100-Year Flood
A flood having a one percent chance of being equaled or exceeded in magnitude in any given year (not a flood occurring once every 100 years).
100-Year Floodplain
The area adjoining a river, stream, or watercourse covered by water in the event of a 100-year flood.
Adaptive Management
An ongoing process for improving management policies and practices by applying knowledge learned through assessment of previously employed policies and practices to future projects and programs. Also, the practice of revisiting management decisions and revising them in the light of new information.
Adaptive Plan
An Adaptive Plan is a plan for improving the ecological function of a site based on the principles of Adaptive Management, establishing the vision, goals, objectives, and quantitative metrics, as well as the monitoring and maintenance strategies, to be applied to a project.
Adaptive Reuse
The process of reusing a site or building for a purpose other than the original purpose for which it was built or designed.
Adjacent Properties
Properties or developments that share a property line with the project.
Affordable Housing
A project that is financially accessible (<30 percent of household income for gross housing costs, including utilities) to renters who make <60% of median family income (MFI) or unit owners who make <80% of median family income (MFI). The project must retain its affordable status for at least 40 years.
Agriculture
The science and art of cultivating the soil; including the allied pursuits of gathering in the crops and rearing livestock; tillage, husbandry, farming.
Agroforestry
A system of land use in which harvestable trees or shrubs are grown among or around crops or on pastureland as a means of preserving or enhancing the productivity of the land.
Alley
A narrow lane or passage, especially one between or behind buildings.
Alternative Daily Cover (ADC)
Material other than earthen material placed on the surface of a municipal solid waste landfill at the end of each operating day to control vectors, fires, odors, blowing litter, and scavenging.
Apiary
A place in which a colony or colonies of bees are kept, such as a stand or shed for beehives or a bee house containing a number of beehives.
Appropriate Durability
Designing or selecting products that last only as long as they need to function in the project, and can then be composted or recycled.
Aquaculture
The active cultivation (maintenance or production) of marine and freshwater aquatic organisms (plants and animals) under controlled conditions.
Aquaponics
A sustainable food production system that combines traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish, or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment.
Area of Disturbance
The area of land altered by the project, including land used for construction staging or any construction activities, including tunneling or conveyance.
Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ)
The organization, office, or individual responsible for permitting and enforcing the requirements of a code or standard, or for approving equipment, materials, an installation, or a procedure.
Baseline Condition
A description of current biotic and abiotic elements of site prior to restoration, including its structural, functional and compositional attributes and current condition (per Society for Ecological Restoration, SER 2004).
Biomimicry
The imitation of natural biological designs or processes in engineering or invention.
Biomorph
A painted, drawn, or sculptured free form or design suggestive in shape of a living organism, especially an ameba or protozoan. Adjective: Biomorphic.
Biomorphy
The act of creating a biomorph.
Biophilia
The innate, evolutionary connection between human beings and nature and other living organisms.
Biosolids
The nutrient-rich organic material (byproduct) made from the stabilized sewage sludge from a composting toilet, other sewage treatment, or resource recovery facility. Biosolids can typically be recycled as a soil amendment for crops.
Black water
Discharged water containing solid and liquid human wastes from toilets and urinals. Also, called Sewage.
Brownfield
With certain legal exclusions and additions, the term “brownfield site” means real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant. Brownfields are designated as such by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or equivalent state, county, or other jurisdictional body.
Business as usual (BAU)
Business as usual (BAU) is the baseline reference point for handprinting. In simplest terms, BAU refers to a repeat of past practices from the year before. More formally, it refers to: responding to this year’s external forces with last year’s approach. For companies that sell goods or services, BAU is: responding to this year’s demand, with last year’s products and processes. For projects, BAU is addressing current demands based on typical fixtures, materials, or processes.
Campus
Multiple buildings that are legally bound through ownership or contract and occupy a generally continuous area of land.
Car Sharing
Any on-demand mode that offers transport to more than one passenger at a time, or that facilitates independence from single occupancy vehicle (SOV) transport, including employer fleet vehicles, shuttle services, pay-as-you-go car sharing programs such as Car to Go or Zipcar, or scooter or bike shares.
