The GHG Experts Network 2.0: The GHGMI Forum

Here’s a test to see how long you’ve been part of the GHG expert community: Do you remember the old GHG Experts Network?

If the answer is yes, then I have good news for you, the Institute is recreating the old Experts Network listserv as a part of our membership program. Of course this is good news even if you’ve never heard of the GHG Experts Network, but it’s exciting to finally have a resource to point the “old timers” who have for years been asking what happened to the GHG Experts Network listserv.

What did happen to the listserv? Well, with the migration to the GHG Management Institute, we shut down the Experts Network. In retrospect, that was a mistake. So, now —after too long— we are recreating this valuable global discussion listserv.

If you have no idea what I am talking about and have never heard of the GHG Experts Network, then let me take a step back and provide a little history. In 2005 I created an online community of GHG experts with the purpose of facilitating online networking for people working on and interested in GHG inventory related issues. One of the most widely used tools the Network provided was a listserv that enabled members to post “carbon geek” questions and news items to the community. The online discussion centered on issues and questions related to GHG measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV), such as where to find a specific emission factor for biodiesel or which set of GWP values one should use. In its heyday the Experts Network listserv had over a thousand subscribers. It was a dynamic resource that facilitated intelligent crowd-sourced Q&A and technical discourse on MRV issues. Further, the Network also brought some semblance of community to the globally fragmented population of technical GHG experts.

In short, we’re thrilled to finally be bringing the Experts Network back. Over the course of this month we will be rolling out this new —yet nearly identical to its predecessor— listserv to post questions, answers, and news items to. The new GHGMI Forum will be facilitated and managed through GHGMI’s membership platform. Access to the Forum is available to both basic (free) and premium members. (Instructions on how to configure your GHGMI Forum account can be found here.)

We hope the GHGMI Forum will be an exciting new…I mean old…resource that will enhance your professional development and help us all build a more robust global GHG expert community.