IRIS+ is the generally accepted system for measuring, managing, and optimizing impact.
A comprehensive impact measurement & management glossary defining technical terms and core concepts used throughout IRIS+.
If you have an IMM term or core concept that should be included in this Glossary and would like to submit it for inclusion, please share your suggestion through our Collaborate form. We will get back to you shortly.
Individuals, groups, or organizations that are active users of the organization's services. For example, active financial services clients may include those with active credit or savings accounts (excluding remittances or other financial transactions) or clients who have had transactions with microfinance institutions (MFI) during the reporting period. The definition of active may vary by product. For example, for traditional services, “active” typically includes all individuals who have accounts registered in their names for at least six months and who have used their accounts to make transactions within the prior six months. For digital services, “active” typically includes individuals who have had accounts registered in their names for at least three months and who have used their accounts to make transactions within the prior three months.
Sources: CGAP’s Number of Active Clients definition and the GIIN's Navigating Impact project.
Housing for which the associated financial costs are at a level that does not threaten or compromise the occupants' enjoyment of other human rights and basic needs and that represents a reasonable proportion of an individual's overall income.
Source: Adapted from the United Nations Human Rights Commission
Provision of financial services that support all agriculture-related activities, including those of processors, distributors, and exporters who may be located in rural, urban or peri-urban areas.
Source: ILO, Empowering rural communities through financial inclusion
Land used primarily for production of food and fiber. Agricultural land subcategories identified in the Anderson Land Classification system include cropland and pasture; orchards, groves, vineyards, nurseries, and ornamental horticultural areas; confined feeding operations; and other agricultural land.
The intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to create environmental, economic, and social benefits.
Source: “Agroforestry,” U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), https://www.usda.gov/topics/forestry/agroforestry.
The combination of policies, mechanisms, and governance arrangements (entitlements, licenses, permits, etc.) used to determine who is allowed to abstract water from a resource pool, how much may be taken and when, as well as how much must be returned (of what quality), and the conditions associated with the use of this water.
Source: OECD. Water Resources Allocation: Sharing Risks and Opportunities. OECD Studies on Water. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264229631-en.
Alternative fuels are fuels other than gasoline for powering motor vehicles, such as natural gas, methanol, or electricity.
Source:
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of fish, crustaceans, mollusks, aquatic plants, algae, and other organisms. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the harvesting of wild fish.
Source:
A resource controlled by an entity as a result of past events; and from which future economic benefits are expected to flow to the entity.
Anything tangible or intangible that is capable of being owned or controlled to produce value and that is held to have positive economic value is considered an asset. Simply stated, assets represent ownership of value that can be converted into cash (although cash itself is also considered an asset).
A natural climate solution where the carbon sequestration is determined by the forest that avoids getting converted to another type of land-use, such as a plantation or agricultural land.
Source: Griscom, Bronson W., Justin Adams, Peter W. Ellis, Richard A. Houghton, Guy Lomax, Daniela A. Miteva, William H. Schlesinger et al. “Natural Climate Solutions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 44 (October 31, 2017): 11645–650.
Barren land is land of limited ability to support life and in which less than one-third of the area has vegetation or other cover. In general, it is an area of thin soil, sand, or rocks. Vegetation, if present, is more widely spaced and scrubby than that in the Shrub and Brush category of Rangeland. Unusual conditions, such as a heavy rainfall, occasionally result in growth of a short-lived, more luxuriant plant cover. Wet, nonvegetated barren lands are included in the Nonforested Wetland category.
Barren land subcategories identified in the Anderson Land Classification system include: dry salt flats, beaches, and sandy areas other than beaches; bare exposed rock; strip mines, quarries, and gravel pits; transitional areas; and mixed barren land.
Water and soap or disinfectant hand rub available at points of care and within five meters of toilets.
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. WASH in Health Care Facilities: Global Baseline Report 2019. Geneva: WHO, 2019.
Use of sanitation facilities which are not shared with other households and that ensure hygienic separation of excreta from human contact.
In the context of healthcare facilities, basic sanitation refers to improved, usable sanitation facilities, with at least one toilet dedicated for staff, at least one sex-separated toilet with menstrual hygiene facilities, and at least one toilet accessible for people with limited mobility.
Sources:
World Health Organization. “Sanitation.” Fact sheet, June 14, 2019.
World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. WASH in Health Care Facilities: Global Baseline Report 2019. Geneva: WHO, 2019.
"Basic water" refers to drinking water from a source that protects against outside contamination—especially fecal matter—where collection time is not more than 30 minutes roundtrip (including queueing).
In the context of healthcare facilities, basic water refers to water available from an improved source on the premises.
Sources:
World Health Organization. “Drinking-Water.” Fact sheet, June 14, 2019.
World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. WASH in Health Care Facilities: Global Baseline Report 2019. Geneva: WHO, 2019.
Benefit Corporations are a new class of corporation that 1) creates a material positive impact on society and the environment; 2) expands fiduciary duty to require consideration of non-financial interests when making decisions; and 3) reports on its overall social and environmental performance using recognized third-party standards.
Source: Benefit Corp Information Center
Prejudice, preference, predisposition or inclination towards or against one thing, person or group relative to others, often based on prevailing stereotypes.
Source: Criterion Institute
The variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.
Source: Convention on Biological Diversity. “Article 2. Use of Terms.” 1992. https://www.cbd.int/convention/articles/default.shtml?a=cbd-02.
Wastewater from toilets.
Source: Zehnder, Alexander J. B., Hong Yang, and Roland Schertenlieb. “Water Issues: The Need for Action at Different Levels.” Aquatic Sciences 65, no. 1 (March 2003): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s000270300000.
A group of people legally responsible to govern an organization and responsible to the shareholders and other relevant stakeholders. A governing body with a different name (e.g., "advisory body") may be considered a Board of Directors provided it has a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and/or other relevant stakeholders.
Renovation/remodeling of old buildings. Some guidelines specify that to be considered building reuse, the building(s) must have been initially constructed (and completed) at least 40 years ago. The purpose of building reuse can vary, such as saving natural resources (including raw material, energy, and water required to build new buildings), preventing pollution (byproducts of extraction, manufacturing and transportation of virgin materials), avoiding solid waste creation, etc.
Source: Adapted from Triple Bottom Line Collaborative and the National Trust for Historic Preservation
Organization operates by selling its goods or services to other businesses, formally or informally.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology that can capture up to 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, preventing the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere.
Source: “What Is CCS?” Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA).
A carbon credit, or a carbon offset, is a financial unit of measurement that represents the removal of one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) from the atmosphere. Carbon credits, also known as Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), enable businesses to compensate for their emissions, meet their carbon reduction goals, and support the move to a low carbon economy. Carbon offsetting markets were created as a mechanism to achieve the targets set within the Kyoto Protocol, adopted by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).
Carbon offsetting delivers financing to essential renewable energy, forestry, and resource conservation projects which generate reductions in Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions. Projects can be validated and verified to demonstrate that they are generating GHG reductions and can be monitored on a regular basis through independent third parties.
Organizations can refer to the following resources for additional guidance on carbon offsets:
A relatively heavy, colorless gas formed primarily through animal respiration and the decay and combustion of animal and vegetable matter. Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas emitted as a result of human activities.
Sources: Merriam-Webster, s.v. “Carbon Dioxide,” accessed March 2019.
Griscom, Bronson W., Justin Adams, Peter W. Ellis, Richard A. Houghton, Guy Lomax, Daniela A. Miteva, William H. Schlesinger et al. “Natural Climate Solutions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 44 (October 31, 2017): 11645–650.
A measure used to compare the emissions from various greenhouse gases based upon their global warming potential. For example, the global warming potential for methane over 100 years is 21. This means that emissions of one million metric tons of methane is equivalent to emissions of 21 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
Source: OECD. Glossary of Statistical Terms. s.v. “Carbon dioxide equivalent.”
Making no net release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, especially through offsetting emissions by planting trees.
Source:
The direct removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Source: Minx, Jan C., William F. Lamb, Max W. Callaghan, Sabine Fuss, Jérôme Hilaire, Felix Creutzig, Thorben Amann et al. “Negative Emissions—Part 1: Research Landscape and Synthesis.” Environmental Research Letters 13, no. 6 (May 22, 2018): 063001.
Caregiver health professionals -- a subgroup of caregivers -- provide preventive, curative, rehabilitative, and promotional health services based on an extensive body of theoretical and factual knowledge in diagnosis and treatment of disease and other health problems. They may conduct research on human disorders/illnesses and ways of treating them, as well as supervise other workers.
Caregiver professionals are distinct from the larger group of caregivers in that their knowledge and skills are the result of study at a higher educational institution in a health-related field for a period of 3-6 years leading to the award of a first degree or higher qualification. This includes general and specialist medical practitioners, nurses, dentists, paramedics, etc.
Sources: Adapted from the World Health Organization and the International Labor Office's International Standard Classification of Occupations
Individuals who provide preventative, curative, rehabilitative, and promotional health services. A caregiver could be a doctor, nurse, clinician, community health worker, etc.
Cash equivalents are short-term, highly-liquid investments that are readily convertible to known amounts of cash and are not subject to significant risk of changes in value.
Catastrophic health expenditure is defined as out-of-pocket spending for health care that exceeds a certain proportion of a household’s income with the consequence that households suffer the burden of disease and may be pushed into poverty as a result. Examples: unexpected injuries, serious illnesses, etc.
Source: World Health Organization
The geographical zone in which water is captured, flows through and eventually discharges at one or more points. The concept includes both surface water catchment and groundwater catchment. A surface water catchment is defined by the area of land from which all precipitation received flows through a sequence of streams and rivers towards a single river mouth, as tributary to a larger river, or to the sea. A groundwater catchment is defined by a geological structure of an aquifer and groundwater flow paths. It is replenished by water that infiltrates from the surface. Depending on local conditions, surface and groundwater catchments may be physically separate or interconnected.
Source: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Global Wetland Outlook: State of the World’s Wetlands and their Services to People. Gland, Switzerland: Ramsar Convention Secretariat, 2018.
A certification must be from a third party, be standards-based, have those standards be transparent, and have an assurance process. The process of certification is carried out by a recognized body, independent from interested parties, which demonstrates that a product or organization complies with the requirements defined in the standards or technical specifications.
Receiving certification from a recognized body that is independent from interested parties and can demonstrate that the organization complies with the requirements defined in the standards or technical specifications.
Persons under the age of 19, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). For specific details, the WHO defines infants as birth to 1 year, children as 1 to 10 years, and adolescents as 10 to 19 years.
Source: World Health Organization
Buyer or recipient of the organization's products or services. For the impact theme Access to Quality Healthcare, “client” is analogous to “patient,” and for the impact theme Affordable Housing, “client” is analogous to “resident” or “tenant.”
