Climate neutrality means that a process or activity does not affect the climate as per the Greenhouse Gas protocoll. The term CO2-neutral, or more precisely CO2-e (equivalent) are used as synonyms. All these terms must include other climate-damaging gases, i.e CO2, Methane, etc, All greenhouse relevant gases need to be converted in the eco balance calculations into CO2equivalents.

A product or service, a company, or even a single process can be CO2-neutral/climate neutral. CO2 neutrality means that this product, process, brand or the entire company has neither a positive nor a negative impact on the concerned gas concentration in the atmosphere. To achieve CO2 neutrality, emissions are reduced or avoided altogether. Emissions that cannot be prevented can be neutralized by offsetting them elsewhere. Today, this is usually done by purchasing CO2 certificates; at Mondaine Group, we offset thru reforestation.

Climate-negative or CO2-positive is a process or a company if it emits more CO2 than it compensates. This corresponds to the conventional model, in which emissions are not offset.

A process or company is climate positive or CO2 negative if it removes more CO2 emissions from the air than it causes.

Activities such as air traveling, commuting, production of goods, electricity, heating with oil or gas etc. cause CO2 emissions, which are calculated in an eco-balance. A person or a company can compensate these. For example, they buy the necessary amount of CO2 certificates which are used to finance reforestation or other projects. Such projects are removing CO2 from the atmosphere, or prevent emissions. Mondaine Group works exclusively with CO2 reduction from the atmosphere through reforestation.

This refers to a process to reduce CO₂ emissions. In the process, the use of fossil fuels is replaced by renewable energy sources. (The "C" in CO2 stands for carbon - DeCarbonization)

An ecological balance sheet is used to calculate the impact on the environment. Originally, the balance sheet was considered over the life cycle of a product. Today, life cycle assessments are also calculated for services and behaviors.

A eco balance sheet is always related to a precisely defined function, e.g. "the use of a watch for 30 years". The balance sheet calculates the environmental impact of all processes that are necessary for this function,
e.g. for our watches: the production of the materials including packaging, the production of the watch, all
transports, electricity and heating, the treatment at the end of the watch's life etc.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, & Governance, where standards for sustainable behavior of companies are determined. Companies should be active in the 3 areas. "ESG" is used, for example, by
investors as a framework for sustainable behavior by companies.

Since the beginning of industrialization, the use of oil, coal, and gas, as well as growing ruminant agriculture, has increased the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This has led to an increase in average temperatures. Rising sea levels and water temperatures, droughts, storms, forest fires and glacier retreat are the effects.

First, the greenhouse effect refers to a natural process without which there could be no life on Earth: The sun's rays warm the earth, and greenhouse gases retain that heat in the atmosphere.  They are responsible for the earth's climate. However, humans have significantly changed the content of greenhouse gases. Their proportion in the atmosphere has increased since the beginning of industrialization, and it continues to rise. As a result, the atmosphere has been warming since the middle of the 19th century, and particularly strongly since the middle of the 20th century.

Greenhouse gases occur naturally but are also massively caused by humans. The best known GHGs are CO2, methane and nitrous oxide

Global Reporting Initiative GRI is a standard for writing a sustainability report. It aims to make them complete and more comparable.

Negative emissions are process approaches for the removal of climate-damaging gases from the atmosphere. They are a fundamental part of the net zero approach.

Net zero is a global concept: it means that greenhouse gases first need to be reduced as far as possible and the remaining global greenhouse gas emissions are removed from the atmosphere by means of natural
and technical processes like reforestation.

A company can also be net zero if it causes hardly any CO2 emissions anymore. Compensation of its remaining emissions through reduction projects is only permitted to a minimum extent of 10%.

This globally recognized approach defines targets for an industry or company, derived from the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees, and derives from that what greenhouse gas reductions a company or industry must achieve over the next years. The "1.5 degree target" is the target required according to scientific consensus, hence "science-based".

In addition to greenhouse gas targets, the UN is also developing "science-based targets for nature", which are intended to protect biodiversity.

With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN defined 17 sustainability goals, the SDGs - Sustainable Development Goals. For each goal, there are many sub-goals. The SDGs are goals for states, but companies shall also align their activities with the SDGs.

In 1987, the Brundtland Report described environmental sustainability: "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Sustainability includes not only ecology, but also, for example, durable, repairable, recyclable or compostable products, long-term business goals and long-lasting design, etc., in addition to social stability and fairness.