The concept "environment" is of considerable importance in present-day engineering thermodynamics. Introduction of this concept in operation brings not only simplification of the methods of solving classical thermodynamic problems, but also gives the exergy method which forms the major new part of thermodynamics, including some parts of biology, economics and other fields of science. But practice shows that it is necessary to define the concept "environment" more precisely in some cases. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.