The GHG Webinar Library is offered to the Institute’s Premium Members as part of the membership package. When you sign up for a Premium Membership, you receive access to the complete library of recorded webinars, and a 20% discount on all individual courses, as well as an additional 10% discount on certificates. Membership also includes access to GHG networking tools that will connect you with thousands of other like-minded individuals.

Premium members can access the webinar library by logging into their membership page. A complete list of webinar presentation is provided below.

For more information on how to become a Premium Member, click here.

—

May 2011

The Requirements of Executive Order 13514 and its Impact on Federal Suppliers

Speakers: Rob Hardison and Taylor Wilkerson – Logistics Management Institute

On October 5, 2009 President Obama issued Executive Order 13514, which requires agencies to measure and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and to consider emissions from the federal supply chain.

In response to this Executive Order, GSA completed a study on the feasibility of the federal government tracking and reducing GHG emissions associated with the supply chain. GSA’s recommendations have been endorsed by the Council on Environmental Quality.

This webinar explains how the requirements of the Executive Order could impact Federal suppliers. Our presenters from LMI, Taylor Wilkerson and Rob Hardison, have worked closely supporting federal efforts on this issue. They review the proposed actions and timing, and what companies can do to prepare.

LMI is a not-for-profit strategic consulting firm dedicated to solving public-sector challenges and problems.For nearly 50 years, LMI has advised federal agencies in multiple areas, including: acquisition, energy and environment, facilities and capital asset management, financial management, information and technology, logistics, organizational improvement, and human capital.

LMI provides senior government officials with professional resources for action on the federal government’s most complex and challenging issues.

Rob Hardison is an Energy and Sustainability Consultant with the Logistics Management Institute (LMI), specializing in alternative energy technologies and greenhouse gas management. Mr. Hardison earned a B.S.in Environmental Engineering from the University Of Notre Dame, and an MBA and MPA from the University of Washington.

Taylor Wilkerson is a research fellow with LMI, a government consulting firm in McLean, VA. Taylor has been a part of the LMI Supply Chain Management Program for seven years. Prior to joining LMI, he worked as an environmental consultant focusing on air-quality engineering. He has a Bachelor of Engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the R.H. Smith School at the University of Maryland. He is also a member of the Supply Chain Council’s Aerospace and Defense Special Interest Group Steering Committee. Taylor is the co-author of GreenSCOR: Developing a Green Supply Chain Analytical Tool, author of Can One Green Deliver Another, and a contributing author to the Air Quality Handbook.

April 2011

Topic: The Climate Action Reserve’s Forest Project Protocol

Speaker: Max DuBuisson – The Climate Action Reserve

This webinar provides an overview of the Climate Action Reserve’s Forest Project Protocol.

From the Protocol’s introduction:

The Forest Project Protocol provides requirements and guidance for quantifying the net climate benefits of activities that sequester carbon on forestland. The protocol provides project eligibility rules; methods to calculate a project’s net effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals of CO2 from the atmosphere (“removals”); procedures for assessing the risk that carbon sequestered by a project may be reversed (i.e. released back to the atmosphere); and approaches for long term project monitoring and reporting. The goal of this protocol is to ensure that the net GHG reductions and removals caused by a project are accounted for in a complete, consistent, transparent, accurate, and conservative manner and may therefore be reported to the Climate Action Reserve (Reserve) as the basis for issuing carbon offset credits (called Climate Reserve Tonnes, or CRTs).

For more information on the Reserve’s Forest Project Protocol including supporting protocol resources, white papers, and previous versions are available at the following URL:www.climateactionreserve.org/how/protocols/adopted/forest/current/

As a Policy Manager for the Reserve, Max DuBuisson is responsible for assisting with the development of new emissions reduction project protocols, the maintenance of existing protocols, and the training of project developers and verifiers. He was previously part of the Reserve’s Business Development team, where he assisted with stakeholder outreach and expansion of the Reserve. Prior to joining the Reserve, he worked for Infinity Wind Power in Santa Barbara, as well as Pacific Gas & Electric in San Francisco. He received a Master’s in Environmental Science and Management from the Donald Bren School at UC Santa Barbara, where he focused on Eco-Entrepreneurship and Corporate Environmental Management. Max also has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Davidson College in North Carolina.

