannot be fully replaced by manufactured or human capital, so critical natural capital must be maintained; shown as the economy nested within society within the environment.

The extent to which practices allow for the long-term viability of a system; generally, the responsible maintenance of socio-ecological systems so that conditions are not diminished for future generations.

A measurable quantity, tracked over time, that shows whether a system is moving towards or away from sustainability, such as a biodiversity index, a pollutant concentration or a footprint.

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, as defined by the Brundtland Report in 1987.

A set of 17 social, economic and environmental goals with 169 targets, adopted by all UN member states in 2015, to guide action on sustainability and justice up to 2030.

A set of interacting or interdependent components organised to form a functional whole, such as a pond, a forest, a city or the whole Earth.

The real or chosen edge of a system, which decides which flows count as inputs and outputs; often drawn as a dashed line in systems diagrams.

A holistic way of visualising and analysing a complex set of interactions, in which a situation is represented as storages linked by flows of energy and matter.

A model of a system in which storages are shown as boxes and flows as labelled arrows pointing in the direction of movement, with inputs and outputs crossing a boundary.

The part of the circular economy in which materials that cannot safely return to nature, such as metals and plastics, are kept in use by sharing, repair, reuse, remanufacture and recycling.

An environmental perspective that assumes environmental problems can be solved through technology, scientific research and human ingenuity, so that growth in resource use can continue.

The delay between a change in an input or flow of a system and the full response of the system to that change, usually longer where storages are large.

The minimum amount of change within a system that will cause it to destabilise, after which it shifts to a new equilibrium or alternative stable state.

The knowledge, practices and beliefs about the relationships between living things and their environment built up by a community, often Indigenous, and passed down through generations.

A flow in which energy or matter changes location but not its nature, such as water flowing down a river or a herbivore eating a plant.

A flow in which energy or matter changes its chemical nature, its state or its form of energy, such as photosynthesis, evaporation or combustion.

A series of indirect effects passing through several trophic levels when the abundance of a top predator changes, such as predators reducing herbivores and allowing plants to recover.

An equilibrium from which a system, once disturbed, moves away and settles into a new and different equilibrium instead of returning.

Qualities or principles that people feel have worth and importance in life, which shape their priorities, judgements, perspectives and choices.

A survey designed to investigate the values and perspectives of a social group towards an environmental issue, usually with closed questions such as Likert-scale statements.

The total volume of fresh water used directly and indirectly to produce the goods and services consumed by a person, product or country, usually in cubic metres per year.

A view that natural capital can be replaced by manufactured or human capital, so development is sustainable if total capital does not fall; shown as three equal overlapping pillars.

A lens shared by a group of people through which they perceive, make sense of and act within their environment, shaped by culture, philosophy, ideology, religion and politics.