Glossary
Environmental education: The goal of environmental education is: To develop a world population that is aware of, and concerned about the environment and its associated problems, and which has the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations and commitment to work individually and collectively toward solutions to current problems, and the prevention of new ones. (United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), 1975)
Formal education: Formal education refers to the structured education system that runs from primary (and in some countries from nursery) school to university, and includes specialised programmes for vocational, technical and professional training. Formal education often comprises an assessment of the learners’ acquired learning or competences and is based on a programme or curriculum which can be more or less closed to adaptation to individual needs and preferences. Formal education usually leads to recognition and certification (Council of Europe)
Non-formal education: Non-formal education refers to planned, structured programmes and processes of personal and social education for young people designed to improve a range of skills and competences, outside the formal educational curriculum. Non-formal education is what happens in places such as youth organisations, sports clubs and drama and community groups where young people meet, for example, to undertake projects together, play games, discuss, go camping, or make music and drama. Non-formal education achievements are usually difficult to certify, even if their social recognition is increasing.(…).(Council of Europe)
Informal education: Informal education refers to a lifelong learning process, whereby each individual acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from the educational influences and resources in his or her own environment and from daily experience. People learn from family and neighbours, in the market place, at the library, at art exhibitions, at work and through playing, reading and sports activities. The mass media are a very important medium for informal education, for instance through plays and film, music and songs, televised debates and documentaries. Learning in this way is often unplanned and unstructured.
Entrepreneur: Someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity (Cambridge dictionary)
Dumpster diving: The activity of searching through dumpsters or other large containers holding waste, in order to find food that can still be eaten or objects that can still be used (Cambridge dictionary)
Climate change: Climate change is a change in the usual weather found in a place. This could be a change in how much rain a place usually gets in a year. Or it could be a change in a place’s usual temperature for a month or season. Nasa
Deforestation: Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Wikipedia
Biodiversity: Biodiversity refers to the variety of living species on Earth, including plants animals,bacteria, and fungi. National Geographic
Greenhouse effect: The greenhouse effect is the process by which radiation from a planet’s atmosphere warms the planet’s surface to a temperature above what it would be without this atmosphere. Wikipedia
Sustainable consumption: Sustainable consumption is the use of services and related products which respond to basic needs and which bring a better quality of life to people. UNESCO
Sustainable production: Sustainable production is the creation of goods and services using processes and systems that are non-polluting, that conserve and preserve energy and natural resources, that are economically viable, safe and healthy for workers and consumers, and that are socially and creatively rewarding. UNESCO
Energy production: Energy production refers to how much primary energy a country extracts from nature. This is the total of all of the harvested primary fuels and primary energy flows. Energy Education.
Renewable Energy Sources: Energy resources that are replenished naturally, but the supply of which can be endangered by overuse or subject to weather.
Non-renewable Energy Sources: Energy resources that form in extremely slow geological processes like coal and coal products, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power
Energy Consumption: Energy Consumption is the amount of energy or power used. Energy consumption refers to ALL the energy used to perform an action, manufacture something or simply inhabit a building
Sustainable Food Production: Sustainable food production is “a method of production using processes and systems that are non-polluting, conserve non-renewable energy and natural resources, are economically efficient, are safe for workers, communities and consumers, and do not compromise the needs of future generations (Foresight, 2011).
Water Use: Water use describes the total amount of water withdrawn from its source to be used. World Resources Institute
Water Consumption: Water consumption is the portion of water use that is not returned to the original water source after being withdrawn. Consumption occurs when water is lost into the atmosphere through evaporation or incorporated into a product or plant and is no longer available for reuse. World Resources Institute
Refuse: Simply means say NO. Esquire
Reduce: Reduce is about using less and having less of an impact on the environment. Part of throwing away less is buying less, and being more mindful as a consumer. Esquire
Reuse: Reuse is the action or practice of using an item, whether for its original purpose (conventional reuse) or to fulfill a different function (creative reuse or repurposing). Wikipedia
Recycle: Recycling is is the process of converting waste materials into new materials and objects. Wikipedia