Carbon Offsets Daily » Interviews

Interview: Scott Wicker, VP Sustainability, UPS on UPSs Per-Package Carbon Offsets Service

admin — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:39:06 +0000

United Parcel Service (UPS), one of the leading shippers in the United States, became the first small package carrier to offer customers the chance to buy carbon offsets to neutralize the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the transport of their packages. We asked our

Interview: Lew Middleton, Communications Manager of Duke Energy-Indiana, on bringing carbon offsets to Hoosiers

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:10:09 +0000

Duke Energy

INTERVIEW: Patti Prairie, CEO of BrighterPlanet.com on how social networks and their new site help fight climate change

admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:43:49 +0000

Brighter Planet, the clean-energy start-up that began with a carbon offset credit card and promises to make environmentalism accessible to everyone and fun to share, recently re-launched their site. The site is now supposed to help consumers take charge of their carbon footprint and save money. We caught up with the CEO Patti Prairie to find out more about this exciting new resource.

Read the press release here

Watch Big Feet, Little Planet and Shrink & Save videos

Interview: Yobie Benjamin on TrueCarbon.org

admin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:41:45 +0000

TrueCarbon.org is a start-up operating in stealth mode. We were fortunate to meet Yobie Benjamin, a Principal at TrueCarbon.org, to get a sneak peak behind the curtain.

COD: Before we talk about TrueCarbon.org it would be valuable to get a sense of your background. You were the founder of GoodStorm.com, a company that created e-commerce tools that enable socially responsible organizations to open online stores and generate income from merchandise sales. You’re a board member on a couple other social and environmental related organizations. What’s driving you?

Yobie: Trying to do good and making a lot of money at the same time drives me. It’s part of my personal mission. The genesis of my ideas came early in life seeing the capacity of people to express their kindness to others. It was magnified from watching Hurricane Katrina, which was, in so many ways, a bad storm and still has New Orleans in a bad situation. As I was watching the multi-level human horrors of Katrina on TV, I committed myself to counteracting the evil of that bad storm (and all manifestations of non-good) with an capitalist, active and activist point-of-view.

Interview: CEO and Founder Robert Fell of Pricelock on CarbonLock

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:02:26 +0000

Pricelock, based in Redwood City, California, combines technology and commodities expertise to offer businesses price predictability to increasingly volatile fuel prices. The company also offers CarbonLock, a unique, patented “green fleet” program that allows fleets and businesses to efficiently acquire certified carbon offsets and become carbon neutral. We caught up with CEO and Founder Robert Fell to learn just how CarbonLock works.

Checkout the

Interview: Neal Dikeman Co-founder of Carbonflow on web technology’s role in addressing climate change.

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:10:42 +0000

Carbonflow, a venture dedicated to bringing automation and transparency to the carbon market, is a web-based software technology that works to drastically lower the cost and time it takes to create a carbon credit. We took some time to connect with Neal Dikeman, Co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Carbonflow, to learn a bit more about this revolutionary product.

COD: How does Carbonflow help developers of GHG reduction projects?

Neal: We built this platform with the help of the major DOEs, DNV and SGS as a way to solve the CDM bottleneck issues.

Interview: method co-founder and chief greenskeeper on Planet Metrics Rapid Carbon Modeling

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:25:54 +0000

method is one of the first customers to use Planet Metrics

Interview: CEO of Planet Metrics on unveiling of new Rapid Carbon Modeling technology

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:01:04 +0000

(Heatmap screen of new RCM software)

Planet Metrics new Rapid Carbon Modeling (RCM) technology SaaS Solution sounds like a valuable resource for a wide spectrum of companies and industries. We took some time to connect with Andy Leventhal, founder and CEO of Planet Metrics, to learn a bit more about this exciting news.

COD: Rapid Carbon Modeling (RCM) seems like it is being introduced to the market at a perfect time. Can you give us an idea of who you expect to use this tool and what the value proposition is for your customers?

Andy: In a very short period of time, focus on Sustainability has moved from a peripheral program to a necessary strategy. In fact, the rising price of oil, emerging local and federal governmental carbon regulations, and consumer preference for sustainable products have influenced executives to develop and articulate Sustainability Strategiesand associated metricsto stakeholders and customers. Sustainability, operations, product management, and supply chain executives need solutions to create and implement these strategies, and respond to the challenge of integrating sustainability requirements into their daily decision making. Our belief is that they need to combine the environmental and business impact of changes and redesign at all points along their value chain, i.e. raw materials, product design, packaging, logistics and waste streams, to be most effective. This notion of ‘systems thinking’ isnt new but hasnt been introduced in software or in a business intelligence framework. Planet Metrics RCM transforms carbon information into Business Intelligence for executives who need to prioritize and measure the environmental impact of business decisions.