Client protection can be a relevant concept in a number of sectors. Specifically for the microfinance sector, the definition is linked to The Campaign for Client Protection in Microfinance, which seeks to unite microfinance providers worldwide to develop and implement standards for the appropriate treatment of low-income clients based on the following seven principles: 1) Appropriate Product Design and Delivery 2) Prevention of Over-Indebtedness 3) Transparency 4) Responsible Pricing 5) Fair and Respectful Treatment of Clients 6) Privacy of Client Data 7) Mechanisms for Complaint Resolution
Organizations can refer to the Smart Campaign for further information about the client protection initiative.
The process of adjustment to actual or expected climate and its effects. In human systems, adaptation seeks to moderate or avoid harm or exploit beneficial opportunities. In some natural systems, human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate and its effects.
Source: Core Writing Team, Rajendra K. Pachuari, and Leo Meyer, eds. Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Geneva: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014.
Sometimes called a Code of Conduct or Code of Business Standards. This is a formal document that establishes behavioral expectations for the organization and the people who work there.
Collaborative forestry practiced on land that has some form of communal tenure and requires collective action.
Source: Gilmour, Don. Forty Years of Community-Based Forestry: A Review of Its Extent and Effectiveness. FAO Forestry Paper 176. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: 2016.
A policy that encourages and allows employees to volunteer or engage in charitable giving.
A set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influenced by a secondary interest.
Source: Conflict of Interest in Medical Research, Education, and Practice, Lo and Field, 2009.
Understanding the context in which the education policy/program takes place, analyzing the two-way interaction between the context and the education policy/program, and acting to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts of education policies and programming on conflict, within an organization’s given priorities.
Source: Conflict Sensitivity Consortium
Water that is not returned to the original source after use.
Source: Ongley, Edwin D. “Control of Water Pollution from Agriculture.” FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 55, Rome, 1996.
An end-to-end sanitation service in which excreta are collected hygienically from toilets designed with sealable, removable containers and then safely treated, disposed of, or reused. Rather than allocating scarce capital to build a sanitation facility, households (or public-toilet operators) can sign up for the service.
Source: World Bank, The Water Blog
A contract is an agreement with specific terms between two or more persons or entities in which there is a promise to do something in return for a valuable benefit, such as payment. The existence of a contract requires that there be a proposed and accepted offer, a promise to perform by one entity as well as a promise to provide a valuable benefit by the other (payment), and a time or event by which performance must occur.
Those workers who hold “self-employment jobs” as own-account workers in a market-oriented establishment operated by a related person living in the same household.
Source: Resolution Concerning the International Classification of Employment (ICSE), ILO, Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians, 1993. http://www.ilo.ch/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---stat/documents/normativeinstrument/wcms_087562.pdf
An autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.
Source: International Labor Organization, and search for "cooperative"
IRIS+ Core Metrics Sets are short lists of key indicators—built on standard IRIS metrics and backed by evidence and best practice—that impact investors can use to assess the effects of their investments.
Corporate governance is the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation (such as the boards, managers, shareholders, and other stakeholders) and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. By doing this, it also provides the structure through which the company objectives are set, as well as a means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance.
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Critical equipment or facilities are those fixed assets necessary for the organization to provide its products and services in the sense that they are materially necessary. Materially necessary means that if the equipment were destroyed, degraded, or compromised, it would make it difficult or impossible for the organization to provide its services/products. It is also typically equipment that has a maximum utilization that is a limiting factor on the units produced or services provided. For example, a hospital might cite patient beds, an MRI machine, or sterile surgical rooms as critical equipment/facilities.
Cultural Values/Services are the nonmaterial benefits obtained from ecosystems.
Source: WRI
The destruction of forests in order to make the land available for other, non-forest uses. Organizations can refer to the following sources for further information on deforestation:
Depreciation and Amortization is the systematic allocation of depreciable assets, tangible (depreciation) and intangible (amortization), over the assets' useful lives.
Source: Adapted from International Financial Reporting Standards
Direct air capture is a process of capturing carbon dioxide directly from the ambient air and generating a concentrated stream of CO2 for sequestration or utilization.
Source:
“Direct Air Capture (Technology Factsheet).” Geoengineering Monitor, May 2018.
Emissions of greenhouse gases that are from sources that are owned or controlled by the reporting organization.
Source: GHG Protocol
Land area under the organization's direct control is land for which the organization completely controls land use through direct operation or management. This includes situations where the organization's employees cultivate the land directly.
Note that land ownership is not always equivalent to control. For example, in situations where land is leased to another entity or individual to cultivate, land is only directly controlled if the lease is accompanied by exhaustive land use criteria. If this land use criteria still allows the organization to have financial control and management over the land, the land is still considered to be directly controlled by the organization.
A person with a disability is defined as someone who has, or considers themselves to have, a long-term or recurring issue that impacts one or more activities that others may consider to be a daily function. This definition also includes the perception among others that a disability exists.
Source: Lime Connect
A measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death. It was developed in the 1990s as a way of comparing the overall health and life expectancy of different countries.
Source: World Health Organization
A situation where an employer wrongfully treats a worker as an independent contractor and hides their true status as a wage employee.
Source: "Non-Standard Employment Around the World: Understanding Challenges, Shaping Prospects." ILO, 2016.
Companies that aggregate supply through trees grown by smallholder farmers on the farmers' land.
Source: Faruqi, Sofia, Andrew Wu, Eriks Brolis, Andrés Anchondo Ortega, and Alan Batista. The Business of Planting Trees: A Growing Investment Opportunity. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2018.
An individual or organization that sells products or services to other distributors (wholesale) or to the ultimate consumer (retail).
Charitable donations include financial contributions and in-kind donations of goods and services to charities, private foundations, non-profit organizations, or non-governmental organizations. Pricing discounts do not count as charitable donations; only free services are considered to be in-kind donations.
A student who, for any reason other than death, leaves school before graduation without transferring to another school/institution.
Source: Pennsylvania Government Department of Education
For more information, see: UNESC-UNEVOC
The quantity, quality, and timing of water flows required to sustain the ecological health of a water body.
Source: OECD. Water Resources Allocation: Sharing Risks and Opportunities. OECD Studies on Water. Paris: OECD Publishing, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264229631-en.
The value of the portion of a policy's premium that applies to the expired portion of the policy. Although insurance premiums are often paid in advance, insurers typically earn the premium at an even rate throughout the policy term. The remainder is the unearned premium.
Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. An ecosystem has recovered - and is restored - when it contains sufficient biotic and abiotic resources to continue its development without further assistance or subsidy. It will sustain itself structurally and functionally. It will demonstrate resilience to normal ranges of environmental stress and disturbance. It will interact with contiguous ecosystems in terms of biotic and abiotic flows and cultural interactions.
For example, if the objective is to establish tree cover with a designated species composition and species abundance on former cropland, one intervention could be to plant sapling trees of the designated species at specified densities. Refer to Society for Ecological Restoration Guidelines for Developing and Managing Ecological Restoration Projects for additional background information.
A dynamic complex of organisms and their associated non-living environment, interacting as an ecological unit composed of primary producers, consumers, and decomposers.
Source: Falkenmark, Malin. “Water Management and Ecosystems: Living with Change.” Technical Committee (TEC) Background Paper No. 9, Stockholm, Sweden, Global Water Partnership, 2003.
The benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include provisioning services such as food and water; regulating services such as regulation of floods, drought, land degradation, and disease; supporting services such as soil formation and nutrient cycling; and cultural services such as recreational, spiritual, religious, and other non-material benefits.
Provisioning services are goods provided by ecosystems and include crops, timber, and livestock as well as genetic resources for medicines. Regulating services maintain healthy ecosystem functioning and include water purification, pollination, water regulation, and climate regulation. Cultural services are intangible and non-material value people derive from nature and include spiritual and aesthetic benefits as well as recreation and tourism. Supporting services are the natural processes that maintain the three other ecosystem services.
Organizations can refer to the following sources for additional information on ecosystem services:
An Education Management Information System (EMIS) collects, monitors, manages, analyzes, and disseminates information about education inputs, processes, and outcomes, especially student learning.
Source: Abdul-Hamid, Husein. Data for Learning: Building a Smart Education Data System. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017.
Emissions reductions occur when greenhouse gas emissions intensive processes are replaced with processes that are less greenhouse gas intensive.
Source: Environmental and Energy Study Insititute: https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/u.s.-leads-in-greenhouse-gas-reductions-but-some-states-are-falling-behind
Employee tenure is a measure of how long salaried and non-salaried workers have been with their current employer at the time of measurement.
Source: Adapted from the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
Themes in Employment include strategic goals and delivery models that seek to provide opportunities for all people of working age to engage in activities to produce goods or provide services in exchange for a fair income, provided together with equality of treatment for all, secure work conditions, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom to express concerns and to participate in the decisions that affect their lives
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy (adapted from ILO's definition of decent work)
All species with the status of "Near Threatened," "Vulnerable," "Endangered," or "Critically Endangered" on the Red List of Threatened Species prepared by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Source: IUCN
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce the total amount of energy needed to carry out current processes or tasks. The term does not include overall reduction in energy consumption from reduced organizational activities (e.g., partial outsourcing of production).
Source: Global Reporting Initiative
The flow of water ("regime") provided within a river, wetland, or coastal zone to maintain ecosystems and their benefits where competing water uses are regulated. The amount of water needed to maintain an ecosystem in close-to-pristine condition may be different from that which is eventually allocated to it after a process of environmental, social, and economic assessment. In other words, environmental flow may maintain the ecosystem in less-than-pristine condition.
Source: Dyson, M., Bergkamp, G. and Scanlon, J., (eds). Flow – The Essentials of Environmental Flows, 2nd Edition. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. Reprint, Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 2008.
An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a set of processes and practices that enable an organization to reduce its environmental impacts and increase its operating efficiency. An EMS helps a company address its regulatory demands in a systematic and cost-effective manner. It can also help address non-regulated issues such as energy conservation and can promote stronger operational control and employee stewardship.
Source: Adapted from the EPA
Reasons for dismissal which shall be not be considered valid include those based on union membership or participation in union activities, filing of a complaint against an employer, race, color, sex, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, temporary absence due to illness, or absence from work during maternity leave.
Source: International Labor Organization
Inexpensive clothing produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends.
Source:
Hayes, Adam. “How Fast Fashion Works.” Investopedia. Investopedia, April 2020.
The collection, treatment, and disposal or reuse of fecal waste captured on-site in containers, latrines, or septic tanks.
A feed-in tariff is a policy tool designed to promote investment in renewable energy sources. This usually means promising small-scale producers of the energy—such as solar or wind energy—an above-market price for what they deliver to the grid.
Source:
Kenton, Will. “Feed-In Tariff (FIT).” Investopedia. Investopedia, May 2020.
