The JARGONFREE Glossary

Calibration

Deliberately choosing the normative strength of a contractual commitment or requirement (e.g. aspiration, expectation, or obligation), based on its purpose, feasibility, and role in guiding behaviour.

Calibration helps ensure that commitments and requirements are realistic, usable, and capable of guiding action. Commitment calibration is explained as a practical approach to making contracts work in practice in ‘Calibration’ in Module 4.

Cascading

Passing on contractual, legal, or sustainability-related requirements along the value chain so that they are reflected in corresponding commitments by suppliers and subcontractors, in order to extend their reach beyond the immediate contracting parties.

The term was used in early drafts of the CSDDD and remains common in practice and academic literature, even though it is not used in the final text of the CSDDD.

Compass Scorecard

The Compass Scorecard, as used in the JARGONFREE Compass, is an implementation-oriented assessment framework designed to help companies identify how sustainability-related requirements and commitments function across contracts and supply chains. The Compass Scorecard organises recurring contracting challenges into six dimensions:

• Attitudes
• Relevance
• Architecture
• Language & Design
• Feasibility & Realism
• Action & Implementation

The dimensions represent recurring areas where sustainability-related content may either support or hinder implementation.

The Scorecard supports reflection on different contracting approaches, ranging from inactive and reactive practices to more proactive and transformative approaches to sustainable contracting. Rather than functioning as a compliance checklist or maturity model, the scorecard helps companies identify where commitments may fail and what changes may be needed to move from “words on paper” towards real-world action and embedded practice.

Comply with all laws clause

A commonly used contract clause that requires a party, and often also its products, to comply with all applicable laws. While such clauses set a general expectation of lawful behaviour, they often remain too abstract to guide action. They typically do not specify what compliance requires in a given context, who is responsible for ensuring it, or how it should be monitored and verified. As a result, these clauses often contribute to empty commitments.

Contract architecture

The way sustainability-related content is structured, connected, aligned, and distributed across the contract stack and related documents. Drawing on principles similar to information architecture, the concept, as used in the JARGONFREE Compass, focuses on whether sustainability-related content is findable, understandable, usable, and positioned where it can support implementation, decision-making, and action.

Contract design

Contract design focuses on how contracts are planned, structured, and presented so that they work effectively in practice and support the parties’ goals and desired outcomes. Rather than viewing contracts only as legal instruments, contract design approaches them as communication and coordination tools that guide action, support collaboration, and help achieve desired outcomes. Contract design may involve the use of information design, plain language, visualisation, and contract design patterns to improve clarity, usability, and implementation.

Contract design is closely connected with proactive contract thinking, which emphasises the role of contracts in supporting collaboration, performance, and successful implementation.

Contract design patterns

Reusable solutions to recurring problems in contract structure and communication that improve clarity, usability, and implementation. Examples include timelines, swimlane diagrams, and other visual or structural patterns that help make contractual obligations, processes, and responsibilities easier to understand and apply in practice.

Contract stack

The set of documents that together form a contract between the parties. The contract stack typically includes the main agreement and any related documents, such as General Terms and Conditions, (Supplier) Codes of Conduct, product and service specifications, supplier requirements, and other appendices. See ‘Sustainability in your contract stack’ in Module 2.

The contract stack is often complemented by parallel contracts that influence how commitments are implemented. Individual transactions based on quotations, purchase orders, order confirmations, or similar exchanges, may further specify or operationalise the agreement in practice.

Contract-to-Action Mapping

In the JARGONFREE Compass, Contract-to-Action Mapping refers to an implementation-oriented communication and operational analysis approach designed to help clarify how sustainability-related contractual commitments and requirements translate into coordinated action, workflows, and responsibilities across organisations and supply chains.

Contract-to-Action Mapping helps make visible how contractual commitments and requirements connect to operational practice by analysing and structuring implementation logic embedded within contractual language. It supports organisations in clarifying responsibilities, identifying coordination needs and implementation gaps, recognising what kinds of implementation support and governance mechanisms may be needed to operationalise contractual commitments in practice, and improving future contracting practices by revealing where existing contractual language or structures remain difficult to operationalise.