March 2011

Topic: Carbon finance in practice: Markets and the financial system as agents of climate change mitigation

Speaker: Marcelo Labre – faculty member at London Business School

This webinar provides an overview of the existent carbon markets and how the financial system can be used to finance initiatives on climate change mitigation. From debt and equity finance structures to trading of carbon securities, the topic covers how carbon finance acts to bridge the “green finance gap” that prevents various mitigation efforts from being undertaken under conventional finance. The presentation focuses on what carbon finance has achieved through the mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol and also through voluntary schemes in other markets such as the North American regional initiatives.

Marcelo Labre is currently member of the faculty at London Business School working with the Energy Markets Group. Marcelo was previously a Managing Director with Standard Bank in London where he significantly contributed to developing the bank’s carbon finance business through pioneering transactions, including some of the most innovative structured carbon deals in the market to date. His experience in carbon finance includes Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) origination and other activities such as trading, structuring and risk management.
His experience of more than 10 years in banking and finance includes positions with ING Bank in London and HSBC Bank in Brazil. As an electrical engineer Marcelo applied entrepreneurial skills in assisting companies reducing energy costs as well as their environmental impact through the implementation of energy efficiency projects. He has a BA in electrical engineering from a leading university in Brazil, a Masters in Finance degree from London Business School and a PhD in Mathematical Finance from Imperial College London focused on pricing and risk management of Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) contracts.

February 2011

Topic: Towards robust, global greenhouse gas monitoring

Speaker: Riley Duren – NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Global monitoring of greenhouse gases and carbon across the coupled earth system would enhance the quality of greenhouse gas emission and removal information available to inventory compilers, auditors, businesses, and policy makers. A robust monitoring system would combine direct measurements of the atmosphere, land and oceans, earth system models, inventories, and other information to accurately estimate greenhouse gas and carbon stocks and fluxes, towards increasing the overall confidence in reports of mitigation actions and assessments of the ultimate efficacy of those actions. Deploying a monitoring system that offers sustained, accurate, transparent, and relevant information represents a challenge and opportunity to a broad community spanning earth science, greenhouse gas accounting, and public policy. This webinar provides an introduction to some of the scientific and technical infrastructure issues associated with monitoring systems.

Riley Duren is Chief Systems Engineer for the Earth Science and Technology Directorate at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He has 22 years experience delivering observational systems for the U.S. and international science community and is a veteran of seven successful satellite missions including earth-mapping radars and space telescopes, for which he received NASA’s System Engineering Award and two Exceptional Achievement Medals. He was the Chief Engineer for the Kepler Mission now conducting a search for earth-size planets around other stars. He has lectured and written about Verification and Validation of complex systems including a textbook chapter on the subject. He has given invited talks on applied systems engineering in various forums including those sponsored by INCOSE and the National Academy of Engineering. His current duties alternate between providing tactical engineering support for NASA’s earth observing missions and strategic analysis and design of decision support systems for climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. Since 2008, he has served as one of the co-organizers of a grass-roots collaboration between multiple U.S. agencies and international partners to study options for deploying a policy-relevant global greenhouse gas monitoring and information system. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the nonprofit Greenhouse Gas Management Institute and the Editorial Board for the journal Greenhouse Gas Measurement and Management.

January 2011

Topic: The Greenhouse Gas Protocol for the U.S. Public Sector

Speaker: Mary Sotos – Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative

In October 2010, World Resources Institute and LMI (a non-profit consulting group for the federal government) released a co-authored protocol entitled The Greenhouse Gas Protocol for the U.S. Public Sector, or the Public Sector Protocol for short. This protocol interprets and applies the GHG accounting principles established by WRI’s “Corporate Standard” to the unique structures and needs of the government. To develop the case studies and best practices featured in the protocol, LMI and WRI convened a stakeholder group with over a hundred federal, state, and local government managers and contractors, as well as leaders from voluntary GHG reporting programs.

