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Co-authored-by: Matthew Griffin <[email protected]>

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+collections:
+  glossary:
+
+# collections_dir: glossary
+
 # Exclude from processing.
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_glossary/carbon_awareness.md

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+---
+title: Carbon Awareness
+---
+
+An emerging sustainable design principle for software. Because [carbon intensity](#carbon-intensity) fluctuates with time and region you can design software that measures and/or predicts when and where the electricity grid is cleanest and can schedule time-insensitive tasks to run during these periods. Think of overnight backups, batch sending of newsletters or training of ML models. These can be delayed a few hours and not harm or delay the delivery or promotion of new products.

_glossary/carbon_dioxide_equivalent.md

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+---
+title: Carbon Dioxide Equivalent (CO2e)
+---
+
+As a way of quantifying the effect of all [GHG](#greenhouse-gases-ghgs) emissions emitted CO2 is used as the baseline. Some GHGs are more potent and others are less. For example R-410A, one of the most common refrigerants used in AC units, is 2,088 more potent than CO2 therefore a leak of 1 kg of R22 is the same as a 2 tonne leak of CO2.

_glossary/carbon_intensity.md

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+---
+title: Carbon Intensity
+---
+
+The amount of carbon emitted per unit of electrical energy of a country/region's grid. This varies not only with geographical location but also with time as it depends on the proportion of renewable energy sources which have highly variable output depending on the wind/waves/sun/rainfall at any point in time. There are two methodologies for calculating this:
+
+### Location Based
+This method only considers the carbon intensity of the local grid and ignores the electricity mix purchased from suppliers.
+
+### Market Based
+This method considers the electricity you have purchased from your suppliers which could be green energy tariffs that leverage [Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)](#renewable-energy-certificates-recs) and Guarantees of Origin (REGO) allowing benefits in reporting for companies that source their electricity more sustainably.

_glossary/carbon_neutral.md

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+---
+title: Carbon Neutral
+---
+
+Negating the carbon emissions of your direct and indirect emissions. This is done by either reducing or offsetting your current carbon emissions. Reducing should be the first action you take and then any sources of emissions that are unavoidable can be offset using schemes that absorb CO2. These schemes include reforestation and solar energy installations.

_glossary/carbon_offsetting.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+title: Carbon Offsetting
+---
+
+Carbon offsetting aims to counterbalance carbon emissions to achieve neutrality, but does not eliminate the original emissions. It is a controversial approach but widely used by those looking to reduce their climate impact.

_glossary/climate_change.md

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+---
+title: Climate Change
+---
+
+The long term change in average weather patterns which is part of the natural life cycle of the Earth and is being accelerated by human related activities like burning fossil fuels.

_glossary/cloud_carbon_footprint.md

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+---
+title: Cloud Carbon Footprint (CCF)
+linktext: Cloud Carbon Footprint
+link: https://www.cloudcarbonfootprint.org/
+---
+
+Cloud Carbon Footprint is an open-source tool that provides visibility and tooling to measure, monitor and reduce cloud carbon emissions.

_glossary/data_centre_infrastructure_efficiency.md

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+---
+title: Data Center infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE)
+---
+
+It is really just the reciprocal of the [PUE](#power-usage-effectiveness-pue) that can give the value as a percentage (if multiplied by 100), it can be used to simplify equations for determining the total energy used by your software.
+
+See also:
+- [PUE](#power-usage-effectiveness-pue)

_glossary/digital_beacon.md

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+---
+title: Digital Beacon
+linktext: Digital Beacon
+link: https://digitalbeacon.co/
+---
+
+A website carbon calculator based on the [SWD method](#sustainable-web-design-swd).

_glossary/ecograder.md

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+---
+title: Ecograder
+linktext: Ecpgrader
+link: https://ecograder.com/
+---
+
+A website carbon calculator based on the [SWD method](#sustainable-web-design-swd).

_glossary/ember.md

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+---
+title: Ember
+# A link is optional, but the linktext and the link are required together
+linktext: Ember # link text for link
+link: https://ember-climate.org/
+---
+
+Data insights into the power sector, openly published and accessible. We use the data available from Ember for the [Carbon Intensity](#carbon-intensity) in our methods.