Carcinogenic, Mutagenic, Reprotoxic (CMR)
Toxicity classification given to substances that cause or promote cancers, genetic mutations, and/or damage to reproductive systems.
Chain of Custody (COC)
COC certification traces the path of wood from forests through the supply chain, verifying that FSC-certified material is identified and separated from non-certified and non-controlled material as it makes its way from the forest to the market. The COC process ensures every stage of processing, manufacturing, and distribution is FSC certified.
Charitable Donation
An act or instance of presenting something as a gift, grant, or contribution to a charitable entity.
Charitable Entity
All entities (charitable organizations, religious institutions, non-profits, and private foundations) that meet the criteria for tax exemption under US Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 501© (3) and their international equivalents.
Chemical Abstracts Service Registry Numbers (CASRNs)
A unique numerical identifier for nearly every known chemical, compound, or organic substance. as assigned by the Chemical Abstracts Service, a division of the American Chemical Society.
Cisgender
Cisgender refers to an individual whose gender identity aligns with the one associated with the sex assigned to them at birth. For further information regarding gender-based and other identities, visit Outright International or pflag.
Closed-Loop Water Systems
Systems in which all water used on a project is captured, treated, used/reused, and/or released within a designated boundary, such as the Project Boundary (referred to as Project Area in LBC 4.0 and Core Green Building Certification).
Combined Sewer Systems
Combined sewer systems are sewers that are designed to collect rainwater runoff, domestic sewage, and industrial sewage in the same pipe.
Combustion
Any burning or combustion of fossil fuels or wood products.
Commingled Waste
All relevant project waste streams, with the exception of soil and biomass, that are mixed together instead of being separated on-site. Commingled waste will need to be separated for re-use, recycling or other processing, and is typically taken to an off-site facility to be sorted into individual waste streams prior to recycling.
Commodity Products
Commodities are homogenous goods that are traded in bulk on a commodity exchange. Commodity prices are subject to supply and demand; and therefore are determined by their market as a whole. These types of products include agricultural goods, lumber, metals and fuels.
Conservation Easement
A deeded transfer of an interest in real property for the purpose of conserving or protecting the land or its resources for future generations. A conservation easement is legally binding and its restrictions are permanent and run with the land, meaning that not only the original owner but all subsequent owners are subject to its terms.
Construction Waste Material
Construction waste material includes all products and materials that are on the site of, purchased for, or used for the project, but not permanently installed in the final project, and may include demolition waste, temporary materials that are disposed of during or at the end of the construction period, and excess materials purchased for but not installed in the project.
Consumables
Non-durable goods that are likely to be used up or depleted quickly. Examples include office supplies, packaging and containers, paper and paper products, batteries, and cleaning products.
Continuous Simulation Model
A stormwater modeling approach that accounts for many sizes and intensities of storms, as well as variation in the time between storms. Typically based on long-term rainfall records rather than synthetic design storms, such models provide a more accurate representation of infiltration, evapotranspiration, and stormwater control measures than other forms of storm modeling.
Contract Manufacturing
A practice of manufacturing products on behalf of a firm or manufacturer that has provided designs, formulas and/or specifications for the purpose of producing a product as determined by contract.
Contract Worker
A person engaged to perform work on a contractual basis that is specified by timeframes and deliverables.
Copy Room
A dedicated room in a school or business containing two or more copy machines, multifunction copiers, large format printers, or similar commercial scale copy or printing equipment.
Core
Core, short for ILFI’s Core Green Building Certification, is a simple framework that outlines the 10 best practice achievements (Imperatives) that a building must obtain to be considered a green or sustainable building.
Cradle-to-Gate
Cradle-to-gate refers to a scope (or boundary) of a life cycle assessment. This scope usually represents the life cycle stages from raw material extraction through material processing and product manufacturing, before the product leaves the manufacturer “gate” at the final manufacturing facility or assembly location.