This presentation provides an overview on the development process of the publication and the key areas of guidance for government inventories, including:

• Drawing organizational boundaries for government structures
• Accounting for emissions from leased assets
• Estimating emissions from supply chains (scope 3)
• Consistently tracking emissions over time with departmental restructuring
• Ensuring high data quality

Mary Sotos is a Research Analyst with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Initiative, itself a joint-initiative between World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD). The GHG Protocol Initiative established the first internationally-accepted corporate GHG reporting framework for companies, called the Corporate Standard, which has been adopted as the reporting basis for nearly all voluntary corporate reporting and CSR programs.

Mary supports the GHG Protocol calculation tools and technical resources, which provide companies with the calculation methodologies and guidance necessary to complete a corporate inventory. She also co-authored the U.S. Public Sector Protocol, which interprets the GHG accounting principles in the Corporate Standard and applies them to government agency operations at a local, state and federal level. Mary is also helping to develop a set of GHG accounting guidelines for corporate green power purchases.

Mary graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota with a B.A. in Environmental Studies, and subsequently spent a year in Brussels, Belgium conducting research through a Fulbright Fellowship. Here, she pursued graduate coursework in Science and Environmental Management at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

—

December 2010

Topic: Codifying Sustainability: a purpose for the Internet of Things

Speaker: Gavin Starks – AMEE

Accurate and comprehensive climate change mitigation will require robust, scalable, and traceable data to measure, manage, and verify emissions. Codifying environmental standards, combined with the emergence of the “internet of things” provides immense opportunities to improve the way we understand and act on emissions. The webinar explores this rapidly emerging field of emissions and energy management, some of the challenges it faces, and the vast opportunities that lie ahead.

Specifically, Gavin discusses the “content infrastructure” necessary for carbon accounting and footprinting to work accurately and at scale. The presentation focuses in detail on the role technology has to play in that infrastructure, and stack and review the diverse approaches presently attempting to fill that role. Concluding discussion examines how web-based approaches can maximize the benefits technology can provide in this role and help make carbon measurement and management accurate, scalable, and transparent.

Gavin Starks is the founder and CEO of AMEE, which is aiming to map, track, and connect carbon data. Gavin is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in building data businesses, 20 years in internet and software development, and a background in Astrophysics. His experience spans business, technology, science, and media. Leading projects with organizations as diverse as the UK Government, Google, BBC, Rolls Royce, LogicaCMG, Shell, and Christian Aid, he has broad and deep knowledge of the importance of data in developing world-changing systems.

—

November 2010

Topic: Development of a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Offsets Methodology to Credit GHG Reductions from Reduced Fertilizer Use in Agricultural Crop Production

Speaker: Adam Diamant – Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

In 2009, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and eight member electric companies along with Michigan State University (MSU) completed a three-year long scientific research project to investigate and verify the potential to create large-scale greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions offsets by reducing nitrogen fertilizer use in agricultural production. This EPRI-sponsored project demonstrated that this approach could be implemented across broad geographic areas of the U.S. and internationally without reducing crop yields. Based on our scientific research, EPRI and MSU have estimated that the technical potential to reduce N2O emissions by reducing nitrogen fertilizer use in corn production across the continental U.S. ranges between 18-65 million tonnes CO2e per year. In 2010, EPRI and MSU developed a new offsets methodology for “Quantifying N2O Emissions Reductions in U.S. Agricultural Crops through N Fertilizer Rate Reduction” and submitted this methodology to the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) for validation. This webinar presentation summarizes how N2O emissions can be reduced by reducing the amount of nitrogen fertilizer applied to croplands and will highlight key aspects of the draft EPRI-MSU N2O emissions offsets protocol.

Adam Diamant is a Senior Project Manager in the Global Climate Change Program at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Mr. Diamant’s current research activities focus on the development and evolution of international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading programs, corporate GHG risk analysis and management, GHG emissions offsets including agricultural and forest carbon sequestration, and developing information and methods to help electric companies make strategic decisions in the face of climate policy uncertainty.

