Insights
Clear definitions of the sustainability, climate, and ESG terms that matter most — from CBAM and CSRD to SBTi and PCAF. Written by Semtrio's advisory team.
The Market Stability Reserve is a rule-based mechanism, first used in the EU ETS, that automatically withdraws allowances from or releases them to the market to manage large surpluses or shortages and keep the carbon price stable.
The market-based method is a Scope 2 accounting approach that calculates emissions from purchased electricity using the specific emission factors of the energy an organisation has chosen to buy — such as renewable-backed contracts or supplier-specific rates — rather than the average grid.
A materiality assessment is the structured process by which an organisation determines which sustainability topics are significant enough to manage, disclose and resource — and which are not.
A materiality matrix is a visual tool that plots sustainability topics by their importance to stakeholders and to the business, to prioritise what an organisation reports and acts on.
The maturity scorecard is the self-declared snapshot of a company's sustainability and digital maturity, produced from the pre-assessment on the Responsible Portal. It anchors the starting point that the Phase 1 report and later improvement are measured against.
Minimum safeguards are the social conditions an economic activity must meet to qualify as EU Taxonomy-aligned, requiring alignment with international standards on human rights, labour, corruption, taxation and fair competition.
The Monitoring Methodology Plan is the Türkiye ETS document in which an installation sets out how it monitors the activity data behind its free allocation — the allocation chain answering "what did you produce?". Distinct from the emissions Monitoring Plan, its first submission is due 27 October 2026.
If you're working through a regulatory framework or sustainability challenge and need clarity on a specific term or concept — our team is here to help directly.
