02 May 2008 GHG Management Institute featured in Point Carbon

The Institute was recently featured by Point Carbon. Point Carbon is a world-leading provider of independent news, analysis and consulting services for European and global power, gas and carbon markets. Point Carbon's comprehensive services provide professionals with market-moving information through monitoring fundamental information, key market players and business and policy developments.

See below for the full article.

US programme to train auditors for global carbon market

A US programme aiming to train hundreds of new personnel to become greenhouse gas reduction project verifiers may help to increase the global supply of carbon credits and clear up a backlog of projects that are on long waiting lists for auditing and monitoring services. Read more.

10 April 2008 World Resources Institute and Greenhouse Gas Management Institute agree to expand partnership

Washington, DC. - The World Resources Institute’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol team and the GHG Management Institute (GMI) met in Washington on April 3 to review the progress of their partnership to professionalize GHG accounting and management. GMI’s first online course, Basics of Organizational GHG Accounting (BOGA), which focuses on the GHG Protocol, started in November 2007. “Since then, GMI has implemented six classes attended by over 50 learners from 18 countries,” stated Pankaj Bhatia, Director of the GHG Protocol Initiative at WRI. “More than 20 professionals from nonprofits and public agencies in developed and developing countries have received financial assistance.”

Click here to read the full press release.

28 March 2008 GHG Management Institute in Argus Air Daily newsletter

25 March 2008 Argus Air released a newsletter citing the works and endeavors of the Institute. Please click here to read the newsletter.

18 March 2008 GHG Management Institute selected to develop accreditation process and training program for verifiers under Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)

The Greenhouse Gas Management Institute has been chosen as one of the service providers to support the emissions offset component of the CO2 Budget Trading Program of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). The GHG Management Institute will work on the accreditation process and training program for offset project verifiers. An accreditation process is required to ensure that independent verifiers are approved to provide services to prospective offsets project developers in accordance with the Model Rule requirements. The Institute will work with ICF International, which has been chosen to work on the Model Applications and Submittal Documents, and Model Guidance Documents.

Click here to read the full press release.

18 March 2008 Date Announced for the Nation’s First Auction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Allowances

RGGI states also selects firms to support implementation of first CO2 cap-and-trade program in the U.S.

(New York, NY) – States participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an agreement among the Governors of ten Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce greenhouse gases from power plants, announced today the first ever CO2 allowance auction in the nation for a mandatory emission reduction program will take place on September 10, 2008.

The states participating in RGGI have agreed to participate in quarterly uniform regional auctions for the allowance that each state will be offering for sale. The second quarterly auction is scheduled to be held on December 17, 2008. The first compliance period for the RGGI cap-and-trade program will begin January 1, 2009. in conducting regional auctions, the RGGI states have come to agreement on a number of design elements. More information about these design elements can be found at http://www.rggi.org

For the full press release, please click here to download or click here to read.

11 March 2008 GHG Institute in LinkedIn.

The GHG Management Institute recently started a group on Linkedin to help network and link the faculty and alumni of the Institute. To join, click here.

29 February 2008 - GHG Management Institute and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) agreement

The GHG Management Institute is pleased to announce that it has entered into a licensing agreement with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to provide all learners at the Institute with one copy of the appropriate part of ISO 14064. All previously enrolled learners can download their copy by simply logging on to their class. ISO 14064 Part 1 is distributed as part of the Basics of GHG Accounting for Organizations, Part 2 is distributed as part of the Basics of Project-Level GHG Accounting, and Part 3 will be available with the forthcoming courses on validation and verification.

29 February 2008 - Step Change : Difficult at the best of times, measuring a company’s carbon footprint is about to get even more so.

Here is an excerpt of the article written by Jason Karaian for CFO Europe Magazine:

Carbon Curriculum

Corporate carbon disclosure needs to come a long way before Trevet and fellow analysts ditch their admittedly flawed models. For that to happen, experts say, companies need to improve the governance of footprint measurement projects, both to strengthen the internal collection and analysis of emissions data and to enhance co-operation with partners along the supply chain.