Contract-to-Action Mapping may be represented through different coordination and responsibility mapping structures, such as workflow maps, swimlanes, process flowcharts, or RACI-style responsibility matrices (clarifying who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed).

See ‘Contract-to-Action Mapping’ in Module IV.

Contractual assurances

Under the CSDDD, large companies must seek contractual assurances from their direct business partners to support the implementation of sustainability due diligence. These assurances are typically implemented through various sustainability clauses, (Supplier) Codes of Conduct, or supplier requirement documents attached to contracts.

Contractual legacy

Inherited drafting habits, templates, and assumptions that shape how contracts are written and used, often without being consciously questioned.

Corporate sustainability

The way a company conducts its business so that it creates long-term economic value while, as a baseline requirement, preventing harm to people and society and minimising harm to the environment (“do no harm” / “do no significant harm”). In addition, companies are increasingly expected to also produce positive impacts in all areas of sustainability (“do good”). Regenerative business practices aim to restore environmental and social systems or improve their ability to regenerate themselves.

Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)

The CSDDD makes sustainability due diligence a legal obligation for large companies within its scope: according to the directive, companies must embed sustainability due diligence into their policies and management systems, identify and address relevant impacts, take appropriate measures to prevent or stop them, monitor effectiveness, communicate where required, and provide remediation where they have caused or contributed to harm.

For an overview on EU sustainability rules and their relevance for contracts, see EU sustainability rules and your contracts.

A detailed explanation of the CSDDD is provided at The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)

Duediligencese

Dense, abstract, or governance-oriented language derived from sustainability due diligence regulation, frameworks, and compliance practices that is difficult to interpret or translate into operational action. Duediligencese is a form of jargon that often relies on specialised terminology, indirect institutional formulations, or references to external frameworks without clearly explaining their practical implications within the contractual relationship. See also sustainabilitese.

Empty content

Contractual or policy statements that appear meaningful or sufficiently clear but do not translate into concrete action. They typically do not specify what needs to be done, who is responsible, how the commitment or requirement is implemented, or how compliance is monitored or verified. As a result, they may fulfil formal expectations but remain difficult to implement, monitor, or audit, contributing to the implementation gap.

ESG

Stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, and refers to the way in which an organisation manages its impacts on, risks related to, and opportunities arising from environmental, social and governance issues. Originally the term was used by investors to refer to a variety of non-financial criteria used to evaluate companies’ performance and inform investment decision-making. Nowadays ESG is applied also more broadly to denote a company’s approach to ethical and sustainability issues linked to the organisation’s purpose and values.

General Terms and Conditions (GTCs)

Standard terms that apply across relationships. Also called as Standard Terms and Conditions (STCs).

Good governance

The foundation that enables sustainability goals to be set, implemented, monitored, and enforced within a company. It supports sustainability commitments in becoming credible, actionable, and effective in practice. Good governance refers to the structures, processes, rules, and relationships through which a company is directed and controlled so that it acts ethically, transparently, accountably, and in the long term interests of shareholders and other stakeholders.

Implementation gap

The implementation gap arises when goals or requirements are not translated from regulation, policies, or organisational objectives into contracts, or when contractual content is not operationalised into processes, responsibilities, and follow-up. As a result, there may be a disconnect between what regulation or organisational goals require, what contracts say, and what happens in practice. In the JARGONFREE Compass, the primary focus is on the latter: the gap between what contracts say and what happens in practice.

Implementation pathway

In the JARGONFREE Compass, implementation pathway refers to a structured approach that helps companies move from sustainability-related contract content as “words on paper” towards real-world implementation and embedded organisational practice.

The pathway connects recurring problem patterns, Compass scorecard dimensions, and practical implementation-oriented solutions that help make sustainable contracting more actionable, realistic, and embedded across organisations and supply chains.

