Community resources
Classroom resources
Giving guide
Being mindful about gift-giving is lovely way to celebrate an event or holiday. Visit our Giving Guide for fun eco-friendly gift ideas for any occasion. We also suggest gift-wrapping ideas that don’t create
unnecessary trash destined for the landfill. We hope you will find ideas that are just the right choice for your family and friends.
Recipe booklet
We publish some original vegan recipes in every issue, and they have proven so popular that we have
assembled some of the most recent into a separate booklet. Download the booklet —we’d love to hear how your dish turns out!
Glossary of terms
Acid Rain
Rain with increased acidity due to absorption of airborne pollutants such as C02 and sulfur dioxide. Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic. It has harmful effects on plants, aquatic animals and buildings. Acid rain is mostly caused by human emissions of sulfur and nitrogen compounds which react in the atmosphere to produce acids.
Bali Roadmap
The Bali roadmap, named after the Indonesian island where the deal was struck in December 2007, is an important milestone. The roadmap will plot how all countries must take action to tackle climate change.
Biodegradable
Biodegradable
Any material that can be broken down by living things including microorganisms such as bacteria. Biodegradation is the process by which organic substances are broken down by living organisms, and nitrogen compounds which react in the atmosphere to produce acids.
Biodiversity
The variety of different species within a set habitat. For example, the biodiversity of the Amazon Rainforest is greater than that of the Gobi desert.
Biofuels
Biofuel (also called agrofuel) can be broadly defined as solid, liquid, or gas fuel consisting of, or derived from biomass. A fuel that is made from (in whole or in part) renewable organic sources, such as rapeseed oil. These can include refined fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel as well as unrefined such as wood.
Biomass
In energy terms, biomass refers to the use of organic material for the generation of heat, electricity or motive power. Biomass is the mass per unit area of living plant material, or, the organic materials produced by plants, such as leaves, roots, seeds, and stalks. Biomass is produced from organic materials, either directly from plants or indirectly from industrial, commercial, domestic or agricultural products. It is carbon neutral as the CO2 released when energy is generated from biomass is balanced by that absorbed during the fuel’s production.
CFL
Compact fluorescent light bulbs, are more energy efficient than standard incandescent light bulbs and last longer.
Carbon capture
New technology can now capture large amounts of carbon emissions and store them in isolated areas. This means they don’t float into our atmosphere and speed up climate change.
Cap and Trade
Cap and Trade is a market-based policy tool for protecting human health and the environment. A cap and trade program first sets an aggressive cap, or maximum limit, on emissions. Sources covered by the program then receive authorizations to emit in the form of emissions allowances, with the total amount of allowances limited by the cap. Each source can design its own compliance strategy to meet the overall reduction requirement, including sale or purchase of allowances, installation of pollution controls, and implementation of efficiency measures.
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a gas that’s made when fossil fuels are burnt to provide power for everything from driving your car to boiling the kettle. It’s also made when organic things like trees are burnt. It’s then released into the earth’s atmosphere and is one of the harmful gasses known as Greenhouse Gasses.
Carbon footprint
We all have a carbon footprint; it’s the amount of CO2 each of us produces in our daily lives (for example through using electricity in our homes or driving) and the impact that has on the environment. Other gasses such as methane (produced by cows!) also contribute to a carbon footprint. For example. consuming meat and dairy products adds to our footprint.
Carbon negative
Any process or product that removes carbon from the atmosphere. Growing trees are carbon negative.
Carbon neutral
Because so many of the things we do involve burning carbon at some stage (for example though riding a bike does not produce emissions, manufacturing the bike did) it’s so far been difficult to say what being carbon neutral really is. But many people agree that it’s all about cutting down carbon emissions as much as possible by doing things like switching to renewable energy. You can also be more carbon neutral if you offset things like foreign holidays (see below).
Carbon offset
Carbon offsetting is a way of balancing your carbon emissions. There are a number of ways of doing this including funding schemes to plant trees or replace energy production from fossil fuels with renewable energy such as wind or solar power. It can help to reduce your carbon footprint but is best viewed as a last resort once actual energy use has been reduced as much as possible.
Carbon tax
A carbon tax is a tax on energy sources which emit carbon dioxide – including fossil fuels like oil. It is an example of a pollution tax, which some economists favor because they tax a “bad” rather than a “good” (such as income). It’s based on the amount of carbon each fuel gives out when it’s used.
Carbon trading
Carbon trading is a way of reducing carbon emissions. Many companies are now part of a carbon trading scheme where the government gives each company a set amount of carbon credits each year. If a company doesn’t use all of their credits, they can sell them to other companies who have used all of theirs.
Climate change
Over the years our climate has changed. Climate change can be due to natural causes, but most scientists agree that the rises in the Earth’s temperature are linked to the way we live and activities like burning fossil fuels. This means that the temperature of the Earth is getting hotter, causing ice caps to melt and sea levels to rise. According to the World Wildlife Fund, climate change could cause a global, humanitarian and environmental disaster.
Cradle to cradle
This is a construction and production ethos proposed by Walter R. Stahel that aims to make all components of a made object reusable or disposable with no negative ecological effects – virtually waste free.