With this in mind, the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute — founded in October by Gillenwater of the Greenhouse Gas Experts Network and Baumann of ClimateCheck — is launching a "climate MBA" course this year. Going beyond the established "nuts and bolts" of emissions inventory accounting, Baumann explains, the accredited programme will target CEOs and CFOs in the hopes of "driving high-level commitment in order to drive more action."
At Best Foot Forward, Simmons will teach the company's first "carbon culture" course next month. "It's about raising employee awareness, using carbon in the decision-making process, and engaging the supply chain," he says. It's also tailored to finance. "When I speak to various people throughout a company, it's finance that usually gets it first," Simmons notes. "They have the accounting skills, they understand how to define boundaries, and they know how to collect, analyse and report data."
Despite their current workload, Simmons reckons deeper finance involvement will hasten the eventual development of truly useful carbon accounting. What's more, when CFOs bring CO2 onto the balance sheet, they add an "exciting new element to an age-old job."
Click here to read the full article.

27 February 2008 GHG Management Institute conducted a webinar for EPRI on GHG protocols.

The GHG Management Institute conducted a webinar (web conference) for the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) on 11 January 2008. The webinar aims to provide an overview of the GHG emission accounting issues and protocols. Click here for further information about the webcast.

25 January 2008 – Carbon Coach listed under “Ten Jobs You Didn’t Know You Wanted”

Here is an excerpt of the article by April Joyner of FastCompany.com.

Carbon coach

Reducing contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, or the carbon footprint, is one huge step toward sustainability, but few guidelines exist for how companies gunning to be green should proceed. Carbon coaches offer this essential information. In addition to calculating carbon footprints and offering advice for offsetting them, carbon coaches help companies fit sustainability into their overall mission. Their services range from providing branding strategy for "green" product launches to advising companies on their relationships with NGOs.

Already prevalent in Europe, carbon consulting is steadily catching on stateside. "Getting corporate culture to change is challenging and frustrating, but companies are really starting to change," says Michael Gillenwater, Dean of GHG Management Institute. "It's enormously exciting." The quickly changing nature of the field and the frequent opportunities to compare notes with colleagues worldwide only adds to the excitement.

Most carbon coaches work at consulting firms, where they command salaries ranging from $40,000 to $60,000 for entry-level positions and $60,000 to $100,000 for mid-level positions, according to Gillenwater. Non-profit organization salaries aren't as high; an entry-level carbon coach with a master's degree can expect a salary of $30,000 to $50,000.

Click here to read the full article.

7 January 2008, Greenhouse Gas Management Institute to participate at the Wall Street Green Trading Summit, April 2-3, 2008, New York Times Building, New York

To address the growing interest in the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, members of the Institute will participate at leading events, provide brochures and be available in person to respond to questions about the new courses and developments ahead for the Institute in 2008

Members of the Institute will be at the 7th Annual Wall Street Green Trading Summit (WSGTS) April 2-3, 2008, New York Times Building, New York. The WSGTS is the seminal New York City environmental financial market event.

“Organizations cannot afford to be left behind in this evolving system of GHG management,” said Gao Pronove, Managing Director. The Institute allows its courses to be learned interactively online through instructor-led e-learning. Organizations and individuals around the world can access this knowledge-building resource thus providing a global solution to the global challenge of climate change.

The Institute’s focus is on GHG emissions accounting, inventories, management, and verification. The courses are developed and instructed by the same experts who prepared today’s international standards and founded national government programs. “The GHG Management Institute will promote best practices and build confidence in the professional competencies of GHG practitioners”, according to Tom Baumann, the Institute’s Director of Professional Programs, “and prepare individuals to join the fast growing, $10 billion job market.”

Bali, Indonesia, 3 December 2007 - Carbon Disclosure Project joins Greenhouse Gas Management Institute

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has agreed to partner with the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, a nonprofit focused on training and education. The GHG Management Institute offers online courses on how to measure, account and manage GHG emissions that cause global climate change. “Its mission is to train and develop a community of experts with the highest standards of professional practice in measuring and managing GHG emissions,” said Michael Gillenwater, Dean of the Institute. The Institute’s philosophy is that if you cannot accurately measure GHG emissions, you cannot manage climate change.