_glossary/embodied_carbon.md

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+---
+title: Embodied Carbon
+---
+
+The CO2 emitted from all processes that are not directly related to operations and keeping the software up and running. This includes the manufacturing and transporting of hardware and the planning, designing and maintaining of the software. Embodied emissions often take up a larger portion of the total emissions in software compared to other sectors. These emissions are much harder to quantify as they are indirect and usually require business to interact and retrieve emissions data on purchased products. While it is becoming more common for this data to be available, there is not a common way to access this data for all hardware.

_glossary/energy_efficiency.md

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+---
+title: Energy Efficiency
+---
+
+The efficiency of software with respect to how much energy it consumes, the higher the energy efficiency, the less electricity consumed. If the system is run on fossil fuel derived electricity then the higher the efficiency, the less emissions emitted by the software. It can be seen as the operational efficiency of software.

_glossary/fossil_fuel.md

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+---
+title: Fossil Fuel
+---
+
+A natural fuel that is formed by the remains of animals or plants that lived in the past. This fuel is not quickly produced, much slower than the rate of extraction, and the burning of them results in the re-emission of carbon that was stored within the remains of the organisms leading to [GHG](#greenhouse-gases-ghgs) accumulation in the atmosphere. These two points make this type of fuel non-renewable and unsustainable. Examples include coal, oil and gas.
+
+See also: 
+- [Green Energy](#green-energy)
+- [Renewable Energy](#renewable-energy)
+- [Sustainable Energy](#sustainable-energy)

_glossary/ghg-effect.md

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+---
+title: Greenhouse Effect
+---
+
+The warming effect due to greenhouse gases. This happens because incoming shortwave radiation from the Sun passes through GHGs but the longwave radiation that is emitted by the heated Earth is absorbed by GHGs insulating the Earth from heat loss to space. The net effect is the slow warming of the atmosphere as the concentration of GHGs increases.
+
+See also: 
+- [Greenhouse Gases](#greenhouse-gases-ghgs)

_glossary/ghg-protocols.md

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+---
+title: Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocols
+# A link is optional, but the linktext and the link are required together
+linktext: GHG Protocols # link text for link
+link: https://ghgprotocol.org/
+---
+
+Greenhouse Gas protocols set the standard to measure and manage emissions.
+
+### Scope 1
+Includes all direct emissions that are generated from sources that are directly owned or controlled by an organisation. For a software company there is a very small list of sources but it is not empty. It can include any emissions from fossil fueled hire cars used to visit customers and emissions from refrigerant leaks found in A/C & fuel burnt in heating systems within offices.
+
+### Scope 2
+Includes all indirect emissions from the generation of the electricity purchased and used by an organisation at local or international sites. This is a much larger list for a software company. The most prominent is the electricity produced to run computers, office lights and office A/C and heating systems.
+
+### Scope 3
+Includes all indirect emissions that occur in an organisation’s value chain. The largest and hardest to quantify because it relies on suppliers to provide detailed breakdowns of a product’s carbon footprint. This scope includes areas like emissions from cloud infrastructure and the embodied carbon of computer hardware.

_glossary/green_energy.md

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+---
+title: Green Energy
+---
+
+A source of energy that does not harm the environment during it's operation. However, the production, transport and end of life process will typically emit carbon emissions and cause other harmful effects. Examples inlcude solar, wind, and nuclear energy.
+
+See also: 
+- [Fossil Fuel](#fossil-fuel)
+- [Renewable Energy](#renewable-energy)
+- [Sustainable Energy](#sustainable-energy)

_glossary/green_software.md

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+---
+title: Green Software
+---
+
+This term can have two meanings. The first and most used is for software that is designed to help the environment. So an app that is aimed at reducing food waste would be classed as green software. There is also another meaning that can be derived from the definition of 'Green Energy' which is a piece of software that has not harmed the environment during its development and operation.
+
+See also:
+- [Sustainable Software](#sustainable-software)

_glossary/green_software_foundation.md

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+---
+title: Green Software Foundation (GSF)
+linktext: Green Software Foundation
+link: https://greensoftware.foundation/
+---
+
+A trusted ecosystem of people, standards, tooling and best practices for green software.

