Glossary

The terms and acronyms on this site, in plain English.

Terms starting with A

A1–A3: The first three stages in a product's life covered by an EPD: raw materials, transport to the factory, and making the product. Together they're "cradle to gate".
Activity-based: A figure worked out from what you actually used (kilowatt-hours, litres, kilometres, tonnes) multiplied by a UK government factor. One of the data-quality tiers.
Audit trail: The permanent record of who added, changed, checked or shared each entry, and when.

Terms starting with B

Baseline year: The year you measure your progress against. A PPN 006 plan states it and its emissions.
Business travel (category 6): Staff travel for work in vehicles you don't own or run: trains, flights, taxis, hotels, staff cars used for work.

Terms starting with C

Carbon Reduction Plan (CRP): A short public document with your emissions, your net zero commitment and how you'll reduce them, asked for in public sector bids.
Category 3: Fuel- and energy-related activities: the emissions from producing and delivering the fuel and electricity you use. Scopterra calculates it from your energy and fuel entries.
CBAM, EU: The EU's version: importers of CBAM goods into the EU buy certificates for the emissions in them and file a yearly declaration.
CBAM, UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: A UK carbon price on imports of aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen, and iron and steel, from 1 January 2027.
Central Digital Platform: The government service where suppliers keep their details for public sector bids under the Procurement Act 2023.
Checked: Confirmed by a second person in your organisation against its document. A checked entry can't be edited, only corrected with a new version.
CO2e carbon dioxide equivalent: One measure for all greenhouse gases: each is counted as the amount of carbon dioxide that would warm the climate as much.
Conversion factor (emission factor): The number that turns an amount used, such as a kilowatt-hour of electricity, into kilograms of CO2e.
CPI Consumer Prices Index: The Office for National Statistics' measure of price changes, used to bring spend from different years to the same prices.
Cradle to gate: A product's footprint from raw materials up to the factory gate, before it's shipped or used. Modules A1–A3 of an EPD.
CSDDD Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive: An EU law under which the largest EU companies may ask their suppliers about their supply chains.
CSRD Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive: The EU's sustainability reporting law. Large EU companies that report under it may ask suppliers for data, with limits for suppliers of 1,000 employees or fewer.

Terms starting with D

Data processing terms: Our terms for how we handle personal data on your organisation's behalf. An owner accepts them in the platform.
Data-quality tier: Which method a figure comes from: activity-based, estimated from spend, or a supplier's own figure. Separate from whether it's checked.
Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs): The government department that publishes the spend-based factors Scopterra uses to estimate purchases.
DESNZ Department for Energy Security and Net Zero: The government department that publishes the UK's greenhouse gas conversion factors each year.
Downstream transportation and distribution (category 9): Moving products you sold to your customers, when the customer pays for the delivery.
DPA data processing agreement: A contract setting out how a processor handles personal data for its customer. Our Data processing terms are ours; an organisation can sign its own instead.
DPIA Data Protection Impact Assessment: A written assessment of the privacy risks of a use of personal data and how they're managed. We've done one for bill reading.

Terms starting with E

Employee commuting (category 7): Your staff travelling between home and work.
EN 15804: A European standard that EPDs are written to. Scopterra uses EPDs to EN 15804+A2.
EPD Environmental Product Declaration: A published, standardised report of a product's environmental impact, including its carbon footprint.
EPR, packaging extended producer responsibility: UK rules under which businesses that supply or import packaging above set amounts report their packaging data.
ESOS Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme: A UK scheme for large organisations, with a notification of compliance, an action plan and yearly progress updates.
Estimate from spend (spend-based): Emissions estimated from what you spent, using Defra's factors per pound. Labelled as an estimate and never added to a measured figure.
EUDR EU Deforestation Regulation: EU rules for cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya and wood products, which need due diligence statements.
Evidence Ledger: Where Scopterra keeps every entry and its document, the factor used, and who entered and checked it.

Terms starting with F

F-gas (fluorinated greenhouse gas): Fluorinated gases, such as refrigerants. Leaked gas is an emission, and equipment holding 5 tonnes CO2e or more needs regular leak checks.
Fingerprint (SHA-256): A short code calculated from a file. If the file changes at all, the code changes, so it shows the file is the one that was checked.