In partnership with CDP, the Institute is developing courses aimed at better equipping corporate managers to respond to the CDP 6 questionnaire and utilize CDP data. The first CDP specific course will start in mid-February 2008. Paul Dickinson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project, an investor-led initiative to disclose the carbon footprints of the world's largest corporations, stated that “Quantifying greenhouse gases is the first step for a company to truly understand and assess their carbon footprint. It is only after this that corporations can manage their emissions and reduce their impact.”

The Institute’s focus is on GHG emissions accounting, inventories, management, and verification. WRI developed the GHG Management Institute’s first course on corporate GHG emissions accounting is working with the new Institute to develop and instruct additional courses on emissions estimation methodologies and building GHG reporting programs.

“Organizations and professionals around the world are now realizing that it is essential for them to educate themselves on the issue of GHG management,” said Gao Pronove, the new Institute’s Managing Director. The Institute delivers its courses through instructor-led e-learning, thereby avoiding the emissions associated with traveling to workshops and conferences.

“The GHG Management Institute will promote best practices and build confidence in the professional competencies of GHG practitioners,” according to Tom Baumann, the Institute’s Director of Professional Programs, “and prepare individuals to join the fast-growing, $10 billion job market.”

The GHG Management Institute and the Carbon Disclosure Project will be present at the upcoming climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia. For more information on the GHG Management Institute, visit www.GHGinstitute.org.

Click here for a copy of the Press Release

Bali, Indonesia, 3 December 2007 - WRI Joins Greenhouse Gas Management Institute to Train on Emissions Accounting

The World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute are joining forces to train professionals on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the most widely used international accounting tool for government and business leaders to understand, quantify, and manage greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our mission is to train and develop a community of experts with the highest standards of professional practice in measuring and managing GHG emissions,” said Michael Gillenwater, dean of the new Institute. “Our philosophy is that if you cannot accurately measure GHG emissions, you cannot manage climate change.”

WRI’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol is a perfect fit with the new nonprofit organization’s focus on training and education and offering of online courses on how to measure, account and manage GHG emissions.

“The content that our GHG Protocol team designs is considered a global standard,” said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. “It is critical that managers – whether they’re working on projects throughout the developing world or trying to make improvements at their individual companies – really get their heads around these issues.”

WRI developed the GHG Management Institute’s first course on corporate GHG emissions accounting and is working with the new Institute to develop and instruct additional courses on emissions estimation methodologies and building GHG reporting programs.

“Organizations and professionals around the world are now realizing that it is essential for them to educate themselves on the issue of GHG management,” said Gao Pronove, the new Institute’s managing director. The Institute delivers its courses through instructor-led e-learning.

“What better way to impart GHG management and accounting skills than with an interactive e-learning approach that avoids emissions from transportation to workshops, trainings, and conferences?” said Manish Bapna, WRI’s executive vice president and managing director.

“The GHG Management Institute will promote best practices, build confidence in the professional competencies of GHG practitioners, and prepare individuals to join the fast-growing, $10 billion job market,” according to Tom Baumann, the Institute’s director of Professional Programs.

The GHG Management Institute and WRI will officially announce their partnership at an event in Bali, Indonesia on December 7 during the United Nations annual conference on climate change. The event will be from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the Bingo Room at the Grand Hyatt and is open to the public.

Click here to view the press release

The Gold Standard Joins the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute Training Experts on How to Measure and Manage Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Dedicated to training tomorrow’s managers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute was launched in October of this year. Earth Council Geneva, the GHG Experts Network, and ClimateCHECK have combined their forces and expertise to form this Institute, committed to professional learning on climate change.

The Institute’s focus, narrow by design, is on GHG emissions accounting, inventories, management, and verification, as the demand for experts with these skills vastly exceeds the supply. Michael Schlup, The Gold Standard Director, will serve on the Institute’s Advisory Board. The courses are developed and instructed by the same experts who prepared today’s international standards and managed national government programs.

“The Institute’s philosophy is ‘If you cannot accurately measure GHG emissions, you cannot manage them’,” according to Michael Gillenwater, Director of the GHG Experts Network, Dean of the Institute, and an IPCC lead author. “Quantifying greenhouse gases is the first step for a company to really understand and assess their climate liabilities. It is only after this that corporations can manage their emissions and reduce their impact.”

E-learning courses on corporate and project-level GHG accounting begin this November.

Click here for a copy of the Press Release

Carbon job market booming but talent pool is dry.

