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Wholesale Banking

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/