Terms starting with G

GHG Protocol Greenhouse Gas Protocol: The standard most carbon footprints follow. It sorts emissions into Scopes 1, 2 and 3.
Global boundary: Counting your whole organisation's emissions, wherever it operates, not just in the UK. Asked for in a 2027 NHS plan.
Guardrail: Scopterra's automatic check of a plan or tender answer against the rules it follows and against your figures. A failed check stops it until it's fixed.
GWP global warming potential: How much a gas warms the climate compared with carbon dioxide; used to turn each gas into CO2e.

Terms starting with I

ICO Information Commissioner's Office: The UK's data protection regulator. You can complain to it about how we handle your data.

Terms starting with K

kgCO2e: Kilograms of CO2e. 1,000 kgCO2e is one tonne.
Kyoto Protocol gases: The seven greenhouse gases plans report: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride and nitrogen trifluoride.

Terms starting with L

Location-based: Working out electricity emissions from the average for the UK grid, whatever tariff you're on. How Scopterra reports Scope 2 electricity.

Terms starting with M

Modern slavery statement: A statement a business publishes each year under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 if its total turnover is £36 million or more.

Terms starting with N

Net zero: A target of no net greenhouse gas emissions. A CRP commits to reaching it by 2050 at the latest, and Scopterra won't let a plan claim it's reached already.
NHS 2027 requirements: NHS England's carbon reduction plan requirements for NHS procurements from 1 April 2027, with more asked on larger contracts.

Terms starting with O

Offsetting: Paying for emissions to be reduced or removed elsewhere instead of cutting your own. Scopterra doesn't check, arrange or sell offsets.
ONS Office for National Statistics: The UK's statistics office, which publishes the Consumer Prices Index.
Organisational boundary: Which parts of your business your footprint covers, and the method used to decide. A plan names it.

Terms starting with P

PPN 006 Procurement Policy Note 006: The government's procurement note asking suppliers for a Carbon Reduction Plan on central government contracts worth more than £5 million a year.
PPT Plastic Packaging Tax: A UK tax on plastic packaging, for businesses that manufacture in or import into the UK 10 tonnes or more of finished plastic packaging components in 12 months.
Procurement Act 2023: The UK law that governs public sector procurement, including the Central Digital Platform.

Terms starting with R

Reporting year: The 12 months your figures cover, usually your financial year. Free covers your last complete financial year.

Terms starting with S

Scope 1: Emissions you produce directly, such as fuel burned in your boilers and vehicles, and refrigerant leaks.
Scope 2: Emissions from the electricity, heat and steam you buy.
Scope 3: All other emissions in your value chain, in 15 categories, from what you buy to how your products are used.
Scopterra Read: Our bill reader: it proposes the supplier, period, usage and amount from a bill you upload. A person confirms every value.
Second-person check: On paid plans, someone other than the person who entered an entry checks it against its document.
SECR Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting: UK rules that ask quoted companies, and unquoted companies and LLPs above set size limits, to report energy use and emissions in their annual report.
SIC code Standard Industrial Classification: The code Companies House uses for a company's business activity. The estimator uses it to pick a sector.
Simpler Recycling: Rules for workplaces in England to separate their recyclable waste for collection.
SME small and medium-sized enterprise: A smaller business. NHS England's guidance makes allowances for SMEs and VCSEs on missing data.
Sub-processor: A company that handles personal data for us so we can run the service, such as our hosting provider.
Supplier-specific: A figure from a supplier's own data, such as its EPD. One of the data-quality tiers.

Terms starting with T

T&D losses transmission and distribution: Electricity lost on its way through the grid to you. Part of category 3.
tCO2e: Tonnes of CO2e: the unit plans report emissions in.
Tender answers: Answers to the carbon and sustainability questions in a bid, drafted in Scopterra from your checked figures.

Terms starting with U

UK GDPR UK General Data Protection Regulation: The UK's main data protection law. Our Data processing terms are written to meet its Article 28.
UK SRS UK Sustainability Reporting Standards: UK standards for sustainability reporting, available for voluntary use. Customers using them may ask you for figures.
Upstream transportation and distribution (category 4): Deliveries to you, and deliveries you pay for, in vehicles and warehouses you don't own.

Terms starting with V

VAT value added tax: The UK sales tax. All our prices exclude it.
VCSE voluntary, community and social enterprise: Charities, community groups and social enterprises. NHS England's guidance makes allowances for them on missing data.

Terms starting with W

Waste generated in operations (category 5): Disposing of and treating the waste your business produces.
Well-to-tank: The emissions from producing and delivering a fuel before you use it. Part of category 3.