The ESG Reporting Glossary for Manufacturers

This glossary defines the terms manufacturers encounter in sustainability reporting, emissions accounting and regulatory compliance — from the frameworks that mandate disclosure to the data concepts behind an audit-ready emissions inventory.

Entries are reviewed and updated as regulations change. New terms are added regularly.

Working with a term we haven’t covered? Send it to glossary@tracera.com and we’ll consider it for a future update.

REPORTING FRAMEWORKS

The laws and standards that determine who must disclose what, where — and which materiality lens applies.

CSDDD (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive)

CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)

Double Materiality

ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards)

EU Taxonomy

ISSB and IFRS S1 and S2

SB 253 and SB 261 (California Climate Disclosure Laws)

VSME (Voluntary Sustainability Reporting Standard for SMEs)

Emissions Fundamentals

The building blocks of a greenhouse gas inventory: what gets counted, how it’s categorized and the protocol nearly every regime builds on.

CO₂e (carbon dioxide equivalent)

GHG Protocol

Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)

Scope 1 and 2 emissions

Scope 3 Emissions

Trade and Border Mechanisms

The rules that put a carbon price on goods as they cross a border, and the carbon markets those prices come from.