Reuters, 14 November 2007 - Million-dollar jobs in the infant global carbon market, which will double in value to $60 billion this year, are standing vacant because of a lack of suitable talent, according to senior recruiters in the industry.

Armed with lucrative pay packages, recruiters are scouring a niche international talent pool for potential applicants in the three-year old carbon trading sector.

But senior level carbon market positions, like managing director, with base salaries around 150,000 pounds ($310,500) and compensation packages of as much as $1 million, are going unfilled for up to six weeks, said Mark Tomlinson, a director at London-based executive recruiter DNA Search.

"The more junior roles, analysts or carbon project originators for example, starting around 60,000 pounds ($124,200) are being left vacant for two to three months," he told Reuters on Wednesday.

Global carbon trading, spawned by the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol and the European Union, allows governments and corporations to buy and sell permits to emit planet-warming greenhouse gases.

Vacancies for specialist jobs, including climate change analysts, managers, and carbon traders, tripled in the financial year 2006/07, environmental recruiters Acre Resources said last month.

London-based Acre said the industry's average wage was around 43,000 pounds ($89,010) and predicted job growth in the sector to soar by up to 50 times its current size by 2012.

Although London is considered the nucleus of global carbon markets, the workforce shortage doesn't stop there.

Fast developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are embracing investment in clean energy projects under Kyoto's carbon trading scheme, placing a premium on multilingual candidates.

"There's a real shortage of talent in South Africa," Robert Ashdown, a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, told Reuters. "Our (projects) team has doubled in the past three months... so we've had to start looking internationally to bring people in."

Britain's HSBC has more than 315,000 employees worldwide, but is still having to recruit analysts externally for its new Climate Change Centre of Excellence in Bangalore.

Nobel Peace Prize Announcement

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the coveted Peace prize to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for its work on bringing to light objective scientific analysis on global warming, and to Al Gore for his movie An Inconvenient Truth. The Committee said it wanted to bring into sharper focus the "increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states" posed by climate change.

Michael Gillenwater, Dean of the GHG Management Institute, is one of the lead authors for the IPCC, and contributed to reports that, according to the Nobel Committee, had "created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming". We are proud to offer our congratulations to Mr. Gore, Michael and his colleagues!

Gao Pronove, the Managing Director of the GHG Management Institute, will speak at a conference on Biofuels, Carbon, and Trade: Leadership Challenges for the Interdependent Americas.

This conference will take place at the University of Minnesota, October 22-23, 2007. Mr. Pronove will join a roundtable discussion concerning the Americas approach toward a carbon managed world, beginning at 8:30 am Tuesday, October 23rd.

Michael Gillenwater, the dean of GHG Management Institute, collaborates with other experts in publishing an article for Nature Reports Climate Change. It was published online on 11 October 2007.

Click the link to view the full article: http://www.nature.com/climate/2007/0711/full/climate.2007.58.html

Press Release, October 8th, 2007 : Teaching the new carbon math- the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management Institute is training how to measure and manage GHG emissions
Click here to download press release.

Launch of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute –

The GHG Experts Network (GEN) and ClimateCHECK have combined their forces and expertise to form a new highly-charged organization called the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute. The mission of the new institution is to raise the bar on GHG emissions training and management, and become the standard bearer for best practices in this field. Supported online learning, will be used to accomplish this in an efficient, cost-effective manner. The instructors (GEN’s contribution) are among the leading experts from around the world. The first class will commence November 1st, with others to follow.

GHG Protocol team, with the World Resources Institute, develops the GHG Management Institute’s first course on Basics of Organizational GHG Accounting

Taryn Fransen and Angel Hsu, with the GHG Protocol Initiative at the World Resources Institute, have extensive expertise in entity-level GHG accounting and reporting, GHG program design, corporate climate change strategy, and environmental markets. They have taken the lead in developing the GHG Management Institute’s first course: Basics of Organizational GHG Accounting, due to debut November 1st.

The GHG Management Institute will be attending the meeting September 24th in New York for the Carbon Disclosure Project report on questionnaire 5.

The GHG Management Institute will initially be offering its first course, the Basics of Organizational GHG Accounting, scheduled to start November 1st. This course has been developed by the GHG Protocol team at the World Resource Institute. Other courses are slated to follow quickly, and it is expected that the classes will fill quickly.

