Carbon Markets 101: BCarbon’s Introduction to Understanding Carbon Credits

Introducing Carbon Markets 101: An engaging and informative video series developed by BCarbon, a non-profit carbon credit registry and research group. This series is designed to demystify the complex world of carbon credits and to outline the significance of carbon credits for small landowners, buyers and beyond.

In this series, BCarbon will delve into essential questions like: What exactly are carbon credits? How are they created, bought, and sold? And most importantly, why do they matter for you as a landowner and how can you get engaged?

The topics: 

• The Context: Carbon and Climate

• The Basics: What is a Carbon Credit?

• The Methods: How does Nature-Based Carbon Sequestration work?

• The Rules: What are Protocols and Registries?

• The Importance: Why Do People Want to Buy Carbon Credits? 

Thanks for watching, and please don't hesitate to get in touch with any questions.

Businesses Explore Tools for Measuring Climate Benefits and Challenges

On Wednesday, March 19 members of the US Business Council for Sustainable Development’s network met for a special meeting designed to connect companies to tools and collaborators useful for their carbon reduction efforts.

Presentations were given by Pythias Analytics and EcoMetrics, which respectively address climate risk in the energy transition and full benefit accounting of nature-based initiatives. Attendees also heard how members of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative have operationalized these tools in their climate strategies and are working together to accelerate regional decarbonization.

Don’t miss these meeting highlights:

• At minute 3:57 Gavin Dillingham introduces Pythias Analytics’ capabilities for climate risk modeling and assessment.

• At minute 23:30 Gavin joins attendees in a discussion over topics like how costing resilience is can be helpful when insuring projects and planning plant upgrades, their additional capability to recommend solutions and modifications in response to risk assessment results, and the interplay of policy and standardization of data, reporting, and modeling being used by industry.

• At minute 38:15 Ed Pinero introduces EcoMetrics’ full benefit accounting system for nature-based solutions.

• At minute 1:01:20 Ana Behr speaks on her experience operationalizing the EcoMetrics platform and leveraging “non-market values” to champion nature-based solutions internally at Dow Chemical.

• At minute 1:11:40 attendees join speakers for a final discussion on how traditional “license to operate” and value creation initiatives have responded to further quantification, corporate attitudes towards non-market values and nature-based solutions and what it looks like to get started

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Pythias Analytics is a data analytics platform developed by the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) to provide realistic, plausible scenario-neutral analysis and climate risk analytics for the energy sector to assist with investment and asset management decisions.  

EcoMetrics is a comprehensive analytic and reporting methodology that assesses and forecasts internal and external impacts produced by natural capital and green infrastructure investments. It translates these impacts into monetary terms for third-party auditing and use in international public company reporting.

Led by the US Business Council for Sustainable Development, The Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative is a cross-industry platform designed to mobilize the collective energy & motivation of businesses in the Gulf Coast to create measurable, long-term impact in reducing carbon emissions in the region while enhancing economic vitality.

GC3 Leader, Claude Griffin, Joins CCUS Panel at Decarb Connect North America this June

Decarb Connect North America: June 15-17 2021

The pace of industrial carbon abatement activity in North America is quickening. Primarily driven by policy and investor expectations, increasingly it is the buyers of materials that are looking to industry to detail their carbon footprints and to show a path towards lower carbon materials. Across the hard to abate sectors, companies are starting to create their strategic decarbonization plans and are making net zero commitments and deploying their roadmaps.

Decarb Connect North America champions the strategies & solutions that can fast track decarbonisation in the toughest-to-abate sectors. Join hundreds of industrials, investors, technologists, market experts and policy influencers to explore the business models and competitive models for achieving decarbonization. The event welcomes 300+ senior leaders from cement, steel, chemicals, glass, power gen, ceramics, utilities, oil & gas, investors, solutions providers and advocates.

We are working with Decarb Connect to support the network and expertise-sharing that will ensure policy makers, investors and energy-intensive companies are inspired and energised as they adapt and deploy their net zero plans.

On the final day of the event, US BCSD’s Claude Griffin will join Aniruddha Sharma, CEO, Carbon Clean and Steve Oldham, CEO, Carbon Engineering for Panel + Live Q&A: Carbon Capture & Storage (CCUS) – Emerging business models and opportunities.