A publicly-known feedback system that clients or employees can use to provide feedback, ask questions, and file complaints that is broadly recognized and promoted by the company and that most/all clients/employees are aware of. A publicly-known system does not include a company that accepts feedback through informal systems (such as occasional phone calls from customers or reliance on self-volunteerism from employees).
Financial inclusion means that formal financial services are readily available to consumers and that they are actively and effectively using these services to meet their specific needs.
Source: Social Performance Task Force
Organizations can refer to the following sources for additional clarification on the definition:
An unexpected or unpredictable event, like job loss, illness, injury, death, or large-scale unexpected expense.
Source: Pew Charitable Trusts
All work or service that is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily, according to the ILO Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29).
Source: "CO29 - Forced Labour Convention" ILO, 1930.
Forced marriage refers to situations where persons, regardless of their age, have been forced to marry without their consent. A person might be forced to marry through physical, emotional, or financial duress, deception by family members, the spouse, or others, or the use of force, threats, or severe pressure. Forced marriage is prohibited through the prohibitions on slavery and slavery-like practices, including servile marriage.
Source: "Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage." ILO, 2017.
Changes within the forest which negatively affect the structure or function of the stand or site, and thereby lower the capacity to supply products and/or services.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “Forest Degradation.” 2006. http://www.fao.org/3/j9345e/j9345e08.htm.
Forest lands have a tree-crown areal density (crown closure percentage) of 10 percent or more, are stocked with trees capable of producing timber or other wood products, and exert an influence on the climate or water regime. Lands from which trees have been removed to less than 10 percent crown closure but which have not been developed for other uses also are included; for example, lands on which there are rotation cycles of clear cutting and block planting are part of Forest Land. Note: The technical defintion of "forest land" may vary by country.
Lands that meet the requirements for Forest Land and also for an Urban or Built-up category should be placed in the latter category. The only exceptions in classifying forest land are those areas which would otherwise be classified as Wetland if not for the forest cover. Since the wet condition is of much interest to land managers and planning groups and is so important as an environmental surrogate and control, such lands are classified as Forested Wetland.
Forest Land subcategories identified in the Anderson Land Classification system include: Deciduous, Evergreen, and Mixed.
A forest management plan is the application of appropriate technical forestry principles, practices, and business techniques to the management of a forest to achieve the landowner's objectives.
While definition of formalization differs by country, most definitions require a combination of:
Business registration status and licensing with the national, provincial, and municipal authorities
Access to business infrastructure (e.g. electricity)
A written accounting system
Compliance with legal framework, including tax, social security, and labour laws
Access to social security coverage for the business owner and his/her employees
Membership in professional organizations
Sources:
ILO, Enterprise Formalization, EEASE, 2017.
ILO, Microfinance for decent work, 2015.
In the context of "fragile state," fragility is defined as a combination of exposure to risk and insufficient coping capacity of the state, system, or communities to manage, absorb, or mitigate those risks. Fragility can lead to violence, breakdown of institutions, displacement, humanitarian crises, or other emergencies.
Source:Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies. Conflict Sensitive Education.
A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is an agreement between two or more countries where the countries agree on certain obligations that affect trade in goods and services, and protections for investors and intellectual property rights, among other topics.
Source: “Free Trade Agreement Overview.” International Trade Administration | Trade.gov.
Allowing workers to form and join trade unions, worker associations, and worker councils or committees of their own choosing.
Sources:
Non-saline bodies of water located within terrestrial environments and unconnected to any tidal or estuarine water bodies. Excludes ephemeral bodies of freshwater, which are rain dependent and flow only after precipitation.
Source: Adapted from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, search "Fresh water"
The rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, groundwater, cave water, springs, floodplains, and wetlands (bogs, marshes, and swamps) that provide water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, transport, electricity generation, and recreation. They provide habitat for diverse fauna and flora which provide an important source of food and fiber that sustain incomes and livelihoods, particularly for rural communities in developing countries.
Source: Wong, C.M., 2007.
Full-time paid employees work year round and typically work 35-50 hours per week. If local definitions of full-time equivalency differ, use the appropriate standard.
A full-time equivalent (FTE) job is the equivalent of one person working full time as defined by local laws. FTEs is equal to the number of full-time employees plus the number of employees on part-time schedules converted to a full-time basis. In most instances this should include seasonal, contractual, part-time, and full-time employees hired directly by the financed enterprise or through third-party agencies.
Source: Adapted from the United States Small Business Association
Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed. While most people are born either male or female, they are taught appropriate norms and behaviors – including how they should interact with others of the same or opposite sex within households, communities and work places. When individuals or groups do not “fit” established gender norms they often face stigma, discriminatory practices or social exclusion – all of which adversely affect health. It is important to be sensitive to different identities that do not necessarily fit into binary male or female sex categories.
Source: World Health Organization
People whose gender, sexual orientation, or biological sex characteristics differ from what is typically expected by a particular culture or society. This term includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) individuals, as well as others. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer (LGBTIQ).
Source: Health Policy Plus
Refers to the equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities of women and men and girls and boys. Equality does not mean that women and men will become the same but that women’s and men’s rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male, female, or another gender. Gender equality implies that the interests, needs and priorities of all genders are taken into consideration, recognizing the diversity of different groups of women and men. Gender equality is not a women’s issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. Equality between genders is seen both as a human rights issue and as a precondition for, and indicator of, sustainable people-centered development.
Source: UN Women
The process of being fair to people of all genders. To ensure fairness, measures must often be put in place to compensate for the historical and social disadvantages that prevent people of different genders from operating on a level playing field. Equity is a means. Equality is the result.
Source: Adapted from UNESCO
Gender identity refers to one's innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend, or neither. It is how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. Gender identity can be the same or different than biological sex or the sex assigned at birth.
Gender expression is the external appearance of one's gender identity, usually expressed through behavior, clothing, communication patterns, and interests, and which may or may not conform to socially-defined behaviors and characteristics consistent with socially-prescribed gender roles.
A rigorous discipline having the goal of seeing and understanding how privilege and bias operate in a specific context, ideally with attention to how power might be disrupted.
The approach analyses the relationship between:
Approached with a view to intersectionality, a gender helps in understanding the different patterns of involvement, behavior, and activities that different groups have in economic, social, and legal structures.
Source: Criterion Institute
Often framed around the gender binary (male-female), gender norms are what society considers “normal” or acceptable behavior, dress, appearance and roles for women and men. Gender norms can contribute to power imbalances and gender inequality in the home, workplace, markets and society as a whole.
Source: Criterion Institute
Climate geoengineering refers to large-scale schemes for intervention in the earth’s oceans, soils and atmosphere with the aim of reducing the effects of climate change, usually temporarily.
Built structures and mechanical equipment, such as reservoirs, embankments, pipes, pumps, water treatment plants, and canals. Those engineered solutions are embedded within watersheds or coastal ecosystems whose hydrological and environmental attributes profoundly affect the performance of the gray infrastructure.
Source: Browder, Greg; Ozment, Suzanne; Rehberger Bescos, Irene; Gartner, Todd; Lange, Glenn-Marie. 2019. Integrating Green and Gray : Creating Next Generation Infrastructure. Washington, DC: World Bank and World Resources Institute.
All wastewater generated in the home besides toilet water.
Source: Zehnder, Alexander J. B., Hong Yang, and Roland Schertenlieb. “Water Issues: The Need for Action at Different Levels.” Aquatic Sciences 65, no. 1 (March 2003): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s000270300000.
Green building is the practice of creating structures and using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle from sitting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction.
Also sometimes called natural infrastructure, or engineering with nature, green infrastructure intentionally and strategically preserves, enhances, or restores elements of a natural system -- such as forests, agricultural land, floodplains, riparian areas, coastal forests (such as mangroves) -- among others, and combines them with gray infrastructure to produce more resilient and lower-cost services.
Source: Browder, Greg, Suzanne Ozment, Irene Rehberger Bescos, Todd Gartner, and Glenn-Marie Lange. Integrating Green and Gray: Creating Next Generation Infrastructure. Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019.
Decent jobs that improve efficiency in the use of energy and raw materials, limit greenhouse gas emissions, minimize waste and pollution, protect and restore ecosystems, and support adaptation to the effects of climate change. Green jobs can be found in traditional sectors, such as manufacturing or construction, or in new, emerging green sectors, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Source: "What is a Green Job?" ILO, 2016. https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/green-jobs/news/WCMS_220248/lang--en/index.htm
Greenhouse gases (sometimes abbreviated GHG) are gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. The most common gases include carbon dioxide, NOx, SOx, methane, etc.
Organizations can refer to the following sources for further guidance:
Water below the surface of the Earth stored in pore spaces and fractures within rock or layers of sand and gravel (aquifers). In water resources management the term more specifically applies to water that can be extracted at a viable rate, quantity and quality for human use (with or without treatment). Saline water or water contained in rocks of very low permeability is not conventionally considered groundwater.
Refuse that could present dangers through the contamination and pollution of the environment. It requires special disposal techniques to make it harmless or less dangerous. A list of specific hazardous waste categories to be controlled can be found in Annex I to the Basel Convention.
Areas with environmental and social values that are considered to be of outstanding or exceptional importance. A High Conservation Value Forest (HCVF) can be a small part of a larger forest, such as an archeological site, or can be an entire forest unit, as is sometimes the case when the forest is habitat for a threatened or endangered species.
Source: Rainforest Alliance
Concentrations of biological diversity including endemic species, and rare, threatened or endangered species, that are significant at global, regional, or national levels.
Source: Brown, Ellen, Nigel Dudley, Anders Lindhe, Dwi R. Muhtaman, Christopher Stewart, and Timothy Synnott, eds. Common Guidance for the Identification of High Conservation Values. Oxford: HCV Resource Network, October 2013.
Refers to two types of workers who carry out paid work in or around their homes:
Homeworkers: Dependent, subcontracted workers who work directly or indirectly for employers or their intermediaries, usually on a piece-rate basis, also known as piece-rate workers, outworkers, or workers in the putting-out system.
Self-employed, own-account workers: Independent workers who design, produce and market their own products but who cannot be considered to be running small businesses.
The terms home-based work and home work do not include:
Unpaid care work in one’s own home.
Paid domestic work and care work in the households of others.
Subsistence production for household consumption.
Source: "Home-based Workers: Decent Work and Social Protection Through Organization and Empowerment." ILO, 2015.
Toilet used privately by one household.
Source: Joint Monitoring Programme. "Core Questions."
Limited or uncertain availability of stable, safe, adequate, and affordable housing and neighborhoods; limited or uncertain access to stable, safe, adequate, and affordable housing and neighborhoods; or the inability to acquire stable, safe, adequate, and affordable housing and neighborhoods in socially acceptable ways.