ClimateCHECK and Abatement Solutions Asia Pacific to jointly develop the Institute’s course on GHG emission reduction project accounting –

Tom Baumann, co-founder of ClimateCHECK with Patrick Hardy, has10 years of experience working with climate change and clean energy companies in support of technical and management solutions. He has been a significant contributor to the development of the standards, tools, and systems to support GHG technologies as well as GHG credits for both voluntary and regulated markets. Tom has led teams of climate change experts in work based on the ISO 14064 GHG Standards, WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol, and UNFCCC CDM projects. Tom was also a significant contributor to the development of the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol for Projects as best practice guidance on “how to do” GHG project accounting. Tom led the development of sector specific GHG protocols, based on the ISO 14064-2 for wind, small hydro, the electricity grid baseline as well as biofuel transportation projects. Tom also co-led the development of training courses for GHG quantification and verification based on ISO 14064 and the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocols, and is a qualified GHG verifier with the Government of Canada. He is also trained as an ISO 14001 EMS Lead Auditor.

Patrick Hardy is also a leading expert on greenhouse gas quantification, validation and verification for technologies, projects and corporate inventories. Patrick has been extensively involved with the development of GHG standards and protocols, including co-chair of the Canadian Advisory Committee for Climate Change, Canadian representative for the International ISO 14064 meetings and road-testing the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol for Projects. He managed the GHG Measurement and Reporting for the Government of Canada’s GHG technology investment fund. His work has included developing and delivering GHG validation/verification courses, developing sector protocols based on the ISO GHG standard, and performing GHG evaluations/validations for funded projects.

Rob Fowler, of Abatement Solutions Asia Pacific (AS-AP), is recognized globally as an expert in the design and implementation of market-based mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Based in Sydney, Australia, he is a regular presenter at international climate change conferences and workshops across Europe, North America and Asia. Rob is an active member of the UNFCCC’s expert register and provides advice to the CDM Executive Board on new methodologies, registration of projects and accreditation of verifiers. He is a member of the Technical Advisory Committee for the CDM Gold Standard, and has contributed to the development of standards and protocols including the WBCSD/WRI GHG Project Protocol, the international standard ISO14064, and the Australian Standard for carbon accounting in forests. Rob is best known for his work with the Australian State-based “New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme” (GGAS), where he drove the development of many of the scheme’s abatement frameworks, including coal-fired power generation, carbon sequestration in forests, and the distribution of energy efficient light bulbs. He trained auditors and educated a wide variety of participants on the workings and opportunities of this innovative scheme.

These three experts are creating a course for the GHG Management Institute, a GHG emission reduction project accounting class. It should be an outstanding opportunity for many to avail themselves of this outstanding blend of expertise.

GHG Information System course for Organizations to be developed by Clear Carbon Consulting –

Kyle Tanger manages numerous GHG and energy projects with Fortune 50, Federal, and non-profit clients. He brings significant greenhouse gas estimation experience to Clear Carbon Consulting, having managed the inventory efforts of multiple clients with combined emissions totaling in excess of 60 million metric tons CO2eq. Mr. Tanger served as a peer reviewer for the World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol. He has worked extensively to create tools that measure financial performance of climate mitigation strategies and offset portfolios. Mr. Tanger also has managed corporate GHG and sustainability information management projects, performed feasibility studies and designed blueprints for system development. He has extensive product carbon life-cycle analysis experience, having consulted on the life-cycle carbon footprint analyses for multiple consumer products.

Ms. Cynthia Cummis is the Director of Carbon Management at Clear Carbon Consulting, managing carbon quantification and management projects for multiple Fortune 500 clients, and brings more than 11 years of experience working on the issue of global climate change. Ms. Cummis was the founding Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders Program, a voluntary program that partners with businesses to develop corporate-wide greenhouse gas inventories and to develop corporate-wide greenhouse gas reduction goals. For more than 5 years, she led the design and implementation of the program and oversaw the growth of the program to more than 90 corporate Partners.

Together these experts are creating a course: Setting up a GHG Information System for Corporations and Organizations, which will be hosted and supported by the GHG Management Institute.