Units
In Emergence, units are organisms that move, plan and act.
Like all organisms, they require resources to survive. However, unlike sessile organisms, they do not shrink when starved of resources. Instead, they simply die.
Work
Units can perform work when prompted, crafting to transform ingredients, amending soil, gathering resources from plants or so on.
The amount of work required for each recipe is measured in seconds, although various modifiers may make this faster or slower.