Clients, stakeholders and supports of the USBCSD can take advantage of $150 discount on any ticket booked – just use this code: CG150

For more information on the North American event contact Decarb Connect at: hello@decarbconnect.com

Members Discuss Net-Zero Targets, Regional Policy, & More at First Quarterly Working Meeting of 2021

Members of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative (GC3) representing 21 companies from the region’s power, energy, engineering and manufacturing sectors met on April 1, 2021 for the group’s first quarterly meeting of the year. Quarterly GC3 meetings are designed to give member companies and partners a holistic view of project progress being made in the various GC3 working groups, and to facilitate discussion on important cross-sectional themes like goal setting, corporate carbon strategy, policy, technology, metrics, and carbon accounting.

The April 1st meeting started with GC3 members discussing the evolving landscape for corporate net-zero targets. Many have established net-zero by 2050 goals. Within broad corporate climate commitments, companies are setting nuanced and detailed emission targets for their various business units based on historical data, total emission portfolios, and technological feasibility. While technology and operational improvements have an obvious role to play in reducing emissions, many companies agree that external elements - policy being the most important - will be key to pushing industry from today’s state-of-the-market to the necessary state-of-the-art.

Strategies in focus for GC3 members focus on emission reduction of operations, and most consider offsets as short-term solutions. Many purchase offsets to support voluntary programs for downstream customers and consider nature-based solutions powerful and affordable options for hitting net zero targets.

GC3 working groups are currently pursuing collaborative project opportunities in carbon capture and storage, electrification, nature-based sequestration, low emission generation technologies, and hydrogen. GC3 working groups meet at least monthly and are open to all members - visit our events page for more information and to get involved.

The April 1st meeting concluded with breakout discussion on cross-sectional themes including near-term opportunities to inform regional policy decisions, cross-cutting tools and technologies, and additional opportunities to align capabilities and assets across GC3 working groups. There is a clear opportunity to leverage the power and unique regional focus of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative to inform and enhance state and federal policy and initiatives. Supporting activities are underway now and will continue into Q2 and Q3.

The Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative is open to any company in the region looking to reduce their carbon impact through collaborative action. If your company is interested in learning more, get in touch with the US BCSD by clicking here. The US BCSD team is also replicating the Gulf Coast model in the Great Lakes region - visit our new Great Lakes website here to get involved. 

Members present pathways to net zero emission by 2050…

Roadmap to Net Zero Carbon Emission by 2050 by DTE Energy

Net Zero by 2050: Pathways to reducing our emissions by Enbridge

Recent member announcements:

TOTAL has acquired 2.2 GW of solar projects and 600 MW of battery storage assets in Texas, bringing Scope 2 emissions of their U.S. refining and chemical facilities to nearly net zero. [read the press release]

BASF presents roadmap to carbon neutrality. [read the press release] 

Entergy, other utilities create multi-state electric vehicle charging stations network. [read the press release]

AEP recently published their Climate Impact Analysis. [read the press release]

New members Battelle and Talos Energy join the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative.

Entergy Commits to Achieving Net-Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050, Announces New Collaboration with Mitsubishi Power

Entergy Corporation and Mitsubishi Power will work together to develop hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined cycle facilities; develop green hydrogen production, storage and transportation facilities; create nuclear-supplied electrolysis facilities with energy storage; and develop utility scale battery storage systems.

Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative founding member Entergy Corporation announced today it is accelerating its climate action goals with a commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Also today, Entergy and Mitsubishi Power, a world leader in power generation and energy storage, signed a joint development agreement in which they will collaborate to bring decarbonization projects to Entergy’s utility businesses in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, including the separate jurisdiction of New Orleans.

Entergy has engaged with Mitsubishi Power because of the company’s demonstrated ability to provide innovative total solutions leveraging multiple technologies to reach decarbonization goals. Mitsubishi Power is a first mover in hydrogen-enabled gas turbine and long- and short-term storage solutions. It also provides the world’s first and only standard integrated green hydrogen packages. The Hydaptive™ and Hystore™ packages optimize integration across renewables, energy storage, and hydrogen-enabled gas turbine power plants, which all work together to create and incorporate green hydrogen — a key to reaching carbonless emissions.

