Dr. Gillenwater is a co-founder, Executive Director, and Dean of the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute, a non-profit organization with the unique mission to train and professionalize a global community of experts for measuring, verifying, and managing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Michael is a thought leader on GHG measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV), carbon offsets, additionality, green power, international capacity building, and environmental accounting. He has dedicated his career to professional and international development, focusing on the infrastructure needed to produce highly credible environmental information that can serve as the basis of effective climate policies. Beyond guiding the Institute’s strategy and programming, Michael also directs its research program and curriculum development.

He is a four time lead author for the IPCC and contributor to its 2007 Nobel Peace Price. He has been actively engaged in the work of the UNFCCC process for 25 years, including the training of compliance experts for the Kyoto Protocol. He has been a core advisor and contributing author to the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol. At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Michael was lead author of the official U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory for its first 7 years. He also served on the U.S. negotiating team to the UNFCCC Conference of Parties.

Michael founded and serves as a co-Editor in Chief for the peer reviewed journal Carbon Management published by Tyler & Francis. He is also an active research scholar on GHG accounting and climate policy topics, having been widely published in peer-reviewed journals and quoted by the media. Dr. Gillenwater completed his PhD at the Science, Technology, & Environmental Policy Program at Princeton University, where his research was on the economics of renewable energy and emission markets and design of environmental commodities. He has three master’s degrees: i) environmental engineering, ii) technology policy, both from MIT, and iii) evolutionary systems from the University of Sussex where he was a Fulbright scholar. His bachelors is in mechanical engineering from Texas A&M University.

Michael Joins the Carbon Accounting and Management Podcast to Discuss:

• How to determine who would be the best fit within an organization to conduct an GHG inventory
• Spend based emission factors and where to find reputable sources
• TACCC Principals for GHG inventories

Michael’s Listener Takeaway: If there's only one thing that our guests take away from this conversation, what do you think it should be?

Don't assume how we think about and how we do corporate GHG reporting now is the way it should be or will continue to be like. Especially going into the next couple years, open your mind to potential new ways of approaching this question. Start asking yourself and others: why are we doing this, what are specific use cases? Dive deeper into the specific use cases, not just for the inventory data now, but what you can imagine you might want to use the data for in the future. Start the thought process of being open to new ways of thinking.Maybe there isn't one corporate inventory. Maybe there's different ways of reporting for different purposes.

Learn more about the work being done at the Greenhouse Gas Management Institute at ghgmi.org.

Welcome to The Carbon Accounting and Management Podcast, presented by North Star Carbon Management. I'm your host, Chris Barzman. Whether you're tackling the carbon footprint of a multinational corporation or a small business, this podcast is your go-to resource for all things carbon management.

As someone who has been in the trenches of environmental management for over a decade, I've witnessed the evolution of the industry and the growing urgency for actionable and effective carbon strategies. Throughout this podcast series, you’ll gain insights from leading experts in the field, hear about the latest innovations in technology, and learn about the regulatory changes that could impact your business.

Having completed numerous carbon inventories for both small and large businesses across various industries, I understand the complexities and challenges of accurately measuring, reporting, and reducing carbon emissions. More importantly, I also realize that many people tasked with leading an organizations’ carbon management plan don’t have a strong background in this area and are always looking for easy to absorb information that fits into their already busy schedules, hence the decision to create this podcast.

In e ach episode, we'll dive deep into critical topics such as emerging trends in carbon accounting, how to navigate the challenges of data collection and analysis, and the best practices for sustainable carbon management. We'll provide you with actionable tips, detailed case studies, and thoughtful commentary to help you not just meet, but exceed your environmental targets.

We’re here to empower you with knowledge and tools that will not only enhance your professional capabilities but also contribute to your organization’s sustainability goals. Our mission is to foster a community of professionals who are equipped to take on environmental challenges with confidence and foresight.

We do really want to incorporate listener feedback along the way, so please be sure to comment on episodes or reach out to us directly at podcast@northstarcarbon.com. We are always looking for ways to improve and find new and interesting topics to share and discuss.

Please make sure to subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform and share it with others that might also be interested. Stay connected with us through our website at www.northstarcarbon.com and follow us on LinkedIn for updates and more tips and ideas.

On behalf of myself, your host Chris Barzman and the entire North Star Carbon Management team, thank you for investing your time with us and we look forward to serving our listener community!

Michele is the Founder and CEO of Boundless Impact Research & Analytics, an industry research and impact analytics platform that provides quantitative and evidence-based research and data for investors, companies, and funds. Boundless offers Scope 1, 2 & 3 climate data and analysis and market intelligence across a growing number of emerging sectors that address significant environmental challenges.

From 2010-2013, she was Vice President at Foundation Source where she built a knowledge platform on best practices in philanthropy that was used by a network of 1200 family offices. From 2007-2008, Michele was Director of Communications for Humanity United, a philanthropic entity created by Pam Omidyar and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. She has been involved in the successful development of more than two-dozen startups and is regularly called upon for her innovative thinking about environmental impact measurement.

Michele advises and mentors several emerging clean tech companies and projects and has a proven track record in building new technologies, research methodologies, and companies. She has 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, business executive, and impact measurement expert.

Michele is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and has a Master’s in International Relations and Communications from Boston University.

Michele Joins the Carbon Accounting and Management Podcast to Discuss:

• Life cycle assessments and best practices
• Setting up and defining boundaries
• Strategies for delivering information to clients
• Avoiding greenwashing
• Importance of using independent experts

Michele's Listener Takeaway: If there's only one thing that our guests take away from this conversation, what do you think it should be?

I would like everyone to understand that lifecycle assessment and like environmental impact measurement is not a 'nice to have.' It's an urgent 'need to have.' We're moving to a carbon price world where companies that are not doing honest reporting on their emissions and their environmental performance are going to now have negative balance sheets and stranded assets and a lot of problems. The companies that are thinking ahead, integrating renewable energy into their supply chains and value in their operations, purchasing and integrating sustainability strategies into products or ways of doing business into their work, they are the ones that are going to be the stocks to invest in. For investors, it would behoove them to not look at this lifecycle assessment and objective LCA data and things like that as something that's just nice to have, but something they absolutely must have in order to derisk an investment.

I would encourage people to be skeptical about the data that's being thrown out there. The data's either being greenwashed a lot way too often, or companies are saying, 'Hey, we've got really impressive emissions.' They're kind of bragging about a number of emissions that is really not very impressive. It's really when you're in the gigatons and megatons of emissions reduction that you're a game changing technology. If you are doing only tons or kilotons, it's not even worth mentioning, because you're not really making a difference. That's the one thing I've noticed, people are not aware of the kind of scale they need to achieve in order to be a game changer. There's an awful lot of folks out there that are doing a little bit, but they're not doing enough. The investors are really focused on the technologies that have gigaton and megaton emissions reduction potential, and I think that's great. Breakthrough Energy Ventures is one of them that actually has a target set. I think there's just a lot of education that investors need to do on how to measure and understand that and set targets for themselves.

Connect with Michele Demers on LinkedIn or at mdemers@boundlessimpact.net, and learn more about the work being done at Boundless Impact at boundlessimpact.net or on LinkedIn.