Sustainability Glossary

B Corp Certification is a designation that a business is meeting high standards of verified performance, accountability, and transparency on factors from employee benefits and charitable giving to supply chain practices and input materials. In order to achieve certification, a company must:

• Demonstrate high social and environmental performance by achieving a B Impact Assessment score of 80 or above and passing our risk review. Multinational corporations must also meet baseline requirement standards.


• Make a legal commitment by changing their corporate governance structure to be accountable to all stakeholders, not just shareholders, and achieve benefit corporation status if available in their jurisdiction.


• Exhibit transparency by allowing information about their performance measured against B Lab’s standards to be publicly available on their B Corp profile on B Lab’s website.

Source: B Lab

Biodegradable refers to substances or objects that can be broken down by bacteria or other living organisms. Be careful with this term because it doesn’t always mean the product is good for the environment. A biodegradable product can produce harmful materials as it breaks down. For example, some biodegradable plastics produce methane as they decompose in landfills—and it’s a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon. Source: Natalie Lowe, CMM, CRL, a sustainable meeting professional with 30 years of experience.

The global market for BMS will reach $5.15 billion by 2026 from $3.52 billion in 2021, which represents a 7.9% compound annual growth rate, according to Frost & Sullivan’s BMS market forecast. BMS systems typically include electric systems monitoring; HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning); central fume collection & vacuum systems; technical steam system; hot water system and central heating; chilled water system; sprinkler system for fire safety; and more.