Issue 33

Dear Friends and Colleagues of the GHG Protocol,

Welcome to the January, 2012 edition of the GHG Protocol newsletter. This quarter’s edition highlights the major global and regional events that we organized to launch the new Product Life Cycle and Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standards. Launch events have taken place in New York, London, Beijing, Tokyo, and Durban and training courses on the new standards are taking place internationally.

Coinciding with the launch of the new standards, the GHG Protocol has reached its 12th year anniversary. At this important time in GHG Protocol’s history, Pankaj Bhatia, Director of GHG Protocol, and Janet Ranganathan, the World Resources Institute’s (WRI) Vice President of Science and Research, discuss GHG Protocol’s evolution and look at salient features embodied in the GHG Protocol approach and stakeholder process that have proven key to its success.

Meanwhile, the GHG Protocol continues to develop new standards and guidance. The processes underway to develop Power Sector guidance to establish accounting rules for renewable energy purchases and products, Agriculture Sector guidance, and Mitigation Accounting guidance will enter into a new phase with workshops and opportunities for stakeholders to review and provide inputs in the coming months. More details are provided in the sections below.

As always we welcome your feedback on all areas of our work.

Best regards,

The WRI and WBCSD GHG Protocol Team

Launch of the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle and Corporate Value Chain Standards

On October 4th the GHG Protocol launched the new Product Life Cycle and Corporate Value Chain Standards with events in New York City and London. The global press launch of the Standards in New York City occurred in conjunction with WRI’s Corporate Consultative Group (CCG) fall meeting. CCG is a group of 150-200 representatives of large corporations, mainly sustainability managers, who are coming to engage with WRI experts – and with each other – to access environmental intelligence in order to protect and grow shareholder value and steer business to better protect the environment.

GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard ICT Sector Guidance

The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol ICT Sector Guidance was set up to provide specific guidance on the GHG Protocol Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard (the Product Standard). The objective is to provide a consistent approach for assessing the life cycle GHG impacts of ICT products. The ICT Sector Guidance is jointly convened through the World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the Carbon Trust and the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI).

GHG Protocol: Looking Back on the Past Twelve Years

Today the GHG Protocol launches two new global greenhouse gas accounting standards - for corporate value chains (scope 3) and product life cycle emissions. Janet Ranganathan, WRI’s Vice-president for Science & Research, and Pankaj Bhatia, WRI’s Greenhouse Gas Protocol Director since 2004, describe the 12-year program’s critical role in business and government efforts to address climate impacts.

Updates

Profiles

Benedict Buckley is a Research Analyst working on the GHG Protocol’s Product and Value Chain Initiative. Benedict was previously a Senior Research Analyst at Trucost Plc, an environmental research consultancy based in London. There he worked with private and public sector organizations to measure and understand the environmental impacts associated with supply chains and investment portfolios, for clients including Puma, Vestas, Rabobank and Hermes Asset Management. He specialized in environmental economics at Trucost and created valuation models to quantify the impacts of air pollution and waste.

Benedict holds a Masters degree in Environmental Technology from Imperial College London, where he focused on Business and the Environment and wrote his thesis on quantifying the environmental benefits of investing in clean technology. He also holds a Bachelors degree in Biology from the University of Manchester. Other experience in the environmental field includes volunteering at Forum for the Future and working on a wildlife conservancy in Naivasha, Kenya. In a past life Benedict spent two years working in the television industry, first for a TV post-production company on Madison Avenue in New York and then in London as a Researcher on the Rough Guide to Travel TV series.

Jared Finnegan works on the GHG accounting component within WRI’s Measurement and Performance Tracking (MAPT) initiative. MAPT aims to build capacity in developing countries to create and enhance systems that track emissions and emission reductions associated with climate and energy policies.

Before joining WRI, Jared provided research support to the Post Carbon Institute in California on issues related to sustainable economic growth. His work contributed to the book The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality. He has also promoted sustainable development at United Nations Headquarters in New York through an internship with NGO Sustainability, and at the local level with the Economic Development Board of Sonoma County, California.

Jared holds a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American and Latino Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where his dissertation focused on ethics and climate change.

Stacy Kotorac is a Project Coordinator/Research Assistant with the GHG Protocol team. Stacy focuses on the Product and Supply Chain Initiative, working on outreach and widespread adoption of the Product and Scope 3 Accounting and Reporting Standards. She also works on the international capacity building training programs, standards/tool development projects, and provides day-to-day support to the GHG Protocol team. Prior to joining the GHGP team, Stacy interned with the Vulnerability and Adaptation objective at WRI.

Stacy holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Science, Technology and International Affairs and a certificate in International Development from Georgetown University. During college, Stacy interned at the Environmental Protection Agency where she worked with the strategic climate partnership division. She also worked at Partners of the Americas on Youth Programming and their Farmer-to-Farmer exchange program.