Aquaponics: Aquaponics is the cultivation of fish and plants together in a constructed, recirculating ecosystem using natural bacterial cycles to convert fish wastes to plant nutrients. This is a natural food growing method that harnesses the best attributes of aquaculture and hydroponics without the need to discard any water or solid waste or add chemical fertilizers.
Aquaculture: The cultivation of aquatic produce such as aquatic plants, fish and other aquatic animals.
Biodiversity: Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems.
Biomass: It is a renewable energy source and a biological material from living, or recently living organisms, such as wood, waste, (hydrogen) gas, and alcohol fuels.
BRAC systems: BRAC systems are designed to recycle and treat grey waters. Brac systems can help to save 35% to 40% on your annual water bill, and while saving money, those systems can also help save the environment. BRAC Systems holds an international patent.
Brutland Report: Report published in 1987 by the United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development.
BUND: The BUND is a non-profit organization, founded in 1975, of around 400 000 members engaged for the protection of the environment.
Carbon footprint: A measure of the amount of carbon dioxide produced by a person, organization or state in a given time.
Chinampas: A method of ancient agriculture, once used in Mexico, that used artificial islands of fertile land.
Deficit: A situation wherein, or amount whereby, spending exceeds government revenue.
Deflation: A decrease in the general price level, that is, in the nominal cost of goods and services as well as wages.
Eco-friendly: Refer to goods and services, laws, guidelines and policies considered to inflict minimal or no harm on the environment.
Ecological Footprint: A measure of how much biologically productive land and water area an individual, population or activity requires to produce all the resources it consumes and to absorb the waste it generates using prevailing technology and resource management practices.
Electronic waste: Commonly referred to as recycled. Many states have outlawed throwing e-waste in the trash because it contains hazardous materials.
Extended producer responsibility: As it relates to solid waste management refers to responsibility placed on waste producers for disposal or mitigation of their own waste. The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle. For 2006, humanity's total ecological footprint was estimated at 1.4 planet Earths. In other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.4 times as fast as Earth can renew them.
Flood Management Techniques: Flood management techniques can be divided into hard and soft engineering options. 'Hard' options tend to be more expensive and have a greater impact on the river and the surrounding landscape. 'Soft' options are more ecologically sensitive.
GMO: Any organism whose genetic material has been altered using recombinant DNA technology.
Green Design: Green design is the philosophy of designing physical objects in accordance to the principles of social, economic, and ecological sustainability. According to McLellan, the objective of sustainable design is "to eliminate negative environmental impact completely through skillful, sensitive design". Green design is applied to the fields of architecture and landscaping, urban design and planning, interior design, industrial design, engineering, graphic design, and fashion design. Some of the principles of green design are as follows: low impact materials, energy efficiency, quality and durability, to reuse and recycling, biomimicry, renewability, and more. To read more: McLennan, J. F. "The Philosophy of Sustainable Design", 2004.
Greywater: Greywater is wastewater generated from domestic activities such as laudry, dishwashing and bathing, which can be recycled on-site for uses such as landscape irrigation and constructed.
Green GDP: The green GDP is a indicator that was devised to show the environmental factors in addition to economic growth. Use to replace the GDP in China in 2004-2006. The aim was to calculate the GDP of China by taking into account the negative externalities that economy has caused to the environment.
Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH): Gross Domestic Happiness index originates in Bhutan and Bhutanese way of thinking. The message of this index is to include socioeconomic aspects that are often neglected by other economic indices.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): A measure of the economic production of a particular territory in financial capital terms over a specific time period.
Hazardous waste: A product in a home (household hazardous waste) or business that is ignitable, corrosive, reactive or toxic (e.g. used motor oil, oil-based paint, auto batteries, gasoline, pesticides, etc): Many of these products have eco-friendly alternatives.
Happy planet index (HPI): The Happy Planet index is an entirely new approach in monitoring a nation's development. The core purpose of it is to give a qualitative value for the level of happiness in a country.
HDPE: An acronomyn from organic chemistry refering to high-density polyethylene.
Human development index (HDI): The human development index measure the development of humanity using components such as life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling and gross national income. In this way the Human Development index describes the development of a country at the following sectors: health, education and living standards.
Hyperinflation: A very high rate of inflation. There is no precise quantitative level that defines hyperinflation but a conventionally used threshold is 50% annual inflation.
Inflation: An increase in the general level of prices or in the cost of living. A decline in the value of money. An increase in the quantity of money, leading to a devaluation of existing money.
Life Cycle Thinking: A production and consumption strategy that aims at taking into accounts all of the impacts (environmental, economic and social) that a product or service wil have throughout its life cycle, "from cradle to grave".
LEED: It is an internationally recognized green building certification system developed in the USA.
Lisbon strategy: Launched in 2000. The programme was meant to last ten years, during which the aim was to revitalise growth and achieve sustainable development in the European Union. Within a specific framework, it "set itself a new strategic goal for the next decade: to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion".
Microclimate: It is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet (for example a garden bed) or as large as many square miles (for example a valley). Microclimates exist, for example, near bodies of water which may cool the local atmosphere, or in heavily urban areas where brick, concrete, and asphalt absorb the sun's energy, heat up, and reradiate that heat to the ambient air: the resulting urban heat island is a kind of microclimate.
Nuclear power: It is produced by controlled nuclear reactions. Commercial and utility plants currently use nuclear fission reactions to heat water to produce steam, which is then used to generate electricity.
PET: An acronomyn from organic chemisty it refers to polyethylene terephthalate, a polyester used particularly in the manufacture of plastic bottles (PET) and fabrics (Terylene).
Product lifecycle analysis: Analysis that quantifies product's impact on the environment through its life, including, for example, the energy and material associated with materials extraction, manufacturing, assembly, distribution, use, disposal, and the resulting emissions.
Organic waste: Biodegradable waste is a type of waste, typically originating from plant or animal sources, which may be degraded by other living organisms.
Photovoltaic: It is a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect.
Purchasing power: The amount of goods and services that can be bought with a unit of currency or by consumers.
Reduce: Process by which activities and waste can be altered to conserve resources. Reduction can also involve a decrease in water use, and is the first R in the Three R´s process.
Reuse: Process by which products are given a second (or third) life prior to disposal. Reuse is the second R in the Three R´s process, and allows for the reduction of new products.
Recycling: It is processing used materials (waste) into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, and for example, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution (from incineration) and water pollution, and so on.
Renewable energies: It is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable (naturally replenished).
Resources and energy analysis program (REAP): REAP is a highly sophisticated model that helps policy makers to understand and measure the environmental pressures associated with human consumption. More details: http://sei-international.org/reap
Solar panel: A solar panel is a packaged interconnected assembly of solar cells, also known as photovoltaic cells. The solar panel can be used as a component of a larger photovoltaic system to generate and supply electricity in commercial and residential applications. Note a Photovoltaic cell is also known as a solar panel.
Sustainable development: It is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come.
Sustainable drainage: Sometimes known as Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, are designed to reduce the potential impact of new and existing developments with respect to surface water drainage discharges.
Sustainable management: Finding a balance between meeting the needs of our current generation while conserving natural resources and protecting the environment for the benefit of future generations.
Waste management: Action to reduce waste, through material efficiency, waste reduction and the recovery and reuse of discarded material.
Windmills: Windmills are machines which converts the energy of wind into rotational motion by means of adjustable vanes called sails.
Wind Turbine: A device that converts kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy.
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