_glossary/green_web_foundation.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Green Web Foundation
+# A link is optional, but the linktext and the link are required together
+linktext: Green Web Foundation # link text for link
+link: https://www.thegreenwebfoundation.org/
+---
+
+The Green Web Foundation is an independent non-profit that tracks how much of the internet runs on green energy. Manage the environmental impact of your digital products. Apply best practices in digital sustainability. Home of the open-source CO2 javascript library.

_glossary/greenhouse_gases.md

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+---
+title: Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)
+---
+
+These are gases that amplify the greenhouse effect, the effect caused by trapping energy from the sun within the Earth's atmosphere. Examples are the well known Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emitted from electricity generation and other lesser known gases like Methane (CH4) sourced from office catering production and disposal and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) used in office cooling systems.
+
+See also: 
+- [Greenhouse Effect](#greenhouse-effect)

_glossary/greenwashing.md

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+---
+title: Greenwashing
+---
+
+Is the act of marketing or presenting an organisation as beneficial to the environment, however, actually hiding the truth. This can be done by making unsubstantiated environmental claims, hiding or downplaying the most heinous environmental acts or even just overselling the environmental gains to aid in consumer buy-in.

_glossary/hardware_efficiency.md

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+---
+title: Hardware Efficiency
+---
+
+The efficiency of software with respect to how much hardware is required for it to be operational. The higher the hardware efficiency, the less emissions emitted to manufacture and transport the required hardware. It can be seen as the embodied efficiency of software.

_glossary/kwh.md

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+---
+title: Kilowatt Hour (kWh)
+---
+
+A standardised unit of measurement for energy that many cloud service providers and carbon emission calculating tools use. It equates to a 1kW device running for 1 hour, which is the equivalent to 3,600,000 Joules.

_glossary/marginal_carbon_intensity.md

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+---
+title: Marginal Carbon Intensity
+---
+
+The carbon intensity of the extra electricity that was produced to meet the change in demand due to the load of a piece of software. It is a way of analysing the optimal time and location of carbon aware applications. Within a grid's energy sources, there is a base load of fossil fuel or nuclear energy and a mix of fluctuating renewable sources. It is widely seen that to meet an increase in demand there are two methods, pausing the curtailment of sustainable energy sources or increasing the base load of a fossil fuel source.

_glossary/net_zero.md

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+---
+title: Net Zero
+---
+
+A standard designed by [The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)](https://sciencebasedtargets.org/) which takes carbon neutrality to the next level by ensuring businesses reduce their emission by 90% by only allowing them to offset a maximum of 10% of their emissions. It can be applied to CO2 only or to all GHGs.

_glossary/operational_carbon.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+title: Operational Carbon
+---
+
+CO2 emissions due to the operational phase of software, this phase includes the hosting and use of software. So sources of emissions include the energy needed to keep your servers on, energy needed to keep end user devices running and energy needed to transfer data from your server to the end user’s device. The energy used can be transformed into CO2e emissions by taking into account the [Carbon Intensity](#carbon-intensity) at the time and place the energy was used.

_glossary/paris_agreement.md

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+---
+title: Paris Agreement
+---
+
+A legally binding international treaty on climate change with the goal of preventing "the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels".

_glossary/power_profiling.md

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+---
+title: Power Profiling
+---
+
+Power profiling is the process of measuring and recording the power use of a device, or specifically compute processing.
+
+For more information about power profiling, with an emphasis on Intel processors used in desktop and laptop machines; [read more](https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/performance/power_profiling_overview.html)
+
+See also: 
+- [RAPL](#rapl)

_glossary/power_purchase_agreements.md

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+title: Power Purchase Agreements (PPA)
+---
+
+A long-term contract for the sale of electricity generated from renewable energy sources like solar, wind, or hydropower. PPAs provide the developer with a guaranteed revenue stream to finance projects, and allow the purchaser to secure renewable energy at a fixed price for many years. This also provides the purchaser with [RECs](#renewable-energy-certificates-recs) that cover the energy purchased.
+
+PPAs are critical for financing new renewable energy projects and encourage additionality in terms of increasing the renewable energy provided to the grid. The purchaser will likely still receive power from the grid or at least rely on it during periods where renewable sources are limited.