Source: Equitable Growth
A housing unit is a separate and independent place of abode intended for habitation by a single household. This category includes housing of various levels of permanency and acceptability and therefore requires further classification in order to provide for a meaningful assessment of housing conditions.
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
A policy, set by an organization, that codifies decisions to support personnel functions, performance management, employee relations, and resource planning. Areas of a human resources policy might include: wages/salary scales, benefits, and working conditions (including rights concerning overtime pay, safety at work, non-discrimination, freedom of association, grievance resolution, whistleblower policy, anti-harassment safeguards, disciplinary procedures and possible sanctions, provision of any collective bargaining agreements, exit formalities, etc.).
Organizations can refer to the following source for additional information on human resources policies: The Social Performance Task Force's Universal Standards for Social Performance Management, Standard 5A
The Impact Categories within the IRIS+ system are aligned with the industry classes standardized by The International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) and based on the input received hundreds of stakeholders involved in the development of IRIS+.
The Impact Categories included in IRIS+ are as follows:
Agriculture Air Biodiversity & Ecosystems Climate Diversity and Inclusion Education Employment Energy Financial Services Health Land Oceans and Coastal Zones Pollution Real Estate Waste Water
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Agriculture include strategic objectives and delivery models that aim to provide individuals and enterprises with consistent access to the materials, knowledge, market connections, and other supports needed to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from challenges that arise from dependence on land for subsistence, nutrition, and profit. Themes in Agriculture also include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to minimize over-consumption of land-based raw materials by conserving natural resources, ensure that consumptive and non-consumptive uses are restorative, do not impair the long-term sustainability of that use by negatively affecting the ecosystem, ecosystem services, and species on which the use depends and the sharing of benefits arising out of these activities equitably.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Air include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to address air quality issues by addressing stratospheric ozone depletion, reducing toxic emissions such as NOx and SOx, mitigating their environmentally harmful by-products to protect the environment and human health, and sharing the benefits of these activities equitably.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Biodiversity & Ecosystems include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to minimize threats to biodiversity by safeguarding, conserving, maintaining, restoring and/or improving the diversity of plants, animals, and ecosystems and their natural habitats and sharing the benefits arising out of these activities equitably.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Climate include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to limit the magnitude of climate change effects on the planet through activities that mitigate the results of human (anthropogenic) emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), reduce the vulnerability of social and biological systems to sudden changes in the climate and thus offset the effects of global warming. Themes in Climate may also include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to improve people’s and the planet’s ability to maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change and/or adapt systems leaving them better prepared for future climate change impacts and the sharing of benefits arising out of these activities equitably.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Diversity and Inclusion include strategic goals and delivery models that seek to provide individuals of different race, ethnicity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religious, ethical and political beliefs, social class, physical ability or attributes, with equal opportunities for inclusion and empowerment. IRIS+ recognizes that Diversity and Inclusion is not specific to a single impact category but rather represents cross-cutting topics that apply throughout impact categories and themes.
Themes in Education include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to provide inclusive and quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all students.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Energy include strategic objectives and delivery models that that seek to reduce GHG emissions, the consumption of fossil fuels, and/or minimize over-consumption of energy or fuel resources by conserving them and the sharing of benefits arising out of these activities equitably. Themes in Energy also include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to provide all individuals with availability of and consistent access to sufficient, safe, and reliable energy that meets basic needs and preferences.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Financial Services include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to provide all individuals and businesses with access to and usage of useful and affordable financial products and services that meet their needs – transactions, payments, savings, credit and insurance – delivered in a responsible and sustainable way. Themes in Financial Inclusion also include strategic objectives and deliver models related to SME finance and inclusive digital finance.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy (adapted from CGAP)
Themes in Health include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to provide inclusive and quality health services, medicines, vaccines, technologies, and financing to ensure health and well-being for all. Themes in Health also include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek provide nutrition for all.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Land include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to minimize over-consumption of land-based raw materials by conserving natural resources, ensuring that consumptive and non-consumptive uses are restorative, do not impair the long-term sustainability of that use by negatively affecting the ecosystem, ecosystem services, and species on which the use depends and the sharing of benefits arising out of these activities equitably. Themes in Land deliberately exclude marine-based resources, water quality and quantity themes, as well as biodiversity conservation as they are covered more explicitly in other impact categories.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Oceans and Coastal Zones include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to seek to minimize over-consumption of marine resources, ensure that consumptive and non-consumptive uses are restorative, do not impair the long-term sustainability of that use by negatively affecting the ecosystem, ecosystem services, and species on which the use depends, and the sharing of benefits arising out of these activities equitably. Themes in Oceans and Coastal Zones deliberately exclude land-based resources, water quality and quantity themes, as well as biodiversity conservation as they are covered more explicitly in other impact categories.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Pollution include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to minimize or mitigate the effects of air- or land-based pollution through appropriate technologies, equipment, materials, treatment, and processes, and the sharing of benefits arising out of these activities equitably. Themes in this category deliberately exclude strategic objectives that focus on water quantity and quality, air quality, climate, and waste as those are covered more explicitly in other impact categories.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Real Estate include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to provide housing projects, services, and infrastructure for which the associated financial costs are at a level that do not threaten or compromise the occupants’ enjoyment of other human rights and basic needs and that represents a reasonable proportion of an individual's overall income. Themes in Real Estate also include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to develop or rehabilitate buildings in a way that minimizes or reduces negative environmental impacts and the sharing of benefits arising out of these activities equitably.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Waste include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to actively manage solid, landfill, and hazardous waste by encouraging sustainable consumption and off-loading, and redesigning processes, products, infrastructures, and equipment to produce less waste and share equitably the benefits arising out of these activities and the systems developed to manage them. Themes in this category explicitly address issues of over-consumption as well as waste generating by-products through process modifications. Waste management in this context refers to reducing, reusing, recycling or improvements to the transport, treatment, and disposal of waste.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Themes in Water include strategic objectives and delivery models that seek to address issues of water quality and quantity for people and ecosystems, and the equitable sharing of water resources. The sustainable management of water resources in this context refers to water taken from or discharged to fresh and saline water bodies -- including but not limited to wetlands, seas, lakes, rivers, groundwater, swamps, and mangroves -- and addresses issues including contamination, water pollution, and global water supply. Themes in Water also seek to provide individuals with consistent and reliable, affordable access to clean and safe water, safely managed sanitation, and knowledge of basic safe hygiene practices without compromising the quality and sustainable quantity of water resources.
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Impact measurement and management (IMM) includes identifying and considering the positive and negative effects one’s business actions have on people and the planet, and then figuring out ways to mitigate the negative and maximize the positive in alignment with one’s goals.
The IRIS+ system uses impact themes to classify the types of strategic objectives or approaches investors or enterprises employ to achieve the primary social and/or environmental effect they intend to deliver. Each thematic category is designed to aid in describing a purpose-driven approach to contribute to impact within a broader impact category. Each theme is based on macroeconomic topics and/or trends that an investor can use to identify and assess strong investment opportunities or that an enterprise can use to frame and communicate its work. Under the IRIS+ taxonomy, impact themes have been classified within the list of industries noted above.
Impact themes included in IRIS+ include:
Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
Education systems that remove barriers limiting the participation and achievement of all learners; respect diverse needs, abilities, and characteristics; and eliminate all forms of discrimination in the learning environment.
Source: UNESCO and European Parliament
Independent Board Members are defined as individuals who are not an employee of the company, not a material investor/owner (owning less than 5%), and not a spouse or family member of a material owner.
Indigenous Peoples are, by precept of international soft law, those sectors of the world's communities that identify themselves as such. They adopt this definition on various grounds, such as having stronger relations to their land than other nationals, longer origins in the locality, or distinctive cultures and ways of life that run special risks of being denied or lost in modern conditions.
Source: Ding, Helen, Peter G. Veit, Allen Blackman, Erin Gray, Katie Reytar, Juan Carlos Altamirano, and Benjamin Hodgdon. Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights in the Amazon. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2016.
Emissions of greenhouse gases that result from the activities of the reporting organization but are generated at sources owned or controlled by another organization. In the context of this metric, indirect emissions refer to GHG emissions from the generation of electricity, heat, or steam that is imported and consumed by the reporting organization.
Source: GHG Protocol
Indirect control refers to land that the organization supports or influences but does not directly cultivate or manage.
Examples in which the organization indirectly controls land may include purchase contracts or sourcing from farmer cooperatives.
A loan made to an individual borrower who is solely responsible for its repayment.
Industrial agriculture is the large-scale, intensive production of crops and animals, often involving chemical fertilizers on crops or the routine, harmful use of antibiotics in animals.
Source:
The informal sector is broadly characterized as consisting of units engaged in the production of goods or services with the primary objective of generating employment and incomes to the persons concerned.
These units typically operate at a low level of organization, with little or no division between labor and capital as factors of production and on a small scale. Labor relations - where they exist - are based mostly on casual employment, kinship or personal and social relations rather than contractual arrangements with formal guarantees.
Source: OECD
The amount of money an insurer charges to provide the coverage described in the policy or bond. Insurance premiums may vary due to factors (e.g., geography or policy length).
Unbroken expanses of natural ecosystems within the zone of forest extent that show no signs of significant human activity and are large enough that all native biodiversity, including viable populations of wide-ranging species, could be maintained.
Source: Greenpeace, University of Maryland, World Resources Institute, and Transparent World. “Intact Forest Landscapes.”
A framework for understanding and identifying interconnected forms of oppression and disadvantage based on social categorization (i.e. gender, race, class, religion, physical or mental ability). When two or more oppressions overlap in the experiences of an individual or group (such as gender and race), this can create interconnected barriers and complex forms of discrimination that can be insidious, covert and compounded.
Source: Criterion Institute
A key indicator is typically a multivariable measure comprised of one or more standard IRIS metrics. It produces information that can be used to describe performance towards key dimensions of impact. IRIS+ Core Metrics Sets may comprise of a variety of different key indicators. Key indicators included in IRIS+ are those which are shown to be essential to the understanding progress or achievement of the impact goals of the investment in question.
Labor market information includes all quantitative or qualitative data and analysis related to employment and the workforce. The goal of LMI is to help customers make informed plans, choices, and decisions for a variety of purposes, including business investment decision making, career planning and preparation, education and training offerings, job search opportunities, hiring, and public or private workforce investments.
Source: James F. Woods and Christopher J. O’Leary, “Conceptual Framework for an Optimal Labour Market Information System,” W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, Technical Report No. 07-022, December 2006
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Bolivia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mongolia, Nepal, Niger, North Macedonia, Paraguay, Republic of Moldova, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen, and Zambia.
Source: United Nations Committee for Public Development. “List of Least Developed Countries (as of December 2018).” December, 2018. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/publication/ldc_list.pdf
Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dijbouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Soloman Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen, and Zambia.
LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.
Source:
A formal legal or regulatory complaint includes any complaint levied against the organization by an individual, other organization, or government body, due to the organization's violations of rules of any government, regulatory organization, licensing agency, or professional association governing their professional activities and any resulting externalities.
A liability is a present obligation of the organization arising from past events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the entity of resources with economic benefit.
Source: Adapted from International Financial Reporting Standards
Encompasses formal and informal learning from early childhood and basic education through to adult learning, combining foundational skills, social and cognitive skills (such as learning to learn), and the skills needed for specific jobs, occupations, or sectors. Lifelong learning involves more than the skills needed to work; it also concerns developing the capabilities needed to participate in a democratic society. Lifelong learning offers a pathway to inclusion in labor markets for youth and the unemployed and has transformative potential: investment in learning at an early age facilitates learning at later stages in life, linked in turn to intergenerational social mobility, expanding the choices of future generations.
Source: "Work for a Brighter Future." ILO Global Commission on the Future of Work, 2019.
An organization that is owned by one or more members and controlled by members or managers.
Source: Adapted from the United States Internal Revenue Service
Remuneration received for a standard work week by a worker in a particular time and place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living, including food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transport, clothing, and other essential needs, including provision for unexpected events.
Source: "Giving Workers a Decent Standard of Living." Global Living Wage Coalition.
A loan officer is a field staff member of record who is directly responsible for arranging and monitoring client loans.
Low-income people are individuals or households living above the poverty line but below the national median income. Organizations should clearly footnote the poverty and median income thresholds used and the sources referenced, as the definition for “low income” is dependent on the economic status of the country they live in. For more information about poverty lines and Purchasing Power Parity visit: Poverty Index.
For U.S. individuals, some sources define low-income as: individuals whose annual (gross) income does not exceed 80% of the median family income for the area (adjusted for family size). Please refer to HUD standards.
Commonly used tools to help determine the poverty level of households include:
As many poverty estimation tools require sampling or other estimation techniques, organizations that rely on assumptions should footnote details used in the calculation process. For example, organizations that sell solar lanterns via a series of local network distributors might estimate the number of poor clients based on government data on poverty levels based the geography of units sold. Details on how and why these assumptions were made should be footnoted.
A geographic area (neighborhood, village, other region) where the median family income is less than 80% of the median family income of the surrounding vicinity.
Source: Adapted from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Managers are individuals who have the responsibility to oversee organizations or units within organizations. Managers plan, direct, coordinate, and evaluate the overall activities of enterprises, governments, and other organizations, or of organizational units within them, and formulate and review their policies, laws, rules, and regulations.
Defined by the following conditions. Women and adolescent girls use clean menstrual management materials to absorb or collect blood that can be changed in private as often as necessary for the duration of the menstruation period, with soap and water used for washing the body as required and with access to facilities to dispose of used menstrual management materials.
Source: World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme. WASH in Health Care Facilities: Global Baseline Report 2019. Geneva: WHO, 2019.
A greenhouse gas emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil and released from livestock, other agricultural practices, and organic decay, including from the decay of organic waste in landfills.
Source: “Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Individual IRIS metrics are numerical measures used in calculations or qualitative values to account for the social, environmental, and financial performance of an investment.
A microgrid is a decentralized group of electricity sources and loads that normally operates connected to and synchronous with the traditional wide area synchronous grid, but can also disconnect to "island mode" — and function autonomously as physical or economic conditions dictate.
Source:
The lowest wage permitted by law or by a special agreement (such as with a labor union). Note that a minimum wage differs from a living wage, which also takes into account external factors such as the local cost of living and number of dependents.
Since the minimum wage varies according to geography, IRIS does not define a minimum wage. Organizations can refer to the following resources for further guidance on defining their local minimum wage:
Note that organizations can cite other sources that provide more accurate information based on more immediately local circumstances and laws. Organizations should specify the industry/city/country for which they are citing the minimum wage and should reference the source of the minimum local wage they use. Organizations should footnote details used in the calculation process.
Individuals and groups historically denied power of one of the following sorts: 1) Power within - A sense of rights, dignity, and voice, along with basic capabilities; 2) Power with - Ability to organize and express views; 3) Power to - Ability to influence decision makers, whether the State, economic power holders, or others.
The term minority or previously excluded should relate to local guidelines for places with well-established policies (e.g., South Africa: Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) definition of previously excluded, India: based on backward caste).
The mission statement is a concise message that expresses how an organization generates financial, social, and/or environmental value through its business activities.
Plantations consisting of more than one species planted in the same area, improving biodiversity.
Source: Faruqi, Sofia, Andrew Wu, Eriks Brolis, Andrés Anchondo Ortega, and Alan Batista. The Business of Planting Trees: A Growing Investment Opportunity. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2018.
Covers a set of specific legal concepts including forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery or slavery-like practices, and human trafficking. Although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term that focuses attention on commonalities across these legal concepts and refers to situations of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, abuse of power, or any combination of these.
Source: "Global Estimates of Child Labour: Results and Trends, 2012-2016." ILO, 2017.
Species native to a given territory means a species that has been observed in the form of a naturally occurring and self-sustaining population in historical times.
Source: "Nature and Environment, No. 119." Texts Adopted by the Standing Committee of the Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. Berne: Council of Europe Publishing, 1979. 35. Google Books. Web.
Carbon sequestration solutions that rely on conservation, restoration, and improved management practices in forest, wetland, and grassland biomes.
Source: Griscom, Bronson W., Justin Adams, Peter W. Ellis, Richard A. Houghton, Guy Lomax, Daniela A. Miteva, William H. Schlesinger et al. “Natural Climate Solutions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 44 (October 31, 2017): 11645–650.
Also known as improved forest management, natural forest management is a natural climate solution where the carbon sequestration by delayed timber harvest schedule.
Source: Griscom, Bronson W., Justin Adams, Peter W. Ellis, Richard A. Houghton, Guy Lomax, Daniela A. Miteva, William H. Schlesinger et al. “Natural Climate Solutions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 44 (October 31, 2017): 11645–650.
An umbrella term referring to actions to protect, sustainably manage, and restore natural or modified ecosystems that address societal challenges effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits.
Source: Cohen-Shacham, Emmanuelle, Gretchen Walters, Christine Janzen, and Stewart Maginnis. Nature-Based Solutions to Address Global Societal Challenges. Gland, Switzerland: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 2016.
Students who are provided schooling who previously were not in school because of the distance they had to travel, the cost they had to pay, or requirements of entry that prohibited the student from attending.
Previously un-electrified households served with access to electricity either from utility/community generation, distributed generation, or improved distribution during the reporting period.
Individuals who previously were not served by formal health care because of the distance they had to travel, the cost they had to pay, or requirements of entry that prohibited them from seeking such services.
Households that previously did not have reasonable access to water. Reasonable access to water is defined as the availability of at least 20 liters per person per day from an acceptable source within one kilometer of the user's dwelling.
Acceptable water sources include: household connection, public standpipe, borehole, protected dug well or spring water, rainwater collection, connection to a public sewer or septic system, pour-flush or simple-pit latrine, and ventilated improved pit-latrine.
Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas "emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste, as well as during treatment of wastewater."
Source: “Greenhouse Gas Emissions.” United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Water use which does not consume water. If ever withdrawn, almost all of the water returns to the system. Example of non-consumptive water uses are navigation, capture fisheries, recreational or cultural uses. Most in-stream water uses are non-consumptive. Hydropower is also considered as having a very low consumptive water use, except in cases where an artificial reservoir was built upstream, because this substantially increases the surface area of the water body and in doing so increases the evaporation.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
A non-profit organization is one that is registered as a non-profit entity according to the rules/regulations of the country in which it is based. A non-governmental organization (NGO) has primarily humanitarian or cooperative, rather than commercial, objectives and is largely independent of government. Refer to national regulations of the country in which it is based.
Non-renewable energy is from sources that cannot be replenished (made again) in a short period of time, so their quantity is considered finite. Non-renewable energy sources include oil and petroleum products (including gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, and propane), natural gas, coal, and uranium (nuclear energy).
The difference between the volume of water put into a water distribution system and the volume that is billed to end users. Water lost through leaky pipes is a key example of non-revenue water.
Source: Fluence “What is Non-Revenue Water?” February 19, 2016.
Employees who are paid on a variable basis (e.g., hourly, daily, other specified time cycle, or other specified parameter). Non-salaried employees' earnings are contingent on the amount of time worked or specific tasks completed.
Includes temporary employment (such as fixed-term or project-based contracts); part-time and on-call work; temporary agency work and other multi-party employment relationships; disguised employment; and dependent self-employment.
Source: "Non-Standard Forms of Employment." ILO.
Non-wood forest products consist of goods of biological origin other than wood, derived from forests, other wooded land and trees outside forests. (...) The term NWFP excludes all woody raw materials. Consequently, timber, chips, charcoal and fuelwood, as well as small woods such as tools, household equipment and carvings, are excluded. Non-timber forest products (NTFPs), in contrast, generally include fuelwood and small woods; this is the main difference between NWFPs and NTFPs.
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. “Towards a Harmonized Definition of Non-Wood Forest Products.” Unasylva 50, no. 198 (1999): 63–64.
An occupational fatality occurs if an event or exposure results in the fatal injury or fatal illness of a person, either on the employer's premises and the person was there to work, or off the employer's premise and the person was there to work (or the event/exposure was related to the person's work or status an employee).
Sources: Adapted from the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
An occupational injury is any personal injury, disease, or death resulting from an occupational accident. An occupational accident is an unexpected and unplanned occurrence, including acts of violence, arising out of or in connection with work which results in one or more workers incurring a personal injury.
Source: International Labor Organization, and search "occupational injury"
Refers to working arrangements that may involve very short hours or no predictable fixed hours, under which the employer has no obligation to provide a set number of hours of work. Such work may come under different contractual forms, depending on the country, and includes so-called “zero-hours contracts.”
Source: "What Are Part-Time and On-Call Work?" ILO, 1994.
Change for affected stakeholders that is plausibly associated with the products/services of the enterprise
Source: Adapted from Guidelines on Outcomes Management for Financial Service Providers, SPTF
Proportion of workers whose educational attainment level is higher (lower) than the level required in their job, as measured based on the modal education level for all workers in the same occupation.
Source: "Measurement of Qualifications and Skills Mismatches of Persons in Employment." ILO, 2018.
Situation occurring when existing water entitlements (such as licenses or permits) to abstract water, if fully exercised, would result in a level of abstraction that is greater than that which can be sustained.
Situation occurring when the quantity of water being abstracted is greater than that which can be sustained (sustainable level).
Those workers who, working on their own or with one or more partners, hold a type of job defined as “self-employment” and who have not engaged on a continuous basis any “employees” to work for them.
