GREEN GLOSSARY
“Wisdom is the capacity to know what we don’t know.” – Paul Hawken

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> RECs – Renewable Energy Certificates; represents the environmental attributes created when electricity is generated using renewable resources instead of fossil fuels. RECs can be sold separately from their associated electricity, and enables customers to ‘green’ the electricity they consume.

> Reclamation – The act of retrieving any material from a waste stream in order to save it from loss and restore it to usefulness.

> Recyclability – The ability of a product or material to be recovered from or otherwise diverted from the waste stream.

> Renewable Energy – Energy derived from sources that do not become depleted such as the sun, wind, water currents, eligible biomass, and geothermal energy.

> Restorative Economics – Restoring the environment, conducting business and making money in the same process. “The act of restoration involves recognizing that something has been lost, used up or removed. To restore is to bring back or return something to its original state.” (Hawken, Paul. Ecology of Commerce, 1993)

> Sick Building Syndrome – Instances in which building occupants experience acute health and discomfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in a building, but no specific illness or cause can be identified. (Contrast to “Building Related Illness.”)

> Social Responsibility – The continuing commitment by businesses to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workplace as well as the local community and society at large.

> Sustainability – (1) Meeting the needs of today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. (Our Common Future, World Commission on Environment & Development, 1987.) (2) A society’s rate of use of renewable resources should not exceed their rates of regeneration; its rate of use of non-renewable resources should not exceed the rate at which sustainable renewable substitutes are developed; and its rates of pollution emissions should not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment. (Elkington, John. Cannibals with Forks, 1998.)

MTS Seating makes every effort to avoid “greenwashing” by complying with the Federal Trade Commission’s Part 260 Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims. Please feel free to contact Jennifer White, Sustainability Coordinator, or Dave Dimmer, Marketing Manager, with any questions or feedback.