_glossary/power_usage_effectiveness.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE)
+---
+
+A factor that describes how efficient a data centre is, it is the electrical energy fed into the computer hardware over the total energy drawn from the grid. Sources of inefficiencies can come from lighting, cooling and even the kettle in the staff kitchen.
+
+See also:
+- [DCiE](#data-center-infrastructure-efficiency-dcie)

_glossary/rapl.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+title: Running Average Power Limit (RAPL)
+---
+
+Intel (Sandy Bridge and later) processors that implement the RAPL (Running Average Power Limit) interface provides model-specific registers (MSRs) containing energy consumption estimates for up to four power planes or domains of a machine.
+
+For more information on RAPL tools; [read more](https://firefox-source-docs.mozilla.org/performance/tools_power_rapl.html)
+
+See also:
+- [Power Profiling](#power-profiling)

_glossary/renewable_energy.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+title: Renewable Energy
+---
+
+A source of energy derived from natural sources whose reserves are replenished at a higher rate than its consumption. Examples of renewable energy are wind, solar and geothermal. This does not mean that they are sustainable, if we extracted oil at a slower rate than their reserves were replenished it would count as a renewable energy source even if the CO2 emissions are accelerating climate change.
+
+See also: 
+- [Fossil Fuel](#fossil-fuel)
+- [Green Energy](#green-energy)
+- [Sustainable Energy](#sustainable-energy)

_glossary/renewable_energy_certificates.md

@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+title: Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)
+---
+
+A tradeable certificate representing the environmental benefits of 1 megawatt-hour of renewable electricity generation. RECs are sold separately from the underlying electricity, which is still provided by the grid. RECs provide a revenue stream for renewable energy projects and allow organizations to meet their renewable energy targets.

_glossary/software_carbon_intensity.md

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+---
+title: Software Carbon Intensity (SCI)
+---
+
+A methodology developed by the [Green Software Foundation](#green-software-foundation-gsf) to help calculate and track the impact of software, it is designed to be widely applicable and calculatable with a bias towards actions that eliminate carbon emissions. It considers both [operational](#operational-carbon) and [embodied carbon](#embodied-carbon) and has a scaling factor (R) that allows for a value that is independent of the size of the system which could be for example per transaction or per user. The inclusion of embodied carbon ensures that this value can never reach zero but gives a value that can be tracked to validate improvements over time.
+

_glossary/sustainable_development_goals.md

@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+---
+title: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
+linktext: Sustainable Development Goals
+link: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
+---
+
+A list of 17 interlinked objectives adopted by the United Nations in 2015 aimed at ensuring people and the planet prosper now and in the future. They aim to do this by solving core problems like human poverty and diseases while also preserving biodiversity and a healthy planet so that future generations have a plentiful Earth for sustaining themselves.

_glossary/sustainable_energy.md

@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+---
+title: Sustainable Energy
+---
+
+A source of energy that can be relied upon for an extended period of time. To ensure an energy source is sustainable many different factors must be taken into account, from possible negative impacts on the natural world (biodiversity loss due to forest clearing for biomass production) to negative health impacts on humans (air pollution from burning fossil fuels).
+
+See also: 
+- [Fossil Fuel](#fossil-fuel)
+- [Green Energy](#green-energy)
+- [Renewable Energy](#renewable-energy)

_glossary/sustainable_software.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Sustainable Software
+---
+
+Software that can continue operating for a prolonged period of time without harmful effects on the environment and society. Possible sources of harm for software are air quality, biodiversity, human poverty and equality.
+
+See also:
+- [Green Software](#green-software)

_glossary/sustainable_web_design.md

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+---
+title: Sustainable Web Design (SWD)
+# A link is optional, but the linktext and the link are required together
+linktext: Sustainable Web Design # link text for link
+link: https://sustainablewebdesign.org/
+---
+
+Sustainable Web Design provides guidelines created by the World Wide Web Consortium's Sustainable Web Design community group. It also defines the SWD methodology as used by [Green Web Foundation's](#green-web-foundation) CO2.js.