The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute (GHGMI) offers rigorous e-learning courses that meet the needs of both individuals and organizations working on all aspects of climate change. Courses are self-paced, available 24 hours per day, and authored by leading experts in their fields. Lessons are designed for both beginners and experienced professionals and may be taken individually or as part of a diploma program.
Explore our self-paced courses anytime, anywhere—they’re available 24/7 and crafted by top experts in the field. Not sure where to start? Find the perfect fit for your interests and goals by using our interactive course selection tool and learning more about how our courses work.
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Choose the course that fits your path
Choose the course that fits your path
Educating tomorrow’s leaders is our number one priority. Through limited scholarships, we provide partial fee reductions for learners who demonstrate financial need. GHGMI is a non-profit organization operating internationally, so we price tuition fees accordingly. Unfortunately, we don’t offer group discounts. Find out more about our financial aid policies, opportunities, and application process.
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GHG Management Institute (GHGMI) online courses are designed to build your expertise in GHG accounting and carbon management, whether you’re new to the field or looking to advance your career. Our core courses are for everyone, including decision-makers seeking a more comprehensive understanding, engineers and analysts requiring technical proficiency, and professionals looking to transition their careers into carbon management.
We encourage you to use our Interactive Course Selection tool to help you select the course that best suits your carbon management goals. As a starting point, we strongly encourage all learners to explore our core courses, which provide a solid foundation in GHG accounting and are applicable across industries and roles:
Descriptions of all our Courses and Diploma programs can be found on our website.
Please visit our Workshops webpage if you are looking for a virtual or in-person workshop with GHG accounting content customized to your training needs.
All our courses are available in English, and our Registrar’s Office operates primarily in English. In addition, some GHGMI online courses are available in additional languages, including French, Portuguese, or Spanish, providing broader access to GHG accounting and carbon management training. You can filter by language on our Courses webpage.
Our experts and faculty are internationally renowned in the field. They are led by our Dean, Dr. Michael Gillenwater. Please go to our Faculty page for a list of experts and course developers.
The Certificates you can obtain from GHGMI programs are the following:
The GHG Management Institute currently offers three diploma programs:
Enrollment in any of these diplomas provides access to our complete library of courses (excluding course 401, which is only accessible when registered for individually or via enrollment into the Diploma in GHG MRV).
Our three diploma programs are similar. Each requires a learner to pass the introductory Proficiency Exams: 201 Basics of Organizational GHG Accounting or 204 Basics of Subnational GHG Accounting, 202 Basics of Project-Level GHG Accounting, and 501 IPCC: Introduction to Cross-Cutting Issues. These exams are designed to provide you with a solid foundation in GHG management, which is crucial for your success in the field. The Diploma in GHG MRV also requires you to pass course 401: GHG Verification for Inventories and Projects.
Additionally, the Diplomas allow you to curate your program by choosing 3 to 4 upper-division elective courses (300- and 500-level) that best suit your goals.
The Registrar’s Office can provide additional orientation and guidance about which electives best fit your professional path. Please contact us at registrar@ghginstitute.org with any questions or concerns.
One of the advantages of online learning, also known as e-learning, is that it allows for self-paced learning. We have a Suggested Study Pace for every course, which estimates the time an average learner might take to complete the course. However, this is only a guideline. Completion timeframes vary based on your availability and familiarity with the subject matter.
The approximate number of working hours to complete a course is typically 16-20, though this can vary considerably depending on the course. Check the “Approximate Number of Working Hours to Complete” section on each course webpage.
Completing courses and the Diploma depends entirely on your availability and time commitment. There’s no strict deadline from our side to complete the Diploma. We understand that most learners are not full-time students, so rest assured, your access to the program is indefinite. While we do recommend completing the diploma program’s required Proficiency Exams within two years to keep the material fresh in your mind, this is not a hard deadline.
While we recommend focusing on one course at a time due to the time required for most courses (typically between 16 and 20 hours), you are welcome to take more than one course simultaneously.
The Proficiency Exams associated with our courses have not been designed to be taken separately from the coursework. However, there are cases where learners, due to their prior education and work experience, may be eligible to pass the Proficiency Exam without taking the course. For this reason, we allow learners to purchase the exam independently of a course.
To register for the “exam-only” option for a course, follow these steps:
No. A Proficiency Exam accompanies each course separately, but no exam covers the entire Diploma program. Learners receive a Certificate of Proficiency for each Proficiency Exam they pass. The Diploma Certificate is issued upon completion of all courses and passing all proficiency exams.
Exams are graded by Institute staff and reviewed by the Institute’s Dean. The passing grade is 70%. Learners are given two (2) chances to pass an exam. If the first attempt is unsuccessful, you will be notified and re-enrolled in the exam. If you don’t pass the second attempt and plan to try again, you must purchase the exam again; any additional exam attempts incur a fee of US$50.
Once your exam has been graded, you will receive an email from our Registrar’s office with the results and, if applicable, a Certificate of Proficiency in PDF format. Please allow 3-5 weeks for your exam to be graded. Please note that we do not mail hard copies of Certificates.
If needed, learners can request expedited grading and certificate issuance, which we may be able to accommodate on a case-by-case basis.
No. All course materials are available online. No hard copies of the lessons are provided.
In courses 201, 202, and 401, we have also entered into a licensing agreement to provide all learners at the Institute with one copy of the appropriate part of ISO 14064 (parts 1, 2, and 3, respectively). The ISO standard is available for download on the course page. ISO 14064 Part 1 is distributed as part of the Basics of Organizational GHG Accounting course, ISO 14064 Part 2 is distributed as part of the Basics of Project-Level GHG Accounting course, and ISO 14064 Part 3 is distributed as part of the GHG Verification for Inventories and Projects course.
We don’t provide a Certificate of Participation because our programs are asynchronous, and therefore, we don’t monitor students’ progress in the courses. Thus, we cannot evaluate learning or expertise in the subject.
As part of its core strategy, the Institute has focused on achieving measurable learning outcomes. When we issue a Certificate of Proficiency or Diploma Certificate, we communicate that an individual has completed a rigorous process and can claim that they have gained well-defined knowledge and competency in a subject.
The GHG Management Institute has been spreading and elevating technical knowledge on GHG accounting theory and methods through our writing and teaching. We suggest reading this blog post, where our Dean, Michael Gillenwater, summarizes the two fundamental types of GHG accounting, focusing on their key differences.
Additionally, our GHG Experts Forum may help you find information about the experiences of GHGMI learners. The Forum is a virtual space where GHG experts worldwide can come together to discuss all topics related to GHG management, accounting, verification, training, and other relevant areas. You can access the Experts Forum using a free GHGMI membership account.
We are often asked if a general course on climate change will become part of the Institute’s curriculum. At one time, we developed material for an Introduction to Climate Change course; however, a lot of excellent basic information is already available on the web for free, and we saw no need to recreate it. Thus, we have chosen to focus on more specific carbon management topics, unique in their content and rigor.
For those seeking credible information on climate change, we recommend visiting the sites below as a starting point. This list is by no means exhaustive, and an internet search of your own will undoubtedly uncover more valuable resources on climate change (as well, unfortunately, as a good amount of non-credible information).
