Action: A specific step taken to implement a strategy.

Adaptation: Actions taken to increase resilience to climate change impacts by reducing vulnerability.

Adaptive capacity: The ability of people, ecosystems, or assets to adjust to climate change to avoid potential damages or cope with the consequences.

Affinity Group: A collection of individuals who share a common identity characteristic.

Benchmarking: Evaluate or check (something) by comparison with a standard.

Business as usual: The scenario in which future greenhouse gas emissions are forecast assuming no further mitigating actions are taken other than those mandated by state or federal policy.

Carbon offset: Any activity that compensates for the emission of GHG by providing for an emission reduction elsewhere.

Climate change: A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.

Climate justice: a term that acknowledges climate change can have differing social, economic, public health, and other adverse impacts on underprivileged populations.

Climate model: A quantitative method to simulate interactions of the important drivers of climate—including atmosphere, oceans, land, and ice—to develop projections of future climate.

Climate scenario: A coherent, internally consistent, plausible description of possible climatic conditions.

Co-benefit: Indirect benefits to the community (e.g., public health, economic, equity) caused by climate adaptation and mitigation policies.

Decarbonization: The conversion to an economic system that sustainably reduces and compensates the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂).

Ecosystem-based adaptation: Using and enhancing natural systems as part of an overall adaptation strategy to help people and communities adapt to the negative effects of climate change.

Ecosystem services: Contributions of ecosystems to human well-being. For example, ecosystems produce resources used by humans such as clean air, water, food, open space, flood control, climate mitigation, and other benefits.

Electrification: Electrification refers to the process of replacing technologies that use fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) with technologies that use electricity as a source of energy.

Environmental justice: Environmental justice ensures that communities are not disproportionately impacted by degradation of the environment or receive a less than equitable share of environmental protection and benefits.

Evaluation criteria: Factors to consider in identifying priorities when exploring the benefits and trade-offs associated with options to mitigate or adapt to climate change.

Equity: The Climate Plan recognizes four types of equity:

Distributive equity: Directs benefits to those who need it most.
Structural equity: Rectifies inequities for marginalized communities.
Procedural equity: Inclusion and two-way communication with underrepresented communities. Considers linguistic, cultural, and other needs for participation.
Interactional equity: Power sharing and co-development of policy with community members.

Exposure: The presence of people, ecosystems, or assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected by climate change impacts.

Fossil fuels: A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, crude oil and natural gas.

Green bank: Green banks facilitate private investment into domestic low-carbon, climate-resilient infrastructure.

Goal: A broad, high-level statement of future outcome that will be achieved through strategies and actions.

Greenhouse gas (GHG): Any gaseous compound in the atmosphere that is capable of absorbing infrared radiation, thereby trapping and holding heat in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and other compounds.

Green infrastructure: An approach to water management that protects, restores, or mimics the natural water cycle.

Green roofs: Roofs designed with vegetation to absorb heat, carbon dioxide, and rainwater.

Groundwater: Water that occurs beneath the water table in soils and geologic formations that are fully saturated.

Hazard: The potential occurrence of a natural or human-induced physical event that may cause loss of life, injury, or other health impacts, as well as damage and loss to property, infrastructure, livelihoods, service provision, and environmental resources.

Heat island: An area characterized by temperatures higher than those of the surrounding area, usually due to exposed pavement and lack of tree canopy.

Human-centered design (HCD): An approach to problem-solving that develops solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process.

Impact: An effect of climate change on the structure or function of a system: for example, environmental consequences of climate change, such as extreme heat waves, rising sea levels, or changes in precipitation resulting in flooding and droughts.

Indicators: Observations or calculations that can be used to track and communicate conditions and trends.

Marginalized groups: Those excluded from mainstream social, economic, educational, and/or cultural life. Examples of marginalized populations include, but are not limited to, groups excluded due to race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, language, and/or immigration status.

Metric: A quantitative measure (and units of data) used to determine if progress is being made toward a goal.

Mitigation: A human intervention to reduce the human impact on the climate system; it includes strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Net zero greenhouse gas emissions: Balancing the amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount of carbon sequestered.

Objective: A specific aspect of a goal that indicates steps that will be taken or progress that will be made to achieve the goal.

Paris Agreement: A legally binding international treaty on climate change.

Performance metrics: Quantitative measures to assess change or progress toward climate goals.

Pocket park: Urban open spaces on a small-scale and provide a safe and inviting environment for surrounding community members.

Renewable energy certificate: a market-based instrument that represents the property rights to the environmental, social, and other non-power attributes of renewable electricity generation.

Regenerative architecture: The practice of engaging the natural world as the medium for, and generator of the architecture. It responds to and utilizes the living and natural systems that exist on a site that become the “building blocks” of the architecture.

Resilience: The ability to recover quickly from climate change impacts.

Risk: Threat posed by a negative impact or hazard event. It is the combination of likelihood and consequence.

Scenarios: A plausible and often simplified representation of the future climate based on an internally consistent set of climatological relationships.

Sensitivity: The degree to which people, ecosystems, or assets are affected by climate change.

Strategy: A method or approach taken to achieve a goal.

Stretch code: A locally mandated code or alternative compliance path that is more aggressive than the base code, resulting in buildings that achieve higher energy savings.

Sustainability: Meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Terrawatt-hours: A unit of energy equal to outputting one trillion watts for one hour.

Triple-bottom line (TBL): A more comprehensive approach in measuring impact and success that focuses on the interconnections of people, planet, and profit through a systems lens theory.

Vision: An aspirational statement that describes the organization’s purpose, values, and picture of the future.

Vulnerability: The degree to which a system is susceptible to or unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change.

Vulnerability assessment: A process for identifying who and what is impacted by climate change. It is the combination of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity.

Well-building: a performance-based system for measuring, certifying, and monitoring features of the built environment that impact human health and well-being, through air, water, nourishment, light, fitness, comfort and mind.