COD: In the recent

Interview: Justin Brown, CEO of FGX, on cutting shipping emissions by 30%

admin — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:01:22 +0000

Q. Hi Justin, and welcome to Carbon Offsets Daily. The recent news about First Global Express cutting emissions by 30% is significant for business decision makers who are exploring ways to address their carbon footprints. Can you explain how you do it?

A. Well, we have been able to achieve this benchmark by reorganizing the common business model used in the shipping industry. Big shipping companies use a model known as

Interview: Paul Smith of GreenSmith Consulting

admin — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:13:35 +0000

Q. Hello Paul and welcome to Carbon Offsets Daily. Lets first talk briefly about your business GreenSmith Consulting. What type of projects do you take and how do you help businesses go green?

Thanks Affan. Im a bit of a green business Swiss army knife, offering a range of services, from social media marketing campaigns to creating a sustainability plan for inside/outside the company. Currently Ive been doing a lot of social media marketing campaigns, with companies like Act2GreenSmart, Go GreenTube, and Verterra.

Q. How can sustainability consultants, offset providers and others offering green business solutions use the internet to promote their business?

Thats a big question, whose answer depends a lot on the type of company and who their target market is. I can help discern which.

For many, however, a common denominator is blogs and social media tools such as Twitter. They are free or very inexpensive means to get out the word about what you do, quickly, and ongoing. Being able to connect with, learn from, inform and be inspired by your customers goes a very long way towards building a strong foundation and solid sales for a business. For instance, I recently wrote an article about Berkeley, California based Sungevity that got more than 150 people visiting their site directly from the article. That type of awareness of the exact effectiveness of marketing is powerful.

Another tool I recently saw is Uservoice.com. Its a simple, intuitive way for your customers to let you know what theyd like to see offered, and for you to let them know if its already in progress. People suggest ideas, see if theyve already been submitted, and then have 8 total votes for whatever among the ideas interests them.

Q. In this regard, what would be the best choice for someone with a limited budget and time?

Hire me! But seriously, using tools such as Uservoice, the amazingly powerful Twitter, blogging, and social media news sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, and Reddit, if leveraged correctly, can produce great results. I will gladly consult with people to both do it for them and show them how to do it themselves. Its not merely a matter of put content out there and hope for the best. But it also doesnt have to be hard, either.

Q. For a business that wants to cut its footprint, what are the pros and (possible) cons of hiring sustainability consultants?

Lets start with the cons. There are an increasing number of people calling themselves sustainability consultants. You should make sure their background and training is sufficient to have the knowledge youll want to know and the support you want for your business. At the same time, sustainability focused business as a broader trend is comparatively new, so be sure not to have standards beyond what any one person or company could have.

Using myself as an example, I am the product of one of the original sustainability focused MBA programs, Presidio School of Management, based in San Francisco. It gave both a broad, in depth knowledge of sustainable business, and at the same time, a solid grounding in how business has and is currently being done. In this way, I am able to act as a bridge between the two

INTERVIEW: ClimateCHECK on the Future of Carbon Credits

admin — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:16:08 +0000

The following interview is based on a story that we recently ran about JPMorgan

INTERVIEW: GreenLife on the Future of Carbon Credits

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:21:48 +0000

The following interview is based on a story that we recently ran about JPMorgan “Cooking up Carbon Credits” (that you can view here: JPMorgan Chase Subsidizes Stoves in Africa to Earn Carbon Credits).

The recent news about JPMorgan “Cooking up Carbon Credits” underscores the booming carbon market. It seems the carbon market is only going to get bigger. What do you think will happen as more capital gets into this market?

Climate change is an enormous problem, and will thus require enormous resources to solve. It is not going to be solved by NGOs and people making donations alone. It requires these kinds of large-scale investments. My hope is that the capital flowing into carbon credits will spur investments in a wide variety of climate efforts: new technologies, acceleration in the growth in renewables, innovative strategies, etc. We are already seeing an increasing level of sophistication as more businesses and financial institutions get involved. Before long, carbon markets should function much more like mature existing commodity markets. What I am hoping we see more of, too, is billions in venture capital helping to finance projects at very early stages.

JPMorgan earns carbon credits by subsidizing stoves in Africa. These carbon credits are then sold to companies at a price that is reportedly higher than the retail value of the stove. Do you think such initiatives should be predominantly revenue driven?

I believe that money will flow to where profits can be made. If JP Morgan makes a lot of money on this project then hopefully millions or billions of other dollars will start flowing into more projects. Thats good.

Do you think government intervention to subsidize carbon credits/cap credit prices will encourage more companies/individuals to offset their emissions?

I do not think government should subsidize carbon credits or cap prices directly, although I do believe government can help to spur technologies and practices through effectively targeted tax policies (including elimination of counterproductive tax breaks). In fact, I believe that emission allowances should be auctioned and not given away (which is essentially a government subsidy). Voluntary carbon credits are pretty inexpensive now. Im not sure government intervention to reduce prices will have much effect on the number of individuals or companies that choose to offset.

Steve Offutt
Business Development Director
www.greenlife.com

INTERVIEW: Kevin Smith of PLATFORM – Unraveling the Carbon Web

admin — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:03:45 +0000

Fossil fuels are the primary cause of climate change, which threatens catastrophic damages including massive sea-level rise, rising incidences of flood, drought and other extreme events, major water and food supply reductions, and the spread of disease.

PLATFORMs Unraveling the Carbon Web focus is to reduce the environmental and social impacts of oil and to support the transition to a more sustainable energy economy. We recently posted on a new report, Cashing in on Coal, that Unraveling the Carbon Web released and caught up with Kevin Smith of Platform to learn more.

What does Cashing in on Coal highlight?

The report highlights the role that private finance plays in pushing forward the fossil fuel frontier. As the extraction costs of the fossil fuel industry increase, companies are turning to private banks to provide the extra capital that they need. It follows on from a report that we published last year called “The Oil and Gas Bank” that you can download here that highlighted the fact that RBS, more than any other bank was heavily involved in expanding oil and gas operations around the world. This new report took a similar approach to RBS’ involvement in financing the coal industry.

Banks like RBS can claim that they are being good corporate citizens by capping and reducing the internal emissions of their operations, but the reality is that an estimated 99% of their operating emissions are embedded in the projects that they finance. We are calling on banks to make a full disclosure as to which fossil fuel projects they are funding, recognize some degree of responsibility for the money they put into those projects, and cap and decrease the emissions embedded in their investment portfolios.

People across the UK came to protest against the proposed new coal fired plant in Kingsnorth last week at the Camp for Climate Action. What many of them might not have realised, is that the money in their RBS or Natwest bank accounts is very possibly being used to finance the wave of new coal-fried plants that E.ON is planning on.

Beyond the global impacts of fossil fuels, what are some of the local, national, and regional impacts?

Like most extractive industries, the fossil fuel industry is often responsible for very negative social and environmental impacts on local communities. One of the companies being funded by RBS, Arch Coal which uses the controversial coal mining practice called Mountain Top Removal. This destroys the tops of entire mountains and produces large quantities of toxic sludge. Arch Coal alone has been responsible for the disappearance of 300,800 acres of biologically diverse hardwood forest through this practice.

We keep hearing the phrase energy security in the news… What does it really mean?

Energy Security is constantly being bandied about as a justification for building new coal plants in the UK, ie that we need new coal in order to ‘keep the lights on’. However a recent report by energy consultancy Poyry (along with Greenpeace and WWF) showed that it was entirely possible to meet energy demand in this country through increased deployment of renewables and increasing energy efficiency without resorting to new coal.

We need to have a rational perspective on energy security that does not allow it to be used as a trump card on climate security. Making sensible decisions now about promoting renewables instead of fossil fuels (not alongside them) will ensure that we can enjoy energy security for a long time into the future rather than the prevalent attitude of consuming as much fossil fuels as we can, while we can.

Can you tell us about Banktrack?

BankTrack is a network of civil society organisations and individuals tracking the operations of the private financial sector (commercial banks, investors, insurance companies, pension funds) and its effect on people and the planet.

In December 2007 BankTrack released Mind the Gap. The report reviewed the environmental and social credit policies of 45 banks that you can download from here.

What role do you see the carbon market playing in helping to transition to a sustainable energy economy?

I’m not at all convinced that the carbon market is an appropriate tool to make the transition to a sustainable energy economy. Right now, a number of power companies are using the carbon market as a justification for developing new fossil-fuel intensive infrastructure. From E.ON’s proposed new coal plants, to the extraction of tar sands in Canada, fossil fuel companies are using cap and trade schemes and offsets as a means to continue their destructive practices. And the world over, the carbon financing involved in the CDM appears to be going to the owners of polluting industries rather than ushering in clean energy.