Information design (in contracts)

The structuring and presentation of contractual information so that users can navigate, understand, and act on it effectively. Information design is not about visual appearance alone, but about supporting use in real contexts: helping different users locate relevant information, understand what it means for them, and carry out required actions. It complements plain language by addressing not only how things are said, but how information is structured and accessed, thereby increasing the likelihood that contract content is recognized, understood, and followed in practice. Information design is closely connected with implementation-oriented approaches to Contract Design.

Jargon

Specialised legal, commercial, sustainability, or compliance-related language used in contracts and business communication that may be difficult for non-specialists or operational users to understand. In the context of sustainable contracting, jargon can reduce clarity, increase interpretive effort, and make contractual expectations harder to implement in practice.

JARGONFREE Compass for Sustainable Contracting

This Glossary forms part of the JARGONFREE Compass for Sustainable Contracting, a practical orientation and navigation tool – a compass – that helps companies assess and improve how sustainability-related requirements and commitments function across contracts and supply chains.

The Compass focuses on bridging the implementation gap between sustainability-related content – ‘words on paper’ – and real-world practice through recurring problem patterns, implementation pathways, diagnostic exercises, and the Compass Scorecard.

Large companies

Under the CSDDD, this generally refers to companies with more than 5,000 employees and net worldwide turnover above EUR 1,5 billion, as well as certain non-EU companies generating comparable turnover in the EU.

Legalese

Complex, formal, or archaic legal language that is difficult for non-experts to understand, often characterised by long sentences, specialised terminology, and formulaic expressions, which may hinder clarity, accessibility, and practical application; see also sustainabilitese for a similar phenomenon in sustainability contexts.

OECD Guidelines

The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct are among the central international guidelines and principles for responsible business conduct. The Guidelines are recommendations jointly addressed by governments to multinational enterprises to enhance the business contribution to sustainable development and address adverse impacts associated with business activities on people, planet, and society. First introduced in 1976 and most recently updated in 2023, the Guidelines cover key issues in all sub-areas of corporate sustainability.

Onboarding documents

Documents, processes or digital steps through which suppliers are introduced, registered, and often also required to acknowledge or commit to applicable contractual, operational and sustainability requirements.

Plain language

A way of writing (contracts) so that information is easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to use in practice, without compromising legal precision. Plain language focuses on clarity of structure, wording, and presentation: removing unnecessary complexity, making responsibilities and requirements explicit, and ensuring that different users can understand what is expected of them without needing to interpret or translate the text.

The concept of plain language is defined, for instance, in international standards such as ISO 24495-1 (Plain Language) and ISO 24495-2 (Plain Language in Legal Communication).

Policies

Internal documents that set out a company’s principles, commitments, and rules on specific topics (such as environment, health and safety, or anti-corruption)

Proactive contract thinking

An approach to contracting that treats contracts as tools for guiding collaboration, implementation, and performance, rather than merely allocating risk or resolving disputes. It combines a preventive dimension (anticipating and reducing risks, misunderstandings, and failures) with a promotive dimension (supporting the achievement of shared objectives and intended outcomes).

Proactive contract thinking provides an important conceptual foundation for the JARGONFREE Compass and its focus on implementation, actionability, and embedding sustainability into organisational practice.

Product or service specifications

Technical and performance requirements, which may also include sustainability-related criteria and requirements.

Quality agreements

Contracts that define how quality- and safety-related responsibilities, processes, and controls are allocated between the parties. “Quality” does not refer to the quality of the contract itself, but to how quality is managed in practice. Common in regulated sectors such as pharmaceuticals and health technology, they define who does what, how processes run, what data is required, and how performance is monitored and corrected, helping ensure that obligations are implemented in day-to-day practice.

Regenerative business practices

Regenerative business practices are approaches embedded in a company’s business model that aim to restore, renew, and strengthen socio-ecological systems. These practices seek to create net-positive impacts through business operations for the environment, people, and society.

Self-regulation

Rules, standards, and governance mechanisms developed and implemented by companies, industries, or other non-state actors, rather than mandated by law or public authorities. Examples include Codes of Conduct, management system standards, certification schemes, industry standard contract terms, model clauses, and policies. Self-regulation often operates alongside legislation, contractual governance, and other governance mechanisms.

