| AEEG | Electricity and Gas Authority, established under Italian Law 481/95. It is a government agency set up for the purpose of regulating and controlling the Italian energy market. |
| Cathodic protection | System for preventing corrosion of underground metal pipes, consisting in the application of a negative electric potential. |
| CIP 6 | Ruling n° 6/92 of the CIP (Interministerial Price Committee) concerning incentives to the production of electricity from renewable sources. It determines the tariffs and contributions relative to the production and sale to ENEL (national electric power utility) of energy from conventional, renewable and assimilated sources. |
| Corporate Social Responsibility - CSR | The whole set of social, environmental and economic responsibilities that a company must take on to meet the legitimate expectations of stakeholders. |
| District heating | Transfer of heat originating from thermal power plants or cogeneration or waste-to-energy plants through an energy vector (hot water, superheated water, steam). |
| Electric box | Enclosure containing electrical equipment and/or transformers connected to transport or distribution networks. |
| EMAS | EC regulation no. 761/2001 on voluntary adherence by organizations to a community eco-management and audit scheme. What distinguishes it from ISO 14001:2004 is its public nature and the fact that it is open to the local community (preparation of the environmental statement). |
| Energy recovery | Using the energy present during a process (of combustion, pressure change, waste treatment …) to produce steam and/or electricity. |
| Environment | Surroundings in which an organization operates, including air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans, and their interrelation. |
| Environmental aspect | Element of the organization's activities, products, or services which can interact with an environment (definition according to UNI EN ISO 14001:1996). |
| ETP | Equivalent tonnes of petroleum. Conventional unit of measurement for energy sources, equivalent to 10,000 Mcal, or the energy obtained from the combustion of one tonne of petroleum. |
| Fiber optics | Cables consisting of slender silicon or glass fiber strands. They carry information in the form of light beams. |
| Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) | An institution whose mission is to develop and extend the applicability of guidelines for social and environmental reporting. |
| Green Certificates | Certificates defined in article 5 of the decree issued by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts on 11 November 1999. Each producer or importer must procure 2% of his electric power from renewable energy plants. For the first eight years, the production of electricity from renewable sources is entitled to receive certification (Green Certificates), assigned a value of 100 MWh. Green Certificates can be traded to fulfill the obligation of procuring energy from renewable sources. |
| Greenhouse gas | Gases that contribute to climate changes due to a greenhouse effect: in addition to naturally occurring gases, the main greenhouse gases resulting from human activities are carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and nitrogen oxides. |
| ISO 14001:2004 | International standard setting the requirements for environmental management system certification. |
| ISO 9001:2000 | International standard setting the requirements for quality management system certification (also referred to as “Vision 2000”). |
| Key Performance Indicators (KPI) | Specific indicators selected according to company information requirements and used to monitor company performance. They may be financial, production-related, commercial, environmental or social or embrace several dimensions. |
| Kilowatt hour (kWh) | Unit of measure for electrical energy, equivalent to the energy produced in 1 hour by a machine with a power of 1 kW. |
| Local Agenda 21 | It is the process of partnership through which local authorities work together with all sectors of the local community to define plans of action for pursuing sustainability at a local level. |
| Natural gas | Gaseous fossil fuel made up of methane (from 88 to 98%) and small quantities of other hydrocarbons. Herein the terms “methane gas” or “gas” are used synonymously with “natural gas”. |
| Network losses | They are the consequence of network leakage. Due to these losses, the quantity of gas, water and electricity injected into the network exceeds actual consumption. |
| Odorizer | Sulfurized organic gaseous compound or mixture of compounds added in trace quantities to methane gas to lend it a characteristic odor, thereby enabling any leaks to be detected and assuring safe distribution and use. |
| Optimum Territorial Area Agency (OTA Agency) | Form of cooperation introduced by art. 3 of the Galli Law, set up by the provincial and municipal authorities of each OTA; it represents the mutual interests of the local authorities involved and fulfills all municipal administrative functions with respect to water and environmental services. |
| OTA (Optimum Territorial Area) | Instituted by the Galli Law to allow management entities of adequate size, overcome the fragmentation of local utilities and achieve economies of scale in the integrated water service and environmental services. |
| Population equivalent | Unit of measurement defined by sector regulations as “organic biodegradable load having a five-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) of 60 grams of oxygen per day”: it allows the polluting load in the wastewater entering a treatment plant to be expressed as the assumed load per inhabitant, i.e. individual person. |
| Waste | Italian legislative decree no. 22 of 5 February 1997 defines waste as “any substance or object |…| which its holder has discarded, or has decided to or is required to discard”. |
| White Certificates | Certificates attesting to the energy savings achieved by each gas or electricity distributor with a customer base of at least 100,000 users, defined in the decrees issued by Ministry of Productive Activities on 20 July 2004. Every operator must seek to meet its target by implementing policies to increase its energy efficiency or by saving energy and developing renewable sources. The White Certificates, also called Energy Efficiency Certificates, may be acquired through direct initiatives or may be purchased |
| SAP | Technological platform for integrated development of company information systems. |
| Stakeholders (interested parties) | Individuals and groups inside and outside a company, with different interests and needs, who are able to influence the choices and conduct of a business and help determine its success. The main stakeholders are: employees, customers, shareholders, financial backers, suppliers, institutions, community. |
| Subsidence | Sinking of the soil caused by lowering of the underground water table, in turn caused by withdrawal of groundwater at a rate exceeding that of natural recharging. |
| Sustainable development | “Development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Brundtland Report – World Commission for Economic Development, 1987). |
| Value added | It is an indication of the return on internal factors of production (capital: amortization, depreciation and self financing, and labor: wages and salaries). Value added is given by: revenues +/- changes in inventory – costs of bought-in materials and services. |