“Entergy’s announcement today reaffirms their already industry-leading commitment to carbon reduction and environmental stewardship in the Gulf Coast,” said Andrew Mangan, Executive Director of the US Business Council for Sustainable Development. “Green hydrogen will be a key strategy for decarbonization in the region; Entergy and Mitsubishi’s innovation in this space will pave the way for future industry collaboration not just on low-to-no-carbon power generation, but potentially a variety of other industrial and commercial applications.”

“Entergy remains focused on helping our stakeholders achieve their most ambitious aspirations in a reliable, affordable and sustainable way through new technologies and innovative solutions. In 2001, we were the first utility in the nation to voluntarily limit carbon emissions and today’s 2050 climate commitment is another major step forward in enabling customers to achieve their desired outcomes while consuming the least amount of resources,” said Leo Denault, Entergy’s chairman of the board and CEO. “As we deliver on our promises to customers, regulators and all key stakeholders, it’s critical that we do so in a manner that promotes a cleaner, more sustainable future.”

About the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative: The Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative is a cross-industry platform designed to mobilize the collective energy and motivation of businesses in the Gulf Coast to create measurable, long-term impact in reducing carbon emissions in the region while enhancing economic vitality. Learn more: https://carbon-collaborative.org

Introducing Low-Emission Technologies to the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative

Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative (GC3) members launched a new working group in late June 2020 focused on low-emission generation technologies. This working group will explore collaborative project opportunities around the applicability and deployment of emerging technologies in the Gulf Coast region including nuclear generation, hydrogen and advanced solar technology. This working group joins already established working groups on carbon capture, use and storage; electrification; and land-based sequestration.

To launch this effort, the GC3 brought in experts and innovators from Heliogen, Shell, and the Nuclear Energy Institute to introduce an initial low-e technology portfolio for further exploration. In summary:

• Heliogen: Heliogen’s patented technology powers historically carbon-intensive processes with clean, renewable ultra-high temperature sunlight; and is also capable of transforming sunlight into fuels like hydrogen and syngas. Click here to learn more.

• Nuclear Energy Institute: NEI is the policy organization of the nuclear technologies industry, based in Washington, D.C; and provided an overview of emerging technologies in the advanced reactor space, including small modular reactors (SMRs). New advanced reactors and SMRs may have some very promising industrial applications. Click here to learn more.

• Shell: Hydrogen could play a significant role in the transition to a clean and low-carbon energy system. Shell has a growing network of hydrogen stations in North America, where it is part of several initiatives to encourage the adoption of hydrogen in transport. Collaboration between vehicle manufacturers, energy companies and government will be vital for progressing the infrastructure to make hydrogen a viable alternative. Click here to learn more.

There is tremendous opportunity for cross-industry collaboration to deploy and scale these low-emission technology solutions to help decarbonize the Gulf region. Introductions between webcast speakers and Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative members are being made upon request. If your company is interested in working with us, use this link to get in touch with our team today.

GC3 Webcast: Low Emission Technologies

Held on June 29, 2020

The Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative (GC3) is a cross-industry platform designed to mobilize the collective energy & motivation of businesses in the Gulf Coast to create measurable, long-term impact in reducing carbon emissions in the region while enhancing economic vitality.

GC3 member companies have formed working groups around three decarbonization strategies: carbon capture, use and storage; electrification; and land-based sequestration. There's strong interest from the group to add a fourth working group to the lineup focused on emerging low-emission technologies, including nuclear generation, hydrogen and advanced solar technology.

To launch the low-emission technology working group, the GC3 held a virtual event on June 29, 2020 to introduce these three technologies and explore interest in the group in deploying these types of projects in the Gulf Coast region. Company representatives from Shell, Heliogen and the Nuclear Energy Institute will provided presentations, which were followed by breakout group discussions on these three different approaches.

Speakers:

• Fatimah Bello - VP, Business Development & Product - Heliogen

• Joe Powell - Chief Scientist, Chemical Engineering - Shell

• Matthew Crozat - Senior Director, Policy Development - Nuclear Energy Institute

Attendance was limited to Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative members and invited guests only. Contact our team about joining the Collaborative today.