SMEs (Small and medium-sized enterprises)

Enterprises with fewer than 250 employees and annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million, or annual balance sheet total not exceeding EUR 43 million, according to the EU SME definition.

Supplier Requirements

Technical, operational and process-level requirements designed to translate sustainability standards and commitments into practice, often including requirements to international standards.

Suppplier Code of Conduct (SCoC)

A document setting out sustainability standards and expectations regarding social, environmental and economic sustainability and good governance for suppliers and other business partners.

Sustainabilitese

Complex, abstract, or jargon-heavy sustainability language that is difficult to understand, interpret, or apply in practice. Sustainabilitese often creates an appearance of meeting sustainability expectations, but does not enable action; comparable to legalese but emerging in sustainability communication; see also duediligencese.

Sustainability

State of the global system, including environmental, social and economic aspects, in which the needs of the present are met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainability due diligence

Sustainability due diligence refers to the application of due diligence to sustainability-related impacts. It builds on frameworks such as the OECD Guidelines, the UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs), and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). In these frameworks, due diligence refers to a risk-based process through which a company identifies, assesses, prevents, mitigates, and accounts for adverse impacts related to its activities, business relationships, and operations.

In practice, the term may refer to a process, a standard of care, or a legal or contractual obligation. This variation in meaning may create confusion when translating sustainability-related contract content into operational processes and day-to-day activities. In contracts, sustainability due diligence is often expressed through broad or abstract clauses (e.g. “comply with applicable laws” or “conduct due diligence”) that may remain difficult to interpret or implement. See also sustainabilitese and duediligencese.

Sustainable contracting

Sustainable contracting, as used in the JARGONFREE Compass, refers to the use of contracts and related documents to support sustainability goals and responsible business practices across companies and supply chains. It involves not only the inclusion of sustainability-related commitments and requirements in contract content, but also attention to how these are structured, communicated, implemented, monitored, and embedded into organisational practice.

In the JARGONFREE Compass, sustainable contracting is approached as an implementation-oriented practice focused on whether sustainability-related contract content is capable of guiding action and supporting implementation in day-to-day work. Approaches may range from inactive or reactive, compliance-oriented practices to more proactive and transformative uses of contracts that support collaboration, implementation, and the achievement of sustainability goals.

Sustainable development

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Tier

A level within a supply chain that indicates the position of a supplier or subcontractor in relation to the buying company. A Tier 1 supplier has a direct contractual relationship with the buyer, while lower-tier suppliers (such as Tier 2 or Tier 3 suppliers) supply goods or services indirectly through other suppliers. Sustainability-related requirements often fail to extend beyond Tier 1, the first contractual tier, if cascading mechanisms are unclear or missing.

Traceability

Traceability refers to the ability to track, document, and verify the origin, movement, processing, and handling of products, materials, or components across the supply chain. It enables companies to trace where something comes from and how it has been produced, transformed, and transferred between actors, supporting the implementation of contractual and regulatory requirements by enabling risk identification, compliance verification, and action where needed. It is a key feature of several EU product regulations, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), where product information and digital product passports support traceability across the product lifecycle.

UN Global Compact

The UN Global Compact, launched in 2000 by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, calling on companies to align strategies with ten universal principles regarding human rights, including labor rights, environment, and anti-corruption. It promotes responsible business practices to achieve UN goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs)

UN Guiding Principles, endorsed unanimously by the UN Human Rights Council in 2011, are the global standard for preventing and addressing the risk of adverse impacts on human rights involving business activity. The UNGPs address both the duties of states and the responsibilities of companies to ensure that human rights are not harmed in business operations. The Principles provide guidance for businesses of all kinds and sizes on corporate human rights responsibility, that forms the foundation of social sustainability. A responsible company is expected to respect internationally recognised human rights, with the principle of due diligence at the core of this requirement.

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted unanimously by the UN member states as a part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at a UN summit in September 2015. The SDGs with 17 goals and 169 subtargets cover interconnected issues in the areas of social, economic, and environmental sustainability. The SDGs create expectations to act primarily for states, but they are also among the important international guidelines and principles for corporate sustainability.