Glossary

There are many keywords and acronyms used in CERN’s environment reports: whether specific to the language of reporting, or to CERN, this glossary aims to help you understand fully our statements and commitments.

The French Agence nationale pour la gestion des déchets radioactifs (ANDRA – National Agency for Radioactive Waste Management) is responsible for identifying, implementing and guaranteeing safe solutions for the management of radioactive waste, in order to protect present and future generations from the risks inherent in such substances.

The French Autorité de sûreté nucléaire et de radioprotection (ASNR – Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection Authority) is responsible for the oversight of nuclear safety and radiation protection in order to protect people and the environment.

CERN’s Energy Management Panel (EMP) examines CERN’s energy consumption and identifies measures to improve efficiency and promote energy reuse Organization-wide.

The Enlarged Energy Management Panel was set up in 2023 to specifically oversee the provisions of the ISO 50001 energy management certification.

The CERN Environmental Protection Steering Board (CEPS) was established in 2017. Its mandate is to identify environmental areas to be addressed, rank them in order of priority, propose programmes of action and, once the latter have been endorsed by the Enlarged Directorate, follow up their implementation.

The CERN Safety Policy is the Organization’s reference document for all matters relating to occupational health, safety and environmental protection. The Policy includes the explicit goal of limiting the impact of CERN’s activities on the environment.

The CERN Environmentally Responsible Procurement Policy Project (CERP3), launched in 2021, aims to integrate environmentally responsible practices into purchases by establishing technical and organisational levers for sustainable procurement in collaboration with multiple internal services and ensuring engagement with all stakeholders across the supply chain.

The CERN Innovation Programme on Environmental Applications (CIPEA) was launched in 2022 as a call for ideas from the CERN community to stimulate environmental application innovation based on CERN’s technologies, know-how and facilities.

The Comité Tripartite sur l’Environnement (CTE) is a tripartite committee comprising representatives of CERN and of the environmental authorities of the Canton of Geneva (Switzerland) and the sous-préfecture de Gex (Ain – France). It was set up to examine non-radiological environmental matters.

The European Intergovernmental Research Organisation forum (EIROforum) is a consortium that brings together eight of Europe’s large intergovernmental research organisations to promote the quality and impact of European research.

The FCC (Future Circular Collider) Feasibility Study arose from the 2020 update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics. It includes a scientific component and numerous technical considerations, as well as administrative and financial considerations and extensive territorial feasibility studies relating to geology, environmental impact, infrastructures and civil engineering.

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is an independent international organisation that helps private and public bodies to understand and communicate their impact by developing a sustainability reporting framework and guidelines.

Global Warming Potential (GWP) is a value that describes the radiative forcing impact of one unit of a given greenhouse gas, relative to one unit of CO2 over a given period of time. The GWP values convert greenhouse gas emissions data for non-CO2 gases into units of CO2 equivalent.

The High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) is an upgrade of the LHC designed to achieve instantaneous luminosities of a factor of five larger than the LHC’s nominal value, thereby enabling the experiments to enlarge their data sample by one order of magnitude compared with the LHC baseline programme.

The Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Protection (HSE) unit is responsible for all matters relating to health and safety and environmental protection at CERN.

ISO 50001 is the reference international standard that defines systems and processes for organisations to implement in order to continuously improve their energy performance. It requires CERN to set up, monitor and improve an energy management system aligned with its energy policy and with relevant legislation.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. It first started up on 10 September 2008 and consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way.

Materiality is a term used in sustainability reporting. In this report, material topics are those that deal with the environmental impact of CERN and/or influence internal and external stakeholders.

The Swiss Office fédéral de la santé publique (FOPH – Federal Office for Public Health) is responsible for public health in Switzerland, including in matters of radiation protection.

The Swiss Ordonnance sur les mouvements des déchets (OMoD – ordinance governing the movement of waste) regulates the transport of special waste and other waste that is subject to control within Switzerland, as well as the transboundary movement of all types of waste and the transport of special waste between third countries where a Swiss company organises or participates in the operation.

The Ordonnance sur la radioprotection (ORaP – radiation protection ordinance) is the Swiss regulation on the protection of people and the environment against ionising radiation.

The CERN Science Gateway is an education and outreach facility next to the Globe of Science and Innovation. Inaugurated on 7 October 2023, it is a beacon that encourages young people to aim for careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Scope 1 refers to direct greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by an organisation.

Scope 2 refers to indirect greenhouse gas emissions related to energy, i.e. emissions that result from the generation of acquired and consumed electricity, steam, heat or cooling.

Scope 3 refers to other indirect greenhouse gas emissions, i.e. emissions that occur outside the organisation, both upstream and downstream, that are not included in the indirect greenhouse gas emissions related to energy (scope 2).

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) address the global challenges the world is facing, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice.

The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is the second-largest machine in CERN’s accelerator complex and provides beams for experiments at CERN, as well as preparing beams for the LHC.

The Sustainable Accelerators Panel (SAP) was set up in 2023 to liaise with future accelerator initiatives in order to develop full lifecycle sustainability as a key consideration in the inception phase of any project and identify accelerator technologies with the potential to reduce the impact of future accelerators.

The tripartite agreement on radiation protection and radiation safety is an agreement between CERN, the Swiss Federal Office for Public Health (FOPH) and the French Nuclear Authority (ASNR, formerly ASN). Under the agreement, a framework has been established for the discussion of topics related to radiation protection, specifically the protection of CERN personnel and the public from ionising radiation, both on site and in the vicinity of CERN’s facilities.

The Wigner Research Centre for Physics is a research centre near Budapest, Hungary. Until 2020, computing capacity at Wigner was remotely managed from CERN, substantially extending the capabilities of the Tier 0 activities of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG).

The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) is the data-storage and analysis infrastructure built and maintained for the entire high-energy physics community that uses the LHC.