—

October 2010

Topic: International Aviation and Climate Change: Perspectives on the ICAO’s response to climate change

Speaker: Stelios Pesmajoglou, PhD – Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

ICAO’s recent decision on international aviation and climate change represents an incredible achievement in the global efforts to address climate change. ICAO and its 190 member States, together with industry and other international organizations, have developed an ambitious programme that will define the work of the Organization in the decades to come. This work programme is a comprehensive package that includes global emission reduction goals, different mitigation strategies, steps to assist States to contribute to global efforts, reporting provisions, and more.

GHGMI Director of Professional Programs Stelios Pesmajoglou shares his perspectives working as part of the ICAO secretariat during the negotiations at the 37th ICAO Assembly. Stelios analyzes the ICAO decision and discusses its significance in the context of the climate change negotiations under the UNFCCC.

—

September 2010

Topic: A Practical Introduction to Forest Project Sampling Methods

Speaker: Gordon Smith, PhD – Ecofor LLC

This Institute webinar introduces the methods that verifiers, project managers, offset buyers, and project investors employ to understand and evaluate carbon quantification in forest GHG projects. It provides an understanding of the advantages and limitations of specific ground-based forest biomass measurement approaches, as well as the challenges and opportunities presented by remote sensing approaches. It also offers an overview of the issues associated with selecting measurement techniques and designing balanced sampling systems that measure carbon stock changes with sufficient accuracy at the lowest cost. (Prior knowledge of statistics not required – a brief overview of relevant statistical concepts is provided.)

Gordon Smith is the principal of Ecofor LLC, a firm that works with project developers, GHG emission offset buyers, and landowners to analyze proposed emission mitigation projects, implement projects, and trade resulting greenhouse gas emission offsets. This mitigation work builds on Dr. Smith’s work developing cost-effective methods for measuring change in forest and soil carbon stocks, including analysis of the effects of sampling design on statistical variability of carbon measurements, and quantifying the greenhouse gas emission benefits of biomass energy projects. He has consulted to states, the federal government, and local entities on greenhouse gas emission mitigation policy. He has implemented projects under a variety of greenhouse gas accounting systems, and developed contracts and institutional arrangements to define and exchange greenhouse gas emission offsets.

—

August 2010

Topic: The Carbon Reduction Commitment: An innovative national cap-and-trade scheme in practice

Speaker: Paul Stepan – Camco

This presentation offers background on the CRC, a mandatory energy efficiency scheme aimed at improving energy efficiency and cutting emissions in large public and private sector organizations responsible for about 10% of the UK’s emissions. The scheme provides a financial incentive to reduce energy use by putting a price on carbon emissions from such use and also provides the opportunity for participants to make savings on energy bills through improved energy efficiency. The scheme is designed to tackle CO2 emissions not already covered by Climate Change Agreements (CCAs) and the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

An industry expert on the CRC, Paul Stepan heads up the policy response for Camco, a leading climate change and sustainable development company. He has worked to prepare a number of major corporates and large public sector organizations for the policy. He also regularly lectures on behalf of trade associations and conducts training events for the Carbon Trust.

—

July 2010

Topic: Apples & Oranges? Road-testing offset Protocols

Speakers: Anja Kollmuss and Carrie Lee – Stockholm Environment Institute

Anja and Carrie introduce ‘road testing’ research they conducted comparing five offset programs for landfill methane, manure digesters, and afforestation project types. The examined offset programs are: US EPA Climate Leaders, Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), California Climate Action Registry (CCAR) [now Climate Action Reserve (CAR)], and Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Anja and Carrie present the quantitative variations their testing revealed and examine the underlying elements that produced differing results, such as: boundary definitions, baseline setting methods, measurement rules, emission factors, and discounts.

Both Anja Kollmuss and Carrie Lee work in the Climate and Energy Program at SEI.

