The process of determining energy consumption, by various techniques, of a building or facility. Source: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Refers to products or systems using less energy to do the same or better job than conventional products or systems. Energy efficiency saves energy, saves money on utility bills, and helps protect the environment by reducing the demand for electricity. Source: Environmental Protection Agency

ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy helping us all save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. In 1992 EPA introduced ENERGY STAR as a voluntary labeling program designed to identify and promote energy-efficient products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Source: Energy Star

Products or services that have a lesser or reduced effect on the environment.

Fossil fuels are the nation’s principal source of electricity. Fossil fuels come in three major forms: coal, oil, and natural gas. Because fossil fuels are a finite resource and cannot be replenished once they are extracted and burned, they are not considered renewable. Source: Environmental Protection Agency

The adjective used to describe people, behaviors, products, policies, standards, processes, places, movements or ideas that promote, protect, restore or minimize damage to the environment. 

Gases in the Earth's atmosphere that produce the greenhouse effect. Changes in the concentration of certain greenhouse gases, due to human activity such as fossil fuel burning, increase the risk of global climate change. Greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, halogenated fluorocarbons, ozone, perfluorinated carbons, and hydro fluorocarbons. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Graywater is untreated household waste water from bathroom sinks, showers, bathtubs, and clothes washing machines., which can be reused for irrigation after filtration. Source: Environmental Protection Agency/ Water Sense

LEED is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED gives building owners and operators the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings' performances. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. Source:U.S. Green Building Council

Environmental pollution consisting of the excess of harmful or annoying light.

One of LID's primary goals is to reduce runoff volume by infiltrating rainfall water to groundwater, evaporating rainwater back to the atmosphere after a storm and finding beneficial uses for water rather than exporting it as a waste product down storm sewers. The result is a landscape functionally equivalent to predevelopment hydrologic conditions, which means less surface runoff and less pollution damage to lakes, streams and coastal waters. Source: Natural Resource Defense Council

A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is a standard metric unit of measurement for electricity. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Materials destined for the garbage dump but were, instead, rescued and refurbished as a new product. The floor of an old bowling alley can be reclaimed and turned into a dining room table, or bricks from a demolished structure can be used to build a fireplace hearth. The use of glass shards in ceramic tiles is another example of the use of reclaimed material. 

Materials that have been taken from one product and made into a new product. The recycling process generally saves energy and reduces the need to extract additional raw resources from the earth. The most commonly recycled products in the United States include paper, glass, steel and aluminum, all of which can be reincarnated as the products they were recycled from. Packages with Post-Consumer Recycled Content are made from materials that were recycled instead of being sent to a landfill. 

Resources that can be replenished quickly after use so that they are not permanently diminished or depleted. Renewable energy sources include the sun (solar power), wind, flowing water and geothermal heat. Renewable material resources include algae, grasses and some fast-growing trees. Substituting renewable resources for nonrenewable resources (e.g., coal, oil, gasoline and other fossil fuels) is the key to sustainability. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The process of comprehensive, integrative program planning that considers, at a minimum, the future of current decisions, overall policy, organizational development, and links to operational plans.

 An effective action planning session allows a diverse group of participants to:

To create and maintain conditions, under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic,and other requirements of present and future generations. Source: Executive Order on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance