A (Partial) Glossary of Carbon and Climate Terms
Subscribe now and receive a free shareable PDF with the incredible, climate-positive story you should be telling clients and customers when you design or build with composite wood-based products.
A (Partial) Glossary of Carbon and Climate Terms:
Make Sense of the Alphabet Soup We’re Swimming in When We Talk About Sustainability
The definitions of sustainable and climate-positive products and practices are evolving, but carbon is the common denominator in how we assess sustainability. This glossary will help you make sense of the sustainable materials landscape, spot misused terms, and avoid greenwashing.
Carbon
A chemical element that takes on various solid forms like diamonds, graphite, and carbon black. It’s the sixth most abundant element in the universe, and the amount of carbon is fixed. We’re not generating more of it; we’re simply releasing it into the atmosphere from where it had been stored.
Carbon cycle
The flow of carbon through the atmosphere, ocean, terrestrial biosphere, and lithosphere (the earth’s crust and upper mantle).
Carbon capture
More accurately termed CO2 capture, it uses technology to capture carbon dioxide from industrial sources or from burning fossil fuels before its release into the atmosphere and storing it deep underground or using it, primarily for enhanced oil recovery. See also carbon scrubbing.
Carbon footprint
Refers to the CO2 emissions of a material, product, company, industry, or country. See also embodied carbon and GWP (global warming potential).
Carbon negative
Any product or process that removes more CO2 from the atmosphere than is released in its production and use. See also climate positive.
Carbon reservoir
A natural system that extracts and absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases. Examples include oceans, forests, soil, and the planet’s crust and upper mantle. See also carbon sink.
Carbon sink
A natural system that extracts and absorbs more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it releases. Examples include oceans, forests, soil, and the planet’s crust and upper mantle. See also carbon reservoir.
Carbon scrubbing
More accurately termed CO2 scrubbing, it uses technology to capture carbon dioxide from industrial sources or from burning fossil fuels before its release into the atmosphere and storing it deep underground or using it, primarily for enhanced oil recovery. See also carbon capture.
Carbon sequestration
Refers to the active process of removing carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere. In biological carbon sequestration, a natural process, CO2 moves into organic material such as grasslands, forests, soils, and oceans. Geological carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon dioxide in underground geologic formations or rocks and is typically anthropogenic, or brought about by humans. See also carbon uptake.
Carbon storage
Keeping carbon (in solid form) out of the atmosphere for an extended time. It’s important to note that there is no certification for long-term carbon storage. NOTE: embodied carbon/carbon footprint figures do not consider the carbon stored in materials like wood products, which extend carbon storage capabilities for trees for as long as those products remain in use.
Carbon uptake
Refers to the active process of removing carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere. See also carbon sequestration.
Charcoal
An impure form of graphite obtained by decomposing organic material at high temperatures, i.e. by burning wood. Charcoal can be used for fuel, to improve soil quality, or even treat an upset stomach.
Climate change
Describes global warming and the cascading impacts from warmer air and oceans on our biomes and ecosystems. These include:
The irregularity, unpredictability and severity of our weather patterns
Extended, historically severe droughts
Loss of polar ice caps ice sheets
Redistribution of inland water supplies
Rising sea levels
Increased frequency of historically extreme floods
These changes are driving:
Disruptions in the distribution and lifecycles of sea and land animals
Reductions in crop yields
Reductions in the nutritional quality of our plant-based foods.
Added stress and lower productivity of meat animals
Respiratory issues and cancer in humans
Climate positive
A term increasingly used by brands like IKEA, H&M, and others as a friendlier (and less confusing!) way to say “carbon negative.” They mean essentially the same thing – any product or process that removes more CO2 from the atmosphere than is released in their production and use.
Coal
A naturally occurring form of fossil fuel, coal is a mineral formed over thousands of years from degraded plant debris found in swamps. Its makeup is mostly carbon. Because of the length of time for the decaying process, coal is considered a non-renewable resource.
CO2
Carbon dioxide, a colorless and odorless gas given off when animals exhale and when formerly living things decay. It’s the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities.
Deforestation
Refers to the permanent removal of a forest stand and is very different from forestry management (see below). This process usually involves clear-cutting and burning trees, bulldozing stumps to remove them, and then converting that area to another land use – agriculture or commercial development, for instance.
Embodied carbon
The relative sustainability of materials, products, projects, and even companies and industries are expressed in terms of their embodied carbon, also known as their carbon footprint, or GWP (global warming potential).
Feedback loop
Using the water vapor cycle as an example, this is what a climate change feedback loop looks like:
Increased emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere.
Warmer air causes more water to evaporate and enter the atmosphere.
Warm air also holds more water vapor than cool air.
The extra water vapor in the air traps even more heat, amplifying the initial warming.
For every one °C increase in temperature, seven percent more water evaporates.
More water evaporating exposes more carbonate rock and soil to atmospheric erosion, which further increases CO2 in the atmosphere.
…and the cycle repeats, becoming more intense with time.
Forestry management
Restores forests’ natural burn and regeneration cycles by carefully selecting and harvesting plots of older trees — when they provide maximum yield but before they lose their ability to absorb carbon and produce oxygen. The most common certification of managed forests comes from the Forestry Stewardship Council, or FSC. Responsible forest management is critical to optimizing woodland carbon sinks.
Greenhouse gases (GHGs)
GHGs absorb heat from the sun and, like a blanket, prevent it from escaping the earth’s They also re-radiate that heat back to the planet’s surface, contributing to the “greenhouse effect.”
RESOURCES
What Is Carbon? – The Guardian, 11 Feb. 2011
What Is Carbon? - Definition & Role in Living Organisms, Study.com
Charcoal | Definition, Properties, Uses, & Facts, Britannica
Difference between charcoal and coal, differencebetween.com
Global Carbon Dioxide: 2020-2021, climate.nasa.gov
Carbon Cycle, University of Calgary Energy Education
Climate Change Will Give Rise to More Cancers, Elizabeth Fern, UCSF
Climate Change and Lung Health, American Lung Association
What Do Forest Carbon “Sequestration” and “Storage” Mean?, Penn State University Extension
What is a carbon sink?, worldatlas.com
Carbon Capture, climate.mit.edu
Carbon Sequestration, Britannica
Forests Have an Important Role in Climate Solutions, Ca.gov
Overview of Greenhouse Gases, EPA
Water Vapor, CO2, and Global Warming, IEDRO (International Environmental Data Rescue Organization)
Developed by Material Intelligence, ClimatePositiveNOW.org is a sustainable materials education project inspired by a combination of Kenn Busch’s research into the properties of wood-based architectural materials, and his two decades of experience delivering educational content to interior designers and architects.