Anja Kollmuss focuses on national and international climate mitigation policy analysis. She currently researches cap-and-trade and carbon offset programs and has written several comprehensive reviews of offset programs. She maintains the Carbon Offset Research and Education (CORE) website.

Carrie Lee works in the Climate and Energy program at the Seattle office of SEI’s US center. Her research focuses on forest and agricultural climate mitigation strategies, carbon offsets, bio-energy production, ecosystem ecology and management, and regional climate change impacts assessment.

—

June 2010

Topic: GHG Standards, Protocols, Methodologies

Speaker: Tom Baumann – ClimateCHECK

This presentation is focused on GHG standards, protocols and methodologies that provide essential guidance and requirements for quantifying, monitoring, reporting, auditing, and certifying GHG emissions and performance claims, among other related issues. The webinar presents an overview of the standards and the program/organization for developing standards; an examination of the challenges and needs for standards development and standards use, and; approaches to enable faster, better, cheaper standards development.

Tom Baumann has been a leading expert in the field of GHG for the past 10 years, working with climate change and clean energy companies in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors to support technical and management solutions that achieve the ‘double dividend’ of environmental and economic benefits.

—

May 2010

Topic: GHG Protocol Standards for Product and Supply Chain (Scope 3) Accounting

Speaker: David Rich – World Resources Institute

David Rich provides the latest updates on the global multi-stakeholder process to develop new standards for product life cycle and supply chain (Scope 3) emissions. David is an associate with the GHG Protocol Initiative at the World Resources Institute where he focuses on the development of greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standards and emissions registries. Previously, David worked with The Climate Registry to develop a common GHG reporting protocol for use by companies across North America.

—

April 2010

Topic: New and Emerging EPA Regulatory Developments and the Link to Carbon Accounting

Speaker: Kathy Blue – Trinity Consultants

This webinar reviews significant new EPA actions, including the EPA Mandatory GHG Reporting Rule and the proposed Tailoring Rule, educating participants on key aspects of these proposed and final regulations as they apply to the industrial sector. In particular, focus is paid on the link between regulatory actions and carbon accounting practices and the importance of accurate and robust data as these new requirements evolve.

As a Principal Consultant and the individual who leads Trinity Consultants’ National Climate Change practice, Kathy Blue provides advisement to industrial clients through tracking regulatory developments, implementing carbon management strategies, creating greenhouse gas inventories, identifying emission reductions, and publicly reporting sustainability and climate change performance. She has over 15 years of air quality consulting expertise and has been practicing in the climate change arena since 2001.

—

March 2010

Topic: Climate Change Disclosure: Origins and Implications of the SEC Guidance and Beyond

Speaker: Julie Fox Gorte, PhD – PAX World Management LLC

Dr. Julie Fox Gorte draws from a dynamic background to focus on the evolution of climate risk disclosure with specific reference to SEC’s recent interpretive guidance on the matter in the March 2010 webinar. Working in the investment world since 1999, previously at Calvert, Dr. Gorte brings a wealth of experience from a number of positions in Washington, DC and beyond with the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, The Wilderness Society, the Northeast-Midwest Institute, and the US EPA’s policy office.

—

February 2010

Topic: Understanding Environmental Commodities: RECs and GHG Offsets

Speaker: Michael Gillenwater – Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

Institute Executive Director, Co-founder and Dean Michael Gillenwater delivers an interactive presentation explaining what kind of environmental claims are appropriate to make when using RECs versus GHG emission offsets and discusses how these environmental commodities fit into the dynamic climate and energy policy landscape around the world.

—

January 2010

Topic: COP15: What’s Next?

Speaker: Stelios Pesmajoglou, PhD – Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

The first featured webinar in our 2010 series provides cutting insight on the path forward from Copenhagen following December’s UNFCCC round. Institute staff and faculty member Stelios Pesmajoglou presents his perspective on the state of international climate negotiations. In addition to his work with the Institute and a long career with the UNFCCC Secretariat, Stelios recently served as a Senior Negotiator for the Greek Delegation during COP15.