Definitions of business as usual
The Green Book, Central Government Guidance On Appraisal And Evaluation, Published by HM Treasury in 2018, suggests that Business As Usual (BAU): ‘…is the continuation of current arrangements as if the intervention under consideration were not to happen. This serves as a benchmark to compare alternative interventions.’
Guide for Effective Benefits Management in Major Projects, published by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority in October 2017, defines Business As Usual as: ‘The on-going operational environment.’
AR5 Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability, Glossary, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggests that: ‘Business as usual projections are based on the assumption that operating practices and policies remain as they are at present. Although baseline scenarios could incorporate some specific features of BAU scenarios (e.g., a ban on a specific technology), BAU scenarios imply that no practices or policies other than the current ones are in place. See also Baseline/reference, Climate scenario, Emission scenario, Representative Concentration Pathways, Scenario, Socioeconomic scenario, and SRES scenarios.’
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