Sustainability glossary
Footprints, labels and climate reports use a lot of jargon. These plain-language definitions explain the terms you will meet across this site and on food packaging.
- Acidification
- Pollution, largely ammonia from manure and fertilisers, that acidifies soils and waters and harms ecosystems.
- Additionality
- Whether a reduction or removal would have happened anyway. If a protected forest was never threatened, credits for 'saving' it are not additional.
- Aquaculture
- Fish, shellfish and seaweed farming. Its footprint depends heavily on feed, energy use and whether coastal habitats were cleared.
- Biodiversity
- The variety of life — genes, species and ecosystems. Farming, especially for animal feed and grazing, is the leading driver of biodiversity loss on land.
- Bycatch
- Animals caught unintentionally while fishing for other species, including dolphins, turtles, sharks and seabirds.
- Carbon footprint
- The total greenhouse gas emissions caused by a person, product or organisation, usually expressed in tonnes or kilograms of CO₂e per year or per unit.
- Carbon neutral
- A claim that net emissions are zero, usually by buying offsets for remaining emissions. The product's own emissions are often unchanged. The EU bans such product claims when they rely on offsetting.
- Carbon offset
- A credit claimed to represent one tonne of CO₂e reduced or removed elsewhere, bought to compensate for emissions that continue.
- Carbon opportunity cost
- The carbon that land could store if it were not used for farming — for example, if forests or grasslands were allowed to regrow.
- CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent)
- A common unit that expresses different greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, as the amount of carbon dioxide that would cause the same warming over a set period, usually 100 years.
- Complete protein
- A food or combination of foods supplying all essential amino acids. Soy, quinoa and varied plant foods eaten across a day all meet protein needs.
- Eutrophication
- Excess nutrients, mainly nitrogen and phosphorus from fertiliser and manure, polluting rivers, lakes and coasts. It causes algal blooms and oxygen-depleted 'dead zones'.
- Feed conversion ratio
- How many kilograms of feed an animal needs to gain one kilogram of body weight. Much of the energy and protein in feed is lost.
- Flexitarian
- A mostly plant-based diet that includes small amounts of meat or fish occasionally.
- Food loss and food waste
- Food loss happens between harvest and retail; food waste happens in shops, restaurants and homes. Both waste the land, water and emissions used to produce it.
- Food miles
- The distance food travels from farm to plate. Transport is usually a small share of food emissions compared with how food is produced.
- Freshwater withdrawals
- Water taken from rivers, lakes and aquifers for irrigation, processing and animals. It matters most where water is scarce.
- Generic environmental claim
- A broad statement such as 'eco', 'green' or 'planet-friendly' without specific evidence. These are banned in the EU unless backed by recognised excellent performance.
- Grass-fed
- Animals raised mostly on pasture. It can benefit welfare and some landscapes but usually needs more land and does not make meat low-carbon.
- Greenwashing
- Marketing that gives a misleading impression of environmental benefits, through vague words, selective facts, offsets or imagery.
- Insetting
- Emission reductions or removals within a company's own supply chain, such as changes on supplier farms. It still requires careful measurement and should not be double counted.
- Land-use change
- Converting natural ecosystems such as forests or grasslands into farmland or pasture, which releases stored carbon and destroys habitats.
- Life-cycle assessment (LCA)
- A method for measuring the environmental impact of a product across all stages, from land and farming to processing, transport, packaging, retail and waste.
- Methane (CH₄)
- A powerful, short-lived greenhouse gas produced by cattle and sheep digestion, manure, rice paddies, landfills and fossil fuel leaks.
- Net zero
- A state in which remaining greenhouse gas emissions are balanced by permanent removals, after cutting emissions as deeply as possible. Credible net-zero targets include interim goals and the whole value chain.
- Nitrous oxide (N₂O)
- A long-lived greenhouse gas released mainly from fertilisers and manure on farmland; it also damages the ozone layer.
- Permanence
- How long carbon stays stored. Carbon in trees and soils can be released by fire, drought or changed management, unlike emissions from fossil fuels, which last for centuries.
- Plant-based diet
- A diet built mainly or entirely on foods from plants: vegetables, fruit, pulses, grains, nuts and seeds.
- Regenerative agriculture
- A loosely defined set of practices aimed at improving soil health, such as cover crops and reduced tillage. Because there is no single legal definition, claims need evidence.
- Rewilding
- Restoring ecosystems by allowing natural processes to return, often on land no longer needed for farming.
- Science-based target
- An emissions reduction goal aligned with what climate science says is needed to limit warming, often validated by the Science Based Targets initiative.
- Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
- Company emissions categories: scope 1 from its own operations, scope 2 from purchased energy, and scope 3 from its supply chain and product use. For food companies, scope 3 — mostly farming — is usually by far the largest.
- Vegan
- A diet and lifestyle that excludes animal products, including meat, fish, dairy, eggs and honey, as far as practical.
- Vitamin B12
- A vitamin made by bacteria and essential for nerves and blood. People on vegan diets need fortified foods or a supplement.