Glossary
BRSR and ESG reporting glossary.
Short, sourced definitions of the terms you meet when preparing BRSR, BRSR Core and GHG disclosures.
A
- Assessment (ISF)
- The alternative to assurance that SEBI allowed for BRSR Core in March 2025: an assessment under standards of the Industry Standards Forum (ISF), in consultation with SEBI.
B
- BRSR (Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report)
- SEBI's sustainability disclosure format for listed companies in India. It replaced the Business Responsibility Report and is mandatory for the top 1000 listed entities by market capitalisation.
- BRSR Core
- A subset of BRSR: key performance indicators under nine ESG attributes that SEBI requires to be assessed or assured, phased in by market capitalisation.
C
- CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism)
- An EU measure that applies to certain goods imported into the EU and is based on the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in those goods.
- CEA grid emission factor
- The emission factor for electricity from India's grid, published by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in its CO₂ Baseline Database. Used for location-based Scope 2.
- Consolidation boundary (financial control / operational control)
- The rule that decides which facilities and operations are included in a company's reported figures, for example by financial control or operational control.
- Cradle-to-gate
- A life-cycle boundary that covers a product from raw material extraction up to the point it leaves the producer's factory gate, excluding use and end of life.
- CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)
- The EU law that requires companies within its scope to report sustainability information using the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
D
- Double materiality
- Assessing sustainability topics from two sides: the company's impacts on people and the environment, and the financial risks and opportunities those topics create for the company.
- DPDP Act (Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023)
- India's law on the processing of digital personal data. It sets obligations for organisations that process personal data and rights for the individuals it relates to.
E
- Emission factor
- A coefficient that converts an activity, such as a kilowatt-hour of electricity or a litre of diesel, into the greenhouse gas emissions it causes.
- ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards)
- The sustainability reporting standards used under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), developed with technical advice from EFRAG.
- Essential indicator
- One of the two groups of indicators in Section C of BRSR. Within each of the nine principles, disclosures are grouped as essential or leadership indicators.
- Evidence trail
- The linked record that connects a reported figure to its source documents, its calculation and the people who reviewed and approved it.
G
- Green credits (BRSR)
- A voluntary BRSR disclosure on green credits, added by SEBI in March 2025 as a new leadership indicator under Principle 6, from FY2024-25.
- GWP (global warming potential)
- A measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps over a set period, relative to carbon dioxide. Used to express different gases as CO₂ equivalent.
H
- Hash chain
- A sequence of records in which each entry includes a cryptographic hash of the previous one, so any later change to an earlier record becomes detectable.
I
- Intensity per rupee of turnover (PPP-adjusted)
- An intensity ratio introduced with BRSR Core: an absolute quantity divided by the company's turnover in rupees, with turnover adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP).
- IRO (impacts, risks and opportunities)
- The items assessed in a double materiality assessment: a company's impacts on people and the environment, and the sustainability-related risks and opportunities it faces.
L
- Leadership indicator
- The second group of indicators in Section C of BRSR, alongside essential indicators. SEBI added a green credits leadership indicator under Principle 6 from FY2024-25.
- LTIFR (lost time injury frequency rate)
- A workplace safety rate: the number of injuries that caused lost working time, relative to the hours worked, usually expressed per million person-hours.
M
- Maker-checker
- A control in which one person prepares or enters a value and a different person checks and approves it before it is used.
N
- Net calorific value (NCV)
- The heat released when a unit of fuel burns, excluding the heat lost to water vapour. Used to convert fuel quantities into energy before applying emission factors.
P
- PCF (product carbon footprint)
- The greenhouse gas emissions attributed to one declared unit of a product over a defined part of its life cycle, expressed in kgCO₂e per unit.
- The proportion of a footprint or emissions figure that is based on measured, company- or supplier-specific data rather than industry averages or estimates.
R
- Reasonable assurance
- A high, but not absolute, level of assurance in which an independent practitioner expresses a positive conclusion. For BRSR Core, SEBI now allows assessment or assurance.
S
- Scope 1 emissions
- Direct greenhouse gas emissions from sources a company owns or controls, such as fuel burned in its boilers and vehicles, process emissions and refrigerant leaks.
- Scope 2 emissions (location-based and market-based)
- Indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heat or cooling that a company consumes. Reported location-based and market-based.
- Scope 3 emissions
- All other indirect greenhouse gas emissions in a company's value chain, upstream and downstream, grouped by the GHG Protocol into 15 categories.
- Segregation of duties
- A control principle that splits a process between different people, so no one person can both prepare and approve the same item.
T
- tCO₂e (tonnes of CO₂ equivalent)
- The standard unit for greenhouse gas emissions: the mass of each gas converted to the amount of CO₂ with the same warming effect, using its global warming potential.
V
- Value chain partner
- For BRSR Core value-chain disclosures, a supplier or customer that individually accounts for 2% or more of a listed company's purchases or sales.
X
- XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language)
- A machine-readable format that tags each reported figure with a defined meaning. BRSR is filed on the stock exchange in both PDF and XBRL.
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