Source: Resolution Concerning the International Classification of Employment (ICSE), ILO, Fifteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians, 1993.
The Paris Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016.
Part-time paid employees work year round but do not meet full-time equivalency standards (typically less than 35 hours a week).
An organization that is owned by two or more individuals or other entities and is controlled by those partners.
Source: Adapted from the United States Internal Revenue Service
A peatland is an area with or without vegetation with a naturally accumulated peat layer at the surface. Peat is sedentarily accumulated material consisting of at least 30% (dry mass) of dead organic material.
Source: “What is Peat?” International Peatland Society. http://www.peatsociety.org/peatlands-and-peat/what-peat.
Organization operates by matching client individuals who have a service to offer, to other client individuals who could use that service.
The areas immediately adjoining urban areas. Such areas are found outside formal urban boundaries and urban jurisdictions which are in a process of urbanization and which therefore progressively assume many of the characteristics of urban areas. Inhabitants in these areas generally fall into the low-income group of the community and mostly live in slums. These peri-urban areas are also seen as an interface between the urban and rural areas.
Source: Adapted from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
The risk that the carbon sequestered through the project would be reversed back into the atmosphere over time.
Protected land for which legal land use restrictions set for the purposes of maintaining biological diversity and natural resources are permanent and established in perpetuity. Being established in perpetuity means that the deed of conservation easement must state that the restriction remains on the property forever and is binding on current and future owners of the property. See definition for "Protected Land."
Source: Adapted from the United States Internal Revenue Service
Pesticides refers to insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, disinfectants, and any substance intended for preventing, destroying, attracting, repelling, or controlling any pest, including unwanted species of plants or animals during the production, storage, transport, distribution, and processing of food, agricultural commodities, or animal feeds that may be administered to animals for the control of parasites.
Organizations that use pesticides with varying levels of hazard can refer to the following source for further information on recommended classifications of pesticides by hazard level: The WHO Recommended Classification of Pesticides by Hazard.
Sources: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO)
The use of digital labor platforms where work is outsourced through either crowdwork (an open call to a geographically dispersed crowd) or location-based (usually via apps that allocate work to individuals, typically to perform local, service-oriented tasks such as driving or running errands). Often used as a synonym for the gig economy.
Source: "Job Quality in the Platform Economy." ILO, Global Commission on the Future of Work, 2018.
The time and place of patient care when a healthcare professional delivers products and services. Point of care assumes that test results will be available instantly or in a very short time frame to assist caregivers with immediate diagnosis and/or clinical intervention.
Source: The Navigating Impact project
Using a consumption-based approach to measure poverty, the poor are defined as individuals or households living below a recognized poverty line. Poverty lines establish the minimum income or expenditure that would meet a household’s basic needs. Commonly recognized poverty lines include (1) the national poverty line set by the national government and (2) the international US $3.20 per person per day expenditure at 2011 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).*
Commonly used tools to help determine the poverty level of households include:
Organizations should clearly footnote the poverty thresholds used, the sources referenced, and ensure that poverty is being measured properly at either the individual or household level. As many poverty estimation tools require sampling or other estimation techniques, organizations that rely on assumptions should footnote details used in the calculation process. For example, organizations that sell solar lanterns via a series of local network distributors might estimate the number of poor clients based on government data on poverty levels based on the geography of units sold. Details on how and why these assumptions were made should be footnoted.
*Sourced from The World Bank and their World Development Indicators.
**Absolute poverty is measured against a set, objective standard which allows for comparisons across countries. Relative poverty is measured against other households rather than against an absolute standard.
Water safe enough to be consumed by humans or used with low risk of immediate or long-term harm. Potable water can be used for domestic purposes, drinking, cooking, and personal hygiene.
Source: Adapted from the World Health Organization
A special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.
Source: Criterion Institute
An area of land especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of conservation values and managed through an enforceable legal mechanism.
Legal restrictions protecting land may be permanent or nonpermanent. See permanently protected land.
Source: Adapted from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Provisioning Values/Services are the goods or products that are obtained from ecosystems.
Source: World Resources Institute
Public toilets are sanitation facilities aimed primarily at people working in or passing through the area rather than at local residents. They tend to be near public places or activity areas including markets, commercial areas, commuting points, parks, religious and tourist places and areas homeless people visit.
An organization is qualified if it is a government entity or a publicly recognized charity or social purpose organization. The organization must be committed to ensuring the conservation purpose of the land. For example, qualified conservation organizations will generally have an established monitoring program such as annual property inspections to ensure compliance with the conservation goals or terms of the legal encumbrances on the land. The organization must also have the resources to enforce the restrictions of the conservation easement. Resources do not necessarily mean cash. Resources may be in the form of volunteer services such as lawyers who provide legal services or people who inspect and prepare monitoring reports.
Source: Adapted from the United States Internal Revenue Service
Peer review/supervision: formal quality performance assessment of staff, either through peer review mechanisms or supervision. Assessments often focus on documentation and record keeping. Emphasizing outcomes measurement and providing structured assessment criteria and forms improve the reliability of these mechanisms.
Audit and feedback: involves assessing how well staff are meeting accepted guidelines or standard practice, often by reviewing patients' charts or other documentation. The most common types of audit and feedback systems are (a) clinical error tracking, (b) guideline adherence monitoring, and (c) stocking and storage monitoring.
Checklists and logs: checklists, prompts, and log sheets are common tools for quality assurance in healthcare. Common examples are safety checklists for surgery and equipment maintenance logs.
Electronic monitoring systems: these systems collect and organize patient health and organizational performance data. They can be used to track patient outcomes, client flows, and manage equipment utilization.
Communication and education: structured learning and a focus on communication, human factors, and systematized ways of interacting. The most common techniques include classroom or small group-based training methods, conducting practical activities, and work based learning. Communication and education programs can target staff or patients.
Guidelines, protocols, and registries: these tools help provide more integrated, continuous, and evidence-based care. They provide recommendations and instructions for patient management and care.
Rangeland historically has been defined as land where the potential natural vegetation is predominantly grasses, grasslike plants, forbs, or shrubs, and where natural herbivory was an important influence in its pre-civilization state. Management techniques which associate soil, water, and forage-vegetation resources are more suitable for rangeland management than are practices generally used in managing pastureland. Some rangelands have been or may be seeded to introduced or domesticated plant species. Rangeland subcategories identified in the Anderson Land Classification system include: herbaceous range, shrub and brush rangeland, and mixed rangeland.
Recalls are actions taken by the organization to remove a product from the market. Recalls may be conducted on an organization's own initiative, by a regulatory body's request, or by a regulatory body's order under statutory authority.
Materials that comprise of processed recovered waste. Recycled materials may include glass, paper, metal, plastic, textiles, and electronics. Composted or other processed biodegradable waste is also considered recycled material.
Recycled Water is treated waste water that is used for beneficial purposes (e.g., previously used and treated water to be used for irrigation, toilet water, etc.).
Source: World Resources Institute
The reprocessing of materials into new products, which generally prevents the waste of potentially useful materials, reduces the consumption of raw materials, lowers energy usage, and decreases greenhouse gas emissions compared to virgin production.
Source: Adapted from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
Planting of forests on lands that have previously contained forest but have since been converted to some other use. Reforestation is a natural climate solution in which the carbon sequestration is determined by the area converted to forest land.
Sources: Griscom, Bronson W., Justin Adams, Peter W. Ellis, Richard A. Houghton, Guy Lomax, Daniela A. Miteva, William H. Schlesinger et al. “Natural Climate Solutions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114, no. 44 (October 31, 2017): 11645–650.
Regulating Values/Services are the benefits obtained from an ecosystem's control of natural processes. They include:
Sources: World Resources Institute
Cross-border, person-to-person payments of a relative low value. Typically, a private flow of funds between family members.
Source: IFAD
Renewable energy sources are those derived from natural processes that are capable of being replenished in a short time through ecological cycles. These sources have the benefit of being abundant, available in some capacity nearly everywhere, and they cause little if any environmental damage. Renewable energy sources include: Geothermal, Wind, Solar, Hydro, and Biomass. They also include electricity and heat generated from ocean, hydropower, biofuels, and hydrogen derived from renewable resources.
Source: Adapted from the Global Reporting Initiative
Number of students repeating a given grade in a given school year, expressed as a percentage of enrollment in that grade the previous school year.
Source: UNESCO
The reporting period is the time from the Report Start Date (OD6951) to the Report End Date (OD7111).
Responsible finance refers to offering financial services in an accountable, transparent, respectful, and ethical manner. The responsible finance movement in the inclusive finance sector consists of a series of well-coordinated initiatives to enhance client protection, strengthen social performance management, and define acceptable behavior for investors and donors. The most important of these are the Smart Campaign (Client Protection Principles) and the Social Performance Task Force (Universal Standards for Social Performance Management)
Source: The Navigating Impact project
Responsive care is the process of watching and tuning into your child’s cues, thinking about what they might mean, and then responding to them in a sensitive way. For more on this topic, see the Center for Child Development at Harvard University's resources on relationships and serve and return.
Revenue is the gross inflow of economic benefits arising in the course of the ordinary activities of an organization when those inflows result in increases in equity, excluding increases relating to contributions from equity participants. Revenue includes only the gross inflows of monies received and receivable by the organization on its own account. Amounts collected on behalf of third parties, such as sales taxes, goods and services taxes, and value added taxes are not economic benefits which flow to the entity and do not result in increases in equity. Therefore, they are excluded from revenue. Similarly, in an agency relationship, the gross inflows of economic benefits include amounts collected on behalf of the principal and do not result in increases in equity for the entity. The amounts collected on behalf of the principal are not revenue. Instead, revenue is the amount of commission.
Source: Alexander, David, Anne Britton, and Ann Jorissen. International Financial Reporting and Analysis. 3rd ed. London: Thomson Learning, 2007. 417. Google Books. Web.
In forestry, rotation is the time elapsed from planting to harvesting.
Source: "What We Do.” Ecotrust Forest Management. Accessed April 2019. https://efmi.com/management-approach/.
To sleep or bed down in the open air (such as on the streets or in doorways, parks, or bus shelters) or in buildings or other places not designed for habitation (such as barns, sheds, car parks, cars, derelict boats, stations, or 'bashes').
An even-toed ungulate mammal that chews the cud regurgitated from its rumen. The ruminants comprise the cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives.
Source: “Ruminant: Definition of Ruminant by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com.” Lexico Dictionaries.
Rural areas are those not characterized as peri-urban or urban. The traditional distinction between urban and rural areas within a country has been based on the assumption that urban areas, no matter how they are defined, provide a different way of life and usually a higher level of living than are found in rural areas. In many industrialized countries, this distinction has become blurred and the principal difference between urban and rural areas in terms of the circumstances of living tends to be a matter of the degree of concentration of population. Although the differences between urban and rural ways of life and standards of living remain significant in developing countries, rapid urbanization in these countries has created a great need for information related to different sizes of urban areas. This is when classification by size of locality can usefully supplement the urban-rural dichotomy or even replace it depending on the circumstances in the country.