Meeting Recap: First Quarterly Working Meeting

The first 2020 Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative Quarterly Meeting was held virtually on April 8, 2020 with 52 attendees. Following introductory table-setting presentations from BP, The Ohio State University, ExxonMobil, HARC, Entergy, C2ES and the Center for Houston's Future, breakouts were held on three decarbonization strategies: carbon capture, use and storage (split between Texas and Louisiana); electrification; and land-based sequestration. Below are some key outcomes from those breakouts.

Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage

The Gulf region has a base of governmental support for CCUS and the relevant mix of stakeholders and geology to establish a pilot CCUS project. The working group should begin to define geographic clusters that could be leveraged to create viable projects. A strawman CCUS project will be developed by the working group outlining success conditions, companies involved and high-concentration/high-purity carbon interests, potential education initiatives, and policy support.

Land-Based Sequestration

This working group will look to consolidate reputable resources and establish a method for proper valuation of land-based solutions. Companies will also look to champion internal support from accounting, real estate, and other related teams; and build group education around related federal and state tax benefits.

Electrification

Working group companies agreed to share details on their carbon goals and the work that is under way to achieve them, which will help clarify common interests may lead to joint projects. From this, the Collaborative will look to build a resource to compare GC3 member emission targets to broader industry standards in Gulf Coast Region, and consolidate and share reputable resources for emission-based data and decision-making tools.

Virtual working group meetings will be scheduled with Collaborative members in the coming weeks to advance these steps. If your company is interested in exploring different strategies, techniques and ways we can work together to drive greater carbon reduction in the Gulf Coast region, hit this link to get in touch with our team today.

Join us on April 8th in Houston for our First Quarterly Working Meeting

Members of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative and invited guests are meeting on April 8, 2020 in Houston, Texas for the group’s first quarterly working meeting.

The day will include presentations, facilitated discussion and working group breakout sessions focusing on project development around key content areas defined at the December launch meeting in New Orleans. These include land-based sequestration, CCUS, electrification, strategy/technology information sharing, and barriers and enablers related to policy and regulation, education and communications.

Introduction and Case Study Presentations (8:30am to 11:00am)

Case study presentations on key content areas highlighted above will showcase some of the resources and expertise available within the collaborative and its member organizations, and will be used to set the stage for continuing conversations in the afternoon.

Breakout Sessions + Working Lunch (11:00am to 3:00pm)

Presenters will join participants in guided discussions, giving participants the opportunity to dive deeper and explore practical ways to collaborate on actions using targeted decarbonization approaches. These conversations will set the stage for future working groups, where timelines, next steps, and commitments will be determined in the months ahead.

In mid-afternoon, the full group will reconvene to report out on findings and insights from the day as well as determine expectations for participation going forward.

Attendance is limited to Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative members and invited guests only. Request an invitation here, or Contact our team about joining the Collaborative today.

February 2020 Update

2020 is off to a promising start for the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative, a cross-sector platform designed to reduce carbon emissions and enhance economic vitality in the Gulf Coast Region. Check the newly launched website - carbon-collaborative.org - for platform updates, event information, and developments on platform progress going forward.

The current list of Founding Members includes leading utility, energy generation and transmission, chemical and manufacturing companies in the region - with more soon to be confirmed as the US BCSD team continues conversations with other interested companies. Further representation is expected from the manufacturing and chemical industries as well as carbon technology innovators, legal entities, and research groups.

The group is looking forward to its first quarterly meeting to be held in Houston, TX in early April - stay tuned for additional developments as the date nears. If your company is interested in getting engaged, please contact us to learn more about next steps.

Cross-Industry Gulf Coast Coalition To Tackle Carbon Emissions

NEW ORLEANS, December 4, 2019 Nearly five dozen Gulf Coast industry representatives from the automotive, power, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, chemical, refining, and transportation sectors came together this week to share and scale decarbonization strategies at the inaugural meeting of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative. The Collaborative is the first-of-its-kind industry initiative focused on cross-sector solutions to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Companies are looking for ways to further