4660.0 - Energy, Water and Environment Management, 2008-09 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/07/2010  First Issue
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GLOSSARY



B C E F G I L M N P R T

Bagasse

A residue of the sugar cane milling process which can be used as a fuel.

Biodiesel

A fuel for diesel engines made from renewable organic materials, as opposed to petroleum.

Biofuels

Fuels produced from renewable organic sources or 'feed stocks'. Biofuels include ethanol and biodiesel and are commonly used in transportation.

Biogas

Landfill (garbage tips) gas and sewage gas. Also referred to as biomass gas.

Biomass system/equipment

Boilers, turbines or other processes that use organic matter such as bagasse, wood or other processes that use organic matter such as bagasse, wood or other agricultural residues to produce electricity, steam or heat.

Business

A business is generally considered to be a person, partnership or corporation engaged in business or commerce. In this publication, the term represents the ABN unit or type of activity unit (TAU), which are the two standard statistical units for the 2008-09 Energy, Water and Environmental Management Survey. For details, see paragraphs 14-18 of the Explanatory Notes.


Capital expenditure

Total (gross) expenditure on acquiring fixed tangible and intangible assets, before deduction of trade-in allowances, and including expenses (except capitalised interest) incurred during the year in acquiring such assets. Fixed tangible assets include land, dwellings, other buildings and structures, plant, machinery and equipment (including motor vehicles). Intangible assets include capitalised exploration expenditure, patents, licences and goodwill.

Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme

A national emissions trading scheme.

Cogeneration

A system that produces both electricity (or mechanical power) and useful heat from a single fuel source. It is also referred to as "combined heat and power".

Coal

Includes black coal, brown coal and brown coal briquettes.

Coal by-products

Include coke oven gas, blast furnace gas.

Compressed Natural Gas

Made by compressing purified natural gas. Used mainly in transportation.

Coke

A material derived from heating coal in the absence of air. Used mainly as a fuel and reducing agent in smelting iron ore.
Energy usage audit

Energy audits examine current patterns and costs of energy usage. They can be used to identify opportunities for reducing or eliminating inefficient use of energy, as well as investigating alternative energy sources. Includes internal and external audits of energy.

Environmental account

An information system and framework that links the economic activities and uses of a resource to changes in the natural resource base, thus linking resource use with the System of National Accounts.

Fuel oil

The heavy distillates from oil refining, used as fuel for burning in furnaces or boilers.
GreenPower

Australian Government accreditation program for the generation of electricity from renewable sources.

Industry division

The structure of ANZSIC comprises four levels, from industry division (broadest level) to industry class (finest level). The main purpose of the industry division level is to provide a limited number of categories which give a broad overall picture of the economy. There are 19 divisions within ANZSIC, each identified by an alphabetical letter, e.g. 'B' for Mining, 'C' for Manufacturing etc.

Industry group

This is the intermediate level within each industry division of ANZSIC and is identified by a three digit code, e.g. industry group 113 Dairy product manufacturing. It provides more detail than the industry subdivision level, and is created in a way that groups like industry classes together.

Industry subdivision

This is the broadest level category within each industry division of ANZSIC and is identified by a two digit code, e.g. industry subdivision 11 Food product manufacturing. Industry subdivisions are built up from industry groups which, in turn are built up from industry classes.

Industry value added (IVA)

IVA represents the value added by an industry to the intermediate inputs used by the industry. IVA is the measure of the contribution by businesses, in the selected industry, to gross domestic product.

The derivation of IVA for individual businesses depends on whether they are classified as market or non-market producers. Non-market producers are those institutions which provide goods or services either free or at prices that are not economically significant. In other words, their prices are not significantly influenced by the amounts that producers are willing to supply, nor the amounts that users are willing to pay to purchase the goods or services being provided. Conversely, market producers provide goods and services at prices that are economically significant.

For market producers, the derivation of IVA is as follows:

sales and service income

plus funding from federal, state and/or local government for operational costs

plus capital work done for own use

plus closing inventories

less opening inventories

less purchases of goods and services

less other intermediate output expenses

(for details, see the entry for total expenses)

equals IVA.

However, it should be noted that IVA is a measure of economic activity and is not equivalent to operating profit before tax. Wage and salary expenses and most other labour costs are not taken into account in its calculation for market producers, and nor are most insurance premiums, interest expenses or depreciation and a number of lesser expenses (see the entry for total expenses for further details). On the income side, Operating profit before tax includes total income, whereas IVA only includes sales and service income.