Provision of financial services in rural areas that support a wide range of economic activities and households of various income levels.
Source: ILO
An improved drinking water source that is located on premises, available when needed, and free from fecal and priority chemical contamination.
Source: SDG Tracker. “Sustainable Development Goal 6: Ensure Access to Water and Sanitation For All.”
Sanitation facilities which are not shared with other households and ensure the hygienic separation of human excreta from human contact, treated either on- or off-site.
Source: World Health Organization. “Sanitation.” Fact sheet, June 14, 2019.
Employees who are paid on a fixed basis, receiving a predetermined amount (as defined in a contract, for example) that is not subject to deductions for the quality or quantity of work. Salaried employees' earnings are not contingent on the amount of time worked and are typically paid for a defined term (e.g., yearly).
Science-based targets are a set of goals developed by a business to provide it with a clear route to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. An emissions reduction target is defined as 'science-based' if it is developed in line with the scale of reductions required to keep global warming below 2C from pre-industrial levels.
Source:
Sex refers to the biology of an individual with specific reference to their chromosomal, hormonal and anatomical characteristics that are used to classify them as female, male, or intersex at birth.
Source: Criterion Institute
Unwelcome sexual advances or verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, abusive, or offensive working environment.
Behavior that qualifies as sexual harassment includes the following:
Source: International Labor Organization, and search "sexual harassment"
Sexual orientation refers to an individual’s romantic and/or sexual attraction to another person. It includes but is not limited to: asexual, bisexual, gay, lesbian, straight, etc.
Source: Criterion Institute
Toilets for the shared use of a defined group of local residents of several households as their main toilet facility, often belonging to one of the households.
A local practice in the tropics where "land is cleared and burned for short-term cultivation of subsistence crops." Often this land is left to regenerate after harvesting.
Source: Curtis, Philip G., Christy M. Slay, Nancy L. Harris, Alexandra Tyukavina, and Matthew C. Hansen. “Classifying Drivers of Global Forest Loss.” Science 361, no. 6407 (September 2018): 1108–11.
The art and science of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests and woodlands to meet the diverse needs and values of landowners and society such as wildlife habitat, timber, water resources, restoration, and recreation on a sustainable basis.
The innate or learned ability to apply knowledge acquired through experience, study, practice, or instruction, and to perform tasks and duties required by a given job. Skills may be: (1) job-specific or technical skills, (2) basic skills (literacy and numeracy), or (3) generic, transversal, soft, or portable skills.
Source: "Qualification and Skill Mismatch: Concepts and Measurement." ILO, 2017.
A discrepancy between the skills that are sought by employers and the skills that are possessed by individuals. This means that education and training are not providing the skills demanded in the labor market, or that the economy does not create jobs that correspond to the skills of individuals.
SOURCE: "What is Skills Mismatch and Why Should We Care?" ILO, 2020.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are non-subsidiary, independent firms which employ fewer than a given number of employees. This number varies across countries. The most frequent upper limit designating an SME is 250 employees, as in the European Union. However, some countries set the limit at 200 employees, while the United States considers SMEs to include firms with fewer than 500 employees.
Small firms are generally those with fewer than 50 employees, while micro-enterprises have at most 10, or in some cases 5, workers.
Financial assets are also used to define SMEs. In the European Union, a new definition came into force on 1 January 2005 applying to all Community acts and funding programmes as well as in the field of State aid where SMEs can be granted higher intensity of national and regional aid than large companies. The new definition provides for an increase in the financial ceilings: the turnover of medium-sized enterprises (50-249 employees) should not exceed EUR 50 million; that of small enterprises (10-49 employees) should not exceed EUR 10 million while that of micro firms (less than 10 employees) should not exceed EUR 2 million. Alternatively, balance sheets for medium, small and micro enterprises should not exceed EUR 43 million, EUR 10 million and EUR 2 million, respectively.
Source: OECD glossary
Smallholder farmers are marginal and sub-marginal farm households constrained in size and resources. Some sources define smallholder farmers as those who cultivate between 1 hectare to 10 hectares (for more semi-arid areas) of land. While they will vary in farm size and crop/livestock distribution according to their activity and region, common characteristics of smallholder farmers are that they have low access to technology, limited resources in terms of capital, skills, and risk management, depend on family labor for most activities, and have limited capacity in terms of storage, marketing, and processing.
Organizations should detail the characteristics of the smallholders they reference, including the size of land managed.
Forestry practiced by smallholders on land that is privately owned.
Source: Gilmour, Don. Forty Years of Community-Based Forestry: A Review of Its Extent and Effectiveness. FAO Forestry Paper 176. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: 2016.
A smart meter is an electronic device that records information such as consumption of electric energy, voltage levels, current, and power factor. Smart meters communicate the information to the consumer for greater clarity of consumption behavior, and electricity suppliers for system monitoring and customer billing.
Source:
McGovern, Hayden. “What Is a Smart Meter?” SmartEnergy, December 2016.
Social performance management (SPM) refers to the systems that organizations use to achieve their stated social goals and put customers at the center of strategy and operations. A provider's social performance refers to its effectiveness in achieving its stated social goals and creating value for clients. If a provider has strong SPM practices, it is more likely to achieve strong social performance.
Source: Social Performance Task Force.
An organization controlled by an individual owner.
Source: Adapted from the United States Internal Revenue Service
Solidarity Group lending refers to the use of groups for disbursement of funds and collection of repayment on loans to either the group as a whole or to the individual members of that group. Borrowers of such groups often bear joint and several liability for the repayment of all loans to the group and its members. This group liability may also determine credit decisions made by the institution. Solidarity Groups vary in the degrees to which they use groups for credit decisions, disbursement, collection, or to reduce credit risk. For IRIS, loans are considered to be of the Solidarity Group methodology when some aspect of loan consideration depends on the group, including credit analysis, liability, guarantee, collateral, and loan size and conditions.
A person with an interest or concern in something, especially a business. Stakeholders may include customers, clients, users, end users, constituent, and beneficiaries.
Source: The Impact Management Project.
Includes work exacted by public authorities, military, or paramilitary; compulsory participation in public works; and forced prison labor
Source: "Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage." ILO, 2017.
A stock-out is a situation in which an item is out of stock (for example, when a pharmacy runs out of a certain type of medicine or health supply).
Source: The Navigating Impact project
Runoff generated from rain and snowmelt events that flow over land or impervious surfaces, such as paved streets, parking lots, and building rooftops, and does not soak into the ground.
IRIS+ includes common strategic goals deployed by impact investors to achieve established social or environmental impact objectives within generally accepted impact categories and themes. Strategic goals included in IRIS+ have been recognized as common practice and are supported by evidence and research. A corresponding core metrics sets has been created for each strategic goal in IRIS+. Source: IRIS+ Thematic Taxonomy
A stream refers to a natural flowing body of water. It typically has a current and is confined within a bed and stream banks.
Organizations can refer to the following sources for further information on the definition of a stream:
The term student-centered learning refers to a wide variety of educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic-support strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students. To accomplish this goal, schools, teachers, guidance counselors, and other educational specialists may employ a wide variety of educational methods, from modifying assignments and instructional strategies in the classroom to entirely redesigning the ways in which students are grouped and taught in a school.
Source: The Glossary of Education Reform. "Student-Centered Learning."
Stunting is the impaired growth and development that children experience from poor nutrition, repeated infection, and inadequate psychosocial stimulation. Children are defined as stunted if their height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards median.
Source: World Health Organization. "Stunting in a Nutshell."
Business that provides goods or services to an organization to help move a product or service from the organization to its customer.
Supporting Values/Services are the natural processes that maintain the other ecosystem services.
Source: World Resources Institute
A supportive environment includes physical space, equipment and materials, daily structure and planning, as well as positive and engaged relationships between adults and children. The environment needs to be carefully planned based on knowledge of typical development of children, as well as the specific developmental needs of the population. Many factors influence children’s learning and behavior. Thus, the environment should be thoughtfully designed to be responsive to children’s needs, and should provide opportunities for learning and growth in all developmental domains and curriculum areas. One critical element of a supportive learning environment is active engagement with a parent or caretaker, also known as “serve and return.” For more on serve and return, see Harvard University's Center for the Developing Child, and for more on responsive learning environments, see Teacher Time.
Source: State Government of Massachusetts. “Building Supportive Learning Environments.”
Source: Harvard University's Center for the Developing Child
Water on the surface of the Earth, such as streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, or oceans.
Sustainable cultivation/farming practices commonly include: crop rotations that mitigate weeds, disease, insect, and other pest problems, provide alternative sources of soil nitrogen, reduce soil erosion, and reduce risk of water contamination by agricultural chemicals. Common practices also include pest control strategies that are not harmful to natural systems, farmers, their neighbors, or consumers. This includes integrated pest management techniques that reduce the need for pesticides by practices such as: scouting, use of resistant cultivars, timing of planting, biological pest controls, increased mechanical/biological weed control, more soil and water conservation practices, strategic use of animal and green manures, and use of natural or synthetic inputs in a way that poses no significant hazard to man, animals, or the environment.
The stewardship and use of forests and forest lands in a way, and at a rate, that maintains their biological diversity, productivity, regeneration capacity, vitality and their potential to fulfill, now and in the future, relevant ecological economic and social functions, at local, national and global levels, and that does not cause damage on other ecosystems.
Sustainable stewardship is a holistic approach intended over the long term to: enhance environmental quality and the natural resource base; make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources and integrate, where appropriate, natural biological cycles and controls; sustain the economic viability of working landscapes; and enhance the quality of life for those living and working on the land and society as a whole. Stewardship refers to land management practices as opposed to legal restrictions on the use of the land. Economic activities that take place on sustainably stewarded land may include sustainable farming, ranching, forestry, and recreation. More specifically:
A comprehensive term referring to those aspects of the educational process involving deliberate interventions in the study of technologies and related sciences to bring about learning that supports the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding, and knowledge that make people more productive in designated areas of economic activity (e.g., economic sectors, occupations, specific work tasks, etc.).
Temporary employees are defined as seasonal and contract employees. Seasonal employees are primarily used in agriculture or fisheries. Contracted employees are generally hired for the completion of a specific task.
The length of time until a loan is due.
Source: Nasdaq
The certainty that a person's rights to land will be recognized by others and protected in cases of specific challenges.
Source: Ding, Helen, Peter G. Veit, Allen Blackman, Erin Gray, Katie Reytar, Juan Carlos Altamirano, and Benjamin Hodgdon. Climate Benefits, Tenure Costs: The Economic Case for Securing Indigenous Land Rights in the Amazon. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2016.