What most excites you right now about the changes were seeing in the world?

I find the idea of people getting impatient with government inaction on climate change and starting to make the changes for themselves in their own communities very exciting. I find the idea of fossil fuel companies losing their cultural legitimacy in the same way that tobacco companies did exciting. I find it exciting that there is a greater awareness of the impossibility of maintaining perpetual economic growth in a world of finite resources.

INTERVIEW: Carbon Retirement – Co-Founder Dan Lewer

admin — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:59:45 +0000

We recently caught up with Dan Lewer, the Co-Founder of the recently launched Carbon Retirement.

So what is your company all about?

Carbon Retirement was founded in 2008 by me and two colleagues. We wanted to offer a service focused on emission reductions. While we could see that there have been lots of interesting innovations in the voluntary market, we felt that it’s often difficult to evaluate the environmental benefits of offsetting projects. Retirement of allowances from EU Emission Trading Scheme – which is what we do – is a process that delivers unambiguous reductions in carbon emissions and we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to do it. We started taking orders in July this year.

How is Carbon Retirement different to other types of offsetting?

Existing types of offsetting work by investing in projects in the developing world that reduce emissions or absorb greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. Typical projects include tree planting and building renewable energy generators. Carbon Retirement is a fundamentally different approach – it works by buying heavy industry’s rights to release carbon dioxide.

What is the EU Emission Trading Scheme?

It’s a system that European governments use to support their commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It limits carbon dioxide emissions from a range of industries, including power generation, offshore extraction, cement production, iron and steel, paper and pulp and chemical processing. The EU Emission Trading Scheme is the world’s largest cap-and-trade scheme. In a cap-and-trade scheme, an authority allocates a fixed number of pollution permits to the participants. Each permit is a right to release pollution (in the EU Trading Scheme, each is the right to release one tonne of CO2). Permits can be traded between the participants. This creates a market in permits and a market price.

How is the price calculated?

One of our key principles is to be transparent about where our customers’ money goes. The price we charge is based on the market price of EUAs. For customers using our website, we add an admin fee of 10% (which pays the company’s overheads) and a ‘spread fee’ of 5%. The spread fee covers the risk of the price moving upward between the order being made and Carbon Retirement purchasing EUAs. If the price goes down, we reserve the surplus for retirement of further EUAs. This breakdown is published on our website. For organisations that are thinking about retiring more than a couple of tonnes, the price would work differently.

Why does the price of EUAs change?

Fundamentally, the market price of EUAs is determined by the perceived cost of complying with the reduction required by the EU Trading Scheme. During trading, the market participants’ views of the cost of achieving the reduction can change, which is why the EUA price changes. Energy markets are important drivers. When demand for energy is high, demand for EUAs to cover the generation rises too. Burning coal produces particularly large quantities of greenhouse gases, so the price of EUAs is sensitive to demand for coal.

Where do you buy EUAs from?

From an exchange, a market broker or a regulated participant in the market. EUAs are freely tradable between market participants, so the source of an EUA does not affect the environmental benefits of retiring it.

Project-based offsets often have social benefits. Are there any social benefits to taking EUAs out of circulation?

We don’t think we’re fence-sitting here by saying sort of. We facilitate emission reductions in Europe, and we’re dealing with major energy-intensive industries, so there’s less opportunity for helping out communities at the same time.

The social benefits of offsetting projects can be hard to measure and we need to remember that our aim here is to reduce emissions. Globally, emission reduction and mitigation of climate change will have plenty of social benefits. We’re focused on making sure the emission reductions happen.

How does your calculator work?

Our website gives individuals the option of calculating the emissions associated with flights, driving or other activities, and then retiring a corresponding number of allowances.

Once data has been entered into the calculator, we multiply it by emissions factors. For example, if you input that you have driven a certain number of miles in a large petrol car, we multiply that distance by a factor showing the greenhouse gases released for each mile.

The factors and methodology behind the calculator follow the UK government’s guidelines for calculating a carbon footprint.

Where can I go to find out more about climate change and the EU Emission Trading Scheme?

For the trading scheme, I’d recommend the European Commission’s website. There’s also a straightforward overview on Carbon Retirement‘s site. There is a wealth of information about climate change out there. The BBC’s website is a pretty good place to start.

Interview: Everything’s Dynamic on the Soundness of Carbon Offsets to Combat Global Warming

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:23:32 +0000