Introducing the GHG Management Institute podcast
The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute has launched a new (free) podcast series on carbon management. In each episode, GHGMI’s Michael Gillenwater, Don Bain, and their guests discuss trends and challenges relevant to the GHG community in an accessible conversational format. For more information or to stream or download the first episode click here.
Today we pull the curtain back on a new initiative: the GHGMI Podcast.
We want to take a moment to reflect on why we think the podcast is valuable for you and the GHG community and give a taste of what you can expect.
The challenge of building a global profession
The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute was founded to professionalize and expand the practice of carbon management. We have created an unmatched catalogue of technical training courses, established a uniquely rigorous and accredited personnel certification, and started a peer-reviewed journal Greenhouse Gas Measurement & Management.
But building a community is more than just infrastructure and institutions. Our vision is a networked professional community in which informed practitioners build knowledge through constructive engagement, exchange, and debate.
The community-building dimension of this vision has always been particularly challenging given the diffusion of practitioners across the globe. But it is just these challenges that have focused our resolve and inspired our work. Indeed it was the early success of the GHG Experts Network* —a listserve for the global community of “carbon geeks” working on GHG accounting — that provided inspiration for the establishment of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute. (*The GHG Experts Network has since been broadened and incorporated into the GHGMI Forum.)
A topical, accessible, human podcast for the carbon community
The GHGMI Podcast is our latest effort to develop and support you and the rest of the global climate change community.
How is a podcast helpful?
For one, the nature of podcasting offers an opportunity to highlight, dissect, and weigh in on topical issues important to you and your professional development. The podcast also serves as a jumping off point for discussion of topics relevant to our field.
Just as important as content is tone. We view the informal nature of podcasts as an opportunity to break from the rigidity that pervades climate work. Whereas the policy papers, international standards, and academic literature that make up necessary reading for GHG practitioners can be excessively formal or dry, with the podcast we set out to make carbon management more “human.” Each episode is a conversation similar to that you might have with a colleague.
Who’s behind the GHGMI Podcast?
The GHGMI Podcast evolved from a series of conversations between GHGMI’s Michael Gillenwater and Don Bain.
Michael Gillenwater is a co-founder and Dean of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute. He brings perspective from his policy, public sector, and research experience tempered with work for the IPCC, UNFCCC, and the co-development of the U.S. National Inventory Program for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He also keeps the conversations up-to-date with happening at the Institute.
Don Bain brings perspectives from the corporate world, where he has worked as a partner in Ernst & Young’s global supply chain practice, as president of several software and technology companies, and in venture finance. He is the author of the upcoming course on Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) GHG Accounting and Reporting. Both Don and Michael are trained as engineers and Don maintains his professional engineer’s license.
What’s inside and who’s it for?
The policy and practice of GHG management is fast-moving. Take GHG accounting rules, for example, while some are well established, others are still being actively developed, debated, and iterated. Similarly, guiding frameworks and policies continue to proliferate, fluctuate, and fragment in ways that can be difficult to track. The GHGMI Podcast discusses key trends and challenges across the field giving a sense of the state of play and also a longer view of where things (policy, rulemaking, practice) are headed.
The podcast’s first few topics include the rise in “sustainability reporting” frameworks and the latest in the ongoing debate over “green” electricity in carbon accounting. (We encourage you to offer suggestions for future episode topics; email: podcast@ghginstitute.org)
The GHGMI Podcast was conceived to support and inform the GHGMI community and the broader network of practitioners. (Though many episodes will be relevant to professionals working in related fields, as well as students and other intellectually curious observers.)
Without a physical campus, we can’t show off ivy-covered brick architecture or a well-landscaped quad, but now with our new podcast series you can listen in on the chatter in the “halls” of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute.
This is a good innovation. Carbon accounting is critical to the quest for GHG reduction.
I look forward to a constructive relationship.
Hi,
I am an Energy Centre graduate student in Nigeria and in need of a mentor in Carbon expertise.
I seek to write a research topic on carbon/GHG management-a case study of Shell Nigeria. Would be glad if you could suggest topics i could write on.
Thanks
Adeniji,
Let me suggest you read through the blog posts here and see if any of these topics are of interest to you. You can also listen to the archived pod casts for other ideas.
Michael