Do you know your CDP from your CDSB? What about GHCP and GIIRS? It can feel at times like the green finance space is awash with acronyms. Not to worry, though, we’ve pulled together a cheat sheet of the top terms for you to reference as well as some handy green finance links.
A list of acronyms
CDP – Formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project – organization that issues corporate surveys on climate change, water and forestry
- https://www.cdp.net/en
CDSB – Climate Disclosure Standards Board – provides guidance on climate reporting and proposed stock exchange listing rules on climate emissions reporting
- https://www.cdsb.net/
CO2e – Carbon Dioxide Equivalent
COP21 – United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Paris in 2015
- http://www.cop21paris.org/
CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility
- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp
DJSI – Dow Jones Sustainability Index
- https://www.robecosam.com/csa/csa-resources/industry-leaders.html
ESG – Environmental Social and Governance
FSC – Forest Stewardship Council
- https://us.fsc.org/en-us
GBP – Green Bond Principles
- https://www.icmagroup.org/green-social-and-sustainability-bonds/green-bond-principles-gbp/
GHGP – Greenhouse Gas Protocol for emissions reporting
- https://ghgprotocol.org/standards
GIIRS – Global Impact Investing Rating System – third party ratings for impact investments
GRI – Global Reporting Initiative
- https://www.globalreporting.org/Pages/default.aspx
ICMA – International Capital Market Association
- https://www.icmagroup.org/
ILO – International Labor Organization core labor standards
- https://www.ilo.org/global/standards/lang--en/index.htm
ISO 14001 – International Standards Organization’s Environmental Management System
- https://www.iso.org/iso-14001-environmental-management.html
LEED – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for green buildings
- https://new.usgbc.org/leed
RECs – Renewable Energy Credits
- https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/renewable-energy-certificates-recs
RSPO – Roundtable on Sustainable Palm oil
- https://rspo.org/
SASB – Sustainability Accounting Standards Board
- https://www.sasb.org/
SDGs – UN Sustainable Development Goals
- https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/
SPO – Second Party Opinion, an independent assessor to ensure alignment to green bond principles
TCFD – Task-force on Climate related Financial Disclosures develops voluntary consistent climate related financial risk disclosure standards
- https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/
UNGC – UN Global Compact; companies endorse and report on their progress in meeting 10 CSR principles
- https://www.unglobalcompact.org/