As a principle, the output of non-market production is valued at cost, including intermediate input expenses. As shown in the above derivation, purchases and other intermediate input expenses are deducted from output in order to arrive at IVA. Accordingly, the derivation of IVA for non-market producers can be described as follows:

selected labour costs

plus depreciation and amortisation

equals IVA.

Estimates of industry value added are obtained by summing the contributions of businesses classified to that industry, both market and (if any) non-market producers. Market producers predominate in most industries.

Industry value added is related to, but different from, the national accounting variable gross value added. For national accounts purposes, gross value added is calculated by adjusting industry value added to include General government units and also to account for some other effects.
Landfill methane

Methane gas created from the breakdown of organic materials in landfill.

Life cycle assessment

An environmental management practice that analyses the inputs and outputs of materials and energy and environmental and social costs associated with a good or service throughout its life cycle.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG)

Consists of propane, butane and isobutane and petroleum and is derived by processing through a low pressure gas separation plant the natural gas produced from either gas or oil reservoirs.
Micro non-employer

A business which neither employed people nor exceeded a threshold level of turnover in the reference year.

Non-renewable

Cannot be replaced once used. Most common examples of non-renewable energy resources are fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil.

Payback time

Equal to the capital expenditure divided by net savings in operating costs per year e.g. with expenditure of $5 million and a net savings of $1 million per year, the payback time is equal to 5 years. Where capital expenditure of a single business consisted of multiple projects or items payback time was reported for the largest project or item only.

Photovoltaic cells

Electronic devices that convert solar energy directly into electricity. Often called 'solar cells'.
Refinery fuel

A petroleum product derived from crude oil and destined for use as fuel within a refinery itself

Renewable energy

Energy derived from sources which are either practically infinite, or which are naturally replenishable. Sources include sunlight (solar energy), hydro energy, wind and biological matter.

Renewable fuel

A combustible fuel derived from a replenishable biological resource. Such fuels include liquid biofuel, biogas, wood and bagasse.
Total expenses

For the purposes of calculating economic and accounting variables, expenses incurred by businesses are divided into several categories. However, some expenses are excluded entirely from all such calculations: excluded are capital repayments, costs associated with the transfer of real estate, dividends, donations, export freight charges, extraordinary losses, foreign exchange losses, goods and services tax, excise and duties payable to governments, income tax and other direct taxes, losses on asset sales, and unrealised gains/losses from revaluations of assets.

Those expenses used for calculations are categorised as follows:

Intermediate input expenses

This category covers the major expenses incurred by businesses in producing and distributing goods and services (except labour costs), and comprises two sub-categories of operating expenses:

(i) Purchases of goods, materials and services used in production, which include:
  • purchases of materials, components, containers and packaging materials, electricity, fuels and water
  • purchases of goods for resale (without any further processing or assembly)
  • freight and cartage expenses.

(ii) Other intermediate input expenses

Expenses related to the sale of goods and administrative expenses, which include:
  • management fees/charges paid to related and unrelated businesses
  • bank charges other than interest
  • audit and other accounting expenses
  • legal fees
  • advertising expenses
  • postal and telecommunication expenses
  • office supplies and printing expenses
  • travelling, accommodation and entertainment expenses
  • staff training
  • payments for royalties from intellectual property (e.g. patents and copyrights)
  • payments to employment agencies for staff.

Excluded from intermediate input expenses are selected labour costs and selected other operating expenses, as follows.

Selected labour costs
  • wages and salaries (including provisions for employee entitlements, salary sacrificed earnings, share based payments and stock options)
  • employer contributions into superannuation
  • workers' compensation premiums/costs.

Selected other operating expenses

Some expenses are excluded from the calculation of intermediate input expenses and selected labour costs, but are included in the calculation of the accounting variable operating profit before tax.

These expense items are:
  • depreciation and amortisation
  • interest expenses
  • part of cost of sales:
  • computer software expenses not capitalised by businesses
  • land tax and land rates
  • mineral/petroleum exploration expenses not capitalised by businesses
  • other expenses not capitalised by businesses
  • payroll tax and fringe benefits tax
  • other operating expenses:
  • insurance premiums (except workers' compensation and compulsory third party motor vehicle insurance premiums)
  • natural resource royalties expenses
  • bad and doubtful debts.