The theory of change (also referred to as the Theory of Value Creation or Logic Model) is an expression of the sequence of cause-and-effect actions or occurrences by which organizational and financial resources are assumed to be converted into the desired social results. It provides a conceptual road map for how an organization expects to achieve its intended impact and is often displayed in a diagram. A framework built around concepts of activities, inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impacts is called a logic model or impact value chain.
Sources:
Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. The term threatened is an umbrella term for a group of categories that captures various levels of threat to the species, ranging from vulnerable species to endangered species to critically endangered species.
Organizations can refer to the following sources for further guidance and for clarification on the classification definitions cited herein:
A minimal or symbolic effort to advance social justice, often associated with recruiting a small number of people or single person from underrepresented groups to give the appearance of diversity and equality.
Materials contaminating the environment that cause death, disease, or birth defects in the organisms that ingest or absorb them. The quantities and the length of exposure necessary to cause these effects can vary widely.
Source: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
Renewable energy certificates (RECs) represent the environmental attributes associated with one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity production. RECs can be traded, bought and sold separately from commodity electricity.
Source:
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth. Being transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation. Therefore, transgender people may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, etc.
Source: Human Rights Campaign
Tundra is the term applied to the treeless regions beyond the limit of the boreal forest and above the altitudinal limit of trees in high mountain ranges. The timber line which separates forest and tundra in alpine regions corresponds to an arctic transition zone in which trees are increasingly restricted to the most favorable sites. The vegetative cover of the tundra is low, dwarfed, and often forms a complete mat. These plant characteristics are in large part the result of adaptation to the physical environment (one of the most extreme on Earth), where temperatures may average above freezing only one or two months out of the year, where strong desiccating winds may occur, where great variation in solar energy received may exist, and where permafrost is encountered almost everywhere beneath the vegetative cover.
The Anderson Land Classification System includes the following subcategories of Tundra: shrub and brush tundra, herbaceous tundra, bare ground tundra, wet tundra, and mixed tundra.
Countries, areas and territories are classified into regional groups as defined by the UN for the reporting of SDG indicators in 2017. The SDG regional groupings are as follows:
Sub-Saharan Africa
North Africa and Western Asia
Central and Southern Asia
Eastern and South-eastern Asia
Latin America and the Caribbean
Australia and New Zealand
Oceania
Europe and North America
Source: The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2019
Those who do not have access to the services of a bank or similar financial organization.
Source: The Navigating Impact project
Those who do not use all the financial services that those with that level of income would normally be expected to use.
Source: The Navigating Impact project
Upcycling, also known as creative reuse, is the process of transforming by-products, waste materials, useless, or unwanted products into new materials or products perceived to be of greater quality, such as artistic value or environmental value.
Source:
“What Is Upcycling: A Simple Upcycling Definition Around Sustainability.” Youmatter, January 2020.
Urban areas are characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Use guidelines as defined by the area's national government.
Urban or Built-up Land is comprised of areas of intensive use with much of the land covered by structures. Included in this category are cities, towns, villages, strip developments along highways, transportation, power, communications facilities, areas such as those occupied by mills, shopping centers, industrial and commercial complexes, and institutions that may, in some instances, be isolated from urban areas.
Using a consumption-based approach to measure poverty, the very poor are individuals or households living below a recognized extreme poverty line. Poverty lines establish the minimum income or expenditure that would meet a household’s basic needs. The $1.90 per person per day 2011 PPP line is the World Bank’s current definition of extreme poverty. Another commonly used measure of very poor is individuals or households in the bottom 20% of the national population.
Commonly used tools to help determine the poverty level of households include:
Organizations should clearly footnote the poverty thresholds used, the sources referenced, and ensure that the unit of measure (individual or household) matches the organization’s definition of target stakeholders. As many poverty estimation tools require sampling or other estimation techniques, organizations that rely on assumptions should footnote details used in the calculation process. For example, organizations that sell solar lanterns via a series of local network distributors might estimate the number of poor clients based on government data on poverty levels based the geography of units sold. Details on how and why these assumptions were made should be footnoted.
*Sourced from The World Bank and their World Development Indicators.
Village Banking and Self-Help Groups refer to methodologies that provide access to credit and savings services through group or community managed associations. Loans from microfinance institutions (MFIs) are considered of this type when the MFI lends to the group, which in turn uses this money to lend to its members. Loans to the Village Bank or Self-Help Group are made under the collective guarantee of the group. Loans may also be made from the retained profits of the group or from group members' savings. These loans are considered internal to the Village Bank or Self-Help Group.
Voluntary savings accounts are funds that individuals or organizations voluntarily deposit or withdrawal. Voluntary accounts are philosophically different than compulsory savings which had been introduced as a condition for obtaining a loan and are designed to ensure that clients are able to meet their repayments.
An individual that works for the organization without payment or other formal compensation for their time or services.
Source: Adapted from International Labor Organization Manual on the Measurement of Volunteer Work
Refers to the categories of workers who usually do not have job security, are not covered by basic protections such as social security or social dialogue, or do not have a stable income. Vulnerable workers include own-account workers, contributing family workers, and less commonly, some employed persons holding paid jobs that lack basic criteria for decent jobs.
Source: "Paid Employment vs. Vulnerable Employment." ILO, 2018.
A type of guarantee that an organization makes regarding the condition of its product or effectiveness of its service. It also refers to the terms and situations in which repairs or exchanges will be made in the event that the product or service does not function as originally described or intended.
Used water of reduced quality discharged from a site.
Source: Connor, Richard, and Koncagül, Engin. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2014: Water and Energy. Paris, UNESCO, 2014.
The process of purifying wastewater, removing contaminants and converting it into an effluent that can be discharged with minimum impact on the environment, or directly reused. Can be centralized or decentralized treatment from both sewerage and on-site sanitation.
Source: Science Direct. "Waste Water Treatment."
The quality of a natural water body in terms of physical, chemical and biological parameters. The relevant quality standards are defined by national or local regulation and guidelines. Where these are absent, then international standards and guidelines should be applied.
Source: Connor, Richard, and Koncagül, Engin. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2014: Water and Energy. Paris, UNESCO, 2014.
Water conservation refers to efforts made to preserve, control, develop water resources, and prevent pollution. This may include reducing the total amount of water needed to carry out current processes or tasks but does not include overall reduction in water consumption from reduced organizational activities (e.g., partial outsourcing of production). Conservation efforts include organizational or technological innovations that allow a defined process or task to consume water more efficiently. This includes improved water management practices, process redesign, the conversion and retrofitting of equipment (e.g., water-efficient equipment), or the elimination of unnecessary water use due to changes in behavior.
Source: Adapted from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
An imbalance between the supply and demand of freshwater as a result of a high level of demand compared to available supply, under prevailing institutional arrangements (including price) and infrastructural conditions.
Physical water scarcity occurs when natural water bodies have insufficient water, whether caused by natural conditions (for example, in arid regions) or by excessive water abstraction for human use. Economic water scarcity occurs when supply to humans is insufficient despite water being naturally abundant. This results from under-investment in water supply infrastructure, whether due to poverty or mismanagement.
Alliance for Water Stewardship. “International Water Stewardship Standard, Version 2.0.” Alliance for Water Stewardship, North Berwick, Scotland, March 22, 2019.
The physical structure from which a water supply is abstracted from a water body. For groundwater, it may be a natural spring, a borehole or water well. For surface water, it is a ‘water intake’. It can also include the immediate surrounding zone of the main water body, in effect, the zone that feeds the point of abstraction. It may apply to multiple abstraction points where they are associated, for example, a wellfield.
Source: Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Global Wetland Outlook: State of the World’s Wetlands and their Services to People. Gland, Switzerland: Ramsar Convention Secretariat, 2018.
The baseline water stress is a ratio of the total water withdrawal to the freshwater availability in a specific water source.
High water stress is defined as a ratio of 40-80% and extremely high is defined as a ratio of greater than 80%. High levels of baseline water stress indicate that demand for freshwater approaches or exceeds the renewable surface freshwater supply, which may lead to greater socio-economic competition for freshwater and a higher risk of supply disruptions.
Source: World Resource Institute
Water drawn from surface water, groundwater, seawater, or a third party for any use.
Source: GRI Disclosure 303.
Wetlands are those areas where the water table is at, near, or above the land surface for a significant part of most years. The hydrologic regime is such that aquatic or hydrophytic vegetation is usually established, although alluvial and tidal flats may be nonvegetated. Wetlands are frequently associated with topographic lows, even in mountainous regions. Examples of wetlands include: marshes, mudflats, and swamps situated on the shallow margins of bays, lakes, ponds, streams, and manmade impoundments such as reservoirs. They also include wet meadows or perched bogs in high mountain valleys and seasonally wet or flooded basins, playas, or potholes with no surface water outflow. Shallow water areas where aquatic vegetation is submerged are classified as open water and are not included in the Wetland category.
Extensive parts of some river flood plains qualify as Wetlands, as do regularly flooded irrigation overflow areas. These do not include agricultural land where seasonal wetness or short-term flooding may provide an important component of the total annual soil moisture necessary for crop production. Areas in which soil wetness or flooding is so short-lived that no typical wetlands vegetation is developed properly belong in other categories.
Cultivated wetlands such as the flooded fields associated with rice production and developed cranberry bogs are classified as Agricultural Land.
Uncultivated wetlands from which wild rice, cattails, wood products, and so forth are harvested or wetlands grazed by livestock are retained in the Wetland category. Wetland areas drained for any purpose belong to other land use and land cover categories such as Agricultural Land, Rangeland, Forest Land, or Urban or Built-up Land. When the drainage is discontinued and such use ceases, classification may revert to Wetland. The Anderson Land Classification System includes two subcategories of Wetland: Forested and Nonforested.
(1) workers whose contract of employment leads to classification as belonging to the groups of “casual workers,” “short-term workers,” or “seasonal workers"; (2) workers whose contract of employment allows employing enterprise or person to terminate the contract at short notice and/or at will, with the specific circumstances determined by national legislation and custom. In the first case, workers may be classified as “employees” or “own-account workers” according to the characteristics of the employment contract.
Workers under the first category include:
● Casual workers: contracts are not expected to continue for more than a very short period.
● Seasonal workers: contract duration is influenced by seasonal factors, such as climate, public holidays, and agricultural season.
● Short-term workers: contracts are expected to last for a short period, but longer than those of casual workers.
Source: "Decent Work Indicators - Guidelines for Producers and Users of Statistical and Legal Framework Indicators." ILO, 2013.
Contracts that have no guaranteed minimum number of hours.
Source: "Non-Standard Employment Around the World: Understanding Challenges, Shaping Prospects." ILO, 2016.