Smart cities are urban areas that leverage technology, data, and innovative solutions to improve the quality of life for residents, enhance sustainability, and optimize the efficiency of various urban systems and services.
Shared mobility
Shared mobility refers to the concept of shared transportation services that allow multiple users to access and use vehicles on a temporary basis, rather than owning them outright.
Shared economy
A shared economy, also known as a sharing economy or collaborative economy, is a socioeconomic system in which individuals and organizations share access to resources, goods, services, and information through digital platforms and networks
Sea-level rise
Sea-level rise refers to the long-term increase in the average global sea level.
Sunspot
Sunspot: A dark area that forms and disappears on the surface of the sun over periods of days or weeks. The amount of sunspot activity varies over time, but it tends to follow a roughly 11-year cycle. This sunspot cycle causes slight differences in the amount of energy that the sun gives off.
Subtropics
Subtropics: The parts of the Earth immediately north and south of the tropics. The southern part of the United States is considered subtropical.
Solar thermal technology
Solar thermal technology: A system that uses sunlight to heat water or create steam, which can then be used to generate electricity.
Solar panel
Solar panel: A device that can convert energy from the sun into energy for people to use. Some types of solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity. Others use sunlight to heat water, which can then be used to provide heat or hot water to a building.
Snowpack
Snowpack: The amount of snow that accumulates on the ground. Snowpack can be an important water resource when it melts and feeds into streams and rivers. This is particularly true in cold mountainous areas that accumulate a lot of snow during the winter.
Smog
Smog: Air pollution caused by chemical reactions of various pollutants emitted from different sources. Ozone is one of the main ingredients of smog, and it can harm people’s health.
Sweatshop-free
Sweatshop-free - describes the absence of manufacturing conditions currently existing in many countries, referred to as “sweatshops”. They are production facilities or factories where goods are produced cheaply by minimizing workers’ salaries, and increasing working hours. Proper environmental health standards are diminished, yet demands for high levels of productivity still remain. These sweatshops may thrive from corporations seeking to increase profits by subcontracting inexpensive labor
Sustainability
Sustainability - is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which in turn depends on the well being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.
Sustainable
Sustainable – is a theory that something has the capacity to withstand long periods of time continue to be productive overtime
S.O.L.E
S.O.L.E. – sustainable, organic, local & ethical
Social Responsibility
Social Responsibility – is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a government, corporation, organization or individual has a responsibility to society. This responsibility can be “negative”, meaning there is a responsibility to refrain from acting (resistance stance) or it can be “positive,” meaning there is a responsibility to act (proactive stance).
Sick Building Syndrome (SBS)
Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) – A term used to describe situations in which building occupants experience acute health and/or comfort effects that appear to be linked to time spent in particular building, but where no specific illness can be identified. Symptoms typically appear upon entering the building & disappear upon leaving the building in affected occupants. These occupants. These buildings are often defined as “problem buildings”.
Sere
Sere - (used especially of vegetation) having lost all moisture.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary – any of several North American composite subshrubs of the genera Artemis or Seriphidium.
Sagebrush
Sagebrush - any of several North American composite subshrubs of the genera Artemis or Seriphidium.