Cradle-to-Grave
Cradle-to-grave refers to a scope (or boundary) of a life cycle assessment. A cradle-to-grave assessment addresses a full product life cycle from resource extraction (cradle) to the end-of-use fate. The use phase and disposal phase of the product are included in this case. Cradle-to-grave assessments are sometimes the basis for environmental product declarations.
Deconstruction
The systematic removal of materials from a project (building and site) for the purpose of salvage, reuse, and/or recycling.
Defined Benefit Pension Plan
Defined benefit plans provide a fixed, pre-established benefit for employees at retirement.
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)
DBE is a Federal certification program administered by the US Department of Transportation. The DBE certification applies to for-profit small business concerns where socially and economically disadvantaged individuals own at least a 51% interest and also control management and daily business operations. See https://www.transportation.gov/civil-rights/disadvantaged-business-enterprise for more information.
Disadvantaged Population
Socially or Economically disadvantaged populations include, according to the US Code of Federal Regulations, those who have been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias within American society because of their identities as members of groups and without regard to their individual qualities and/ or socially disadvantaged individuals whose ability to compete in the free enterprise system has been impaired due to diminished capital and credit opportunities as compared to others in the same or similar line of business who are not socially disadvantaged.
District Energy System (DES)
District energy systems (DES) provide heating and cooling generated in one or more centralized plants producing hot water, steam, and/or chilled water, which then flows through a network of insulated pipes to provide hot water, space heating, and/or air conditioning for nearby buildings.
Diverted Materials
Diverted materials are those that are recycled, reused, salvaged, composted. or otherwise diverted from landfills or incineration.
Diverted Waste
All items removed from the project that are then recycled, reused, salvaged, composted, or otherwise diverted from landfills or incineration.
Dune
A sand hill or sand ridge formed by the wind, usually in desert regions or near lakes and oceans.
Durables
Goods that have utility over time, rather than being depleted quickly through use. Examples include appliances, electronic equipment, mobile phones, and furniture.
Ecological Restoration
Any activity whose aim it is to ultimately achieve ecosystem recovery, insofar as possible and relative to an appropriate local Reference Habitat, regardless of the period of time required to achieve the recovery outcome (per Society for Ecological Restoration, International Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration).
Embodied Carbon
The greenhouse gas emissions associated with the raw material extraction, manufacturing, and processing, transportation, and installation, maintenance, and disposal of a building material (Carbon Leadership Forum 2023).
Energy Needs
All electricity, heating, and cooling requirements, including resilience strategies, of either grid-tied or off-grid systems. Backup generators are excluded.
Energy Use Intensity (EUI)
Energy use intensity expresses a building’s energy use as a function of its size or other characteristics, and is often expressed as energy (BTUs) per square foot per year.
Environmental Product Declaration (EPD)
A transparent and objective report that communicates what a product is made of and how it impacts the environment across its entire life cycle. EPDs can be completed to various scopes (e.g. product-specific, facility-specific, industry-wide) based on availability of data. EPDs satisfy all of the requirements of relevant Product Category Rules (PCRs) for a given product category or type and follow international standards, including ISO 14044, ISO 14025, ISO 21930 and EN 15804.
Equity
The just and fair inclusion into a society in which all can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential (per PolicyLink’s “Equity Manifesto”).
Essential Use
The essential use concept is applicable to uses of the most harmful chemicals. In determining whether use of a substance is essential for purposes of its standards and labels, ILFI will consider whether all of the following conditions are met:
- It is necessary for the health, safety, or critical functioning of society,
AND - there are no alternatives that are acceptable from the standpoint of environment and health.
Read more about the essential use approach to chemicals management.
Ethnobotanicals
Indigenous plants used by people of a particular culture and region. For ILFI Program Imperatives, ethnobotanicals must be used as food or medicine to count as agriculture.
Evapotranspiration
The process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants. Evapotranspiration is measured as the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from earth’s surface into the atmosphere and is typically reported in millimeters per unit of time (i.e. mm/day).
Existing Historic Community
A community established and occupied before 1945, when the proliferation of suburban areas began.
Exterior Materials
Permanently installed site materials including roads, paths, paving, and special surfacing and paving. This does not include sitework materials such as site preparation components, site utilities, or electrical site improvements.
Facade
The face of a building, especially the primary or front elevation.
Final Energy
Energy that is received and used by an end user.
Fit-for-Purpose Water
Water of a quality that is appropriate to the use/demand in question – neither over nor under purified.
Floodplain
A flat or nearly flat area of land adjacent to a river or stream that naturally experiences periodic flooding.
Floor Area Ratio (FAR)
The measurement of a building’s gross floor area in relation to the size of the lot or parcel the building is located on.
- LBC 4.0 and earlier: FAR = Gross Floor Area / Total Project Area).
- LBC 4.1 and later: FAR = Gross Floor Area / Total Project Boundary).
Flow Duration Curve
A flow duration curve is a plotted graph of discharge in relation to percentage of time. In the case of stormwater, a flow duration curve shows the rate of runoff in relation to the duration of those rates.
Footprint
Any human impact on a site, usually with negative ecological implication. Note that this is not the same as the building footprint.
(LPC) A measure of negative impacts, generally those caused by either the operations and supply chain of an organization or the production and supply chain for a product.
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
An independent, non-profit, membership-led organization that protects forests for future generations and sets standards under which forests and companies are certified. Certification consists of three equally weighted principles — environmental, economic, and social — to ensure balance and the highest level of integrity.
Fractals
A figure or surface generated by successive subdivisions of a simpler polygon or polyhedron, according to some iterative process.
FSC 100%
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) 100% – or FSC 100% – label means that the wood within the product comes entirely from FSC-certified, well managed forests. The wood in the product has not been mixed with material of another material category throughout the supply chain.
FSC Mix
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Mix – or FSC Mix – label means the wood within the product is from FSC-certified forests, recycled material, or controlled wood. The FSC Mix label is supplied with a percentage claim based on the volume of wood in the product.
Fugitive Emissions
Emissions from unintentional or intentional but irregular releases of greenhouse gasses (GHG) to the atmosphere which could not reasonably pass through a stack, chimney, vent, or other functionally equivalent opening. Example: refrigerant leaks.
Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)
The hours worked by one employee on a full-time basis. Used to convert the hours worked by several part-time employees into the number of equivalent full-time employees.
Fully Occupied
To account for vacancy rates, a building is considered to be fully occupied when it is at 85% of full capacity and intended use.
Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment (FF&E)
Furniture, fixtures or other equipment that has no permanent connection to the structure of a building or utilities and is not part of office systems furniture.
Gender Identity
The internal knowledge of one’s identity as a particular gender, including but not limited to transgender woman, transgender man, cisgender woman, cisgender man, or of belonging to a non-binary identity such as agender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or others. For further information regarding gender-based and other identities, visit Outright International or pflag.
Geomorphology
The study of the characteristics, origin, and development of landforms.
Global Warming Potential (GWP)
The measure of radiative forcing impacts of particular greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. GWP is the metric used to measure and track embodied carbon and is quantified in kilograms of CO₂ equivalent (kg CO₂e).
Greenfield
Land that was not previously developed or polluted.
Greywater
Water discharged from fixtures such as sinks, showers, laundry, drinking fountains, etc., but not including water discharged from toilets and urinals.
Gross Building Area (applicable only to LBC 4.0 and Core Green Building Certification)
The sum of all areas on all floors of a building included within the outside faces of its exterior walls, including all vertical penetration areas, areas for circulation, and shaft areas that connect one floor to another. Gross building area also includes structured parking, but does NOT include unenclosed exterior spaces such as decks, patios, or balconies, or exterior surface parking.
Gross Revenue
Gross revenue is a figure that includes all income occurring during a particular time frame, before any expenses are deducted.
Groundwater
Fresh water supply that is located beneath the surface of the ground and is typically of suitable quality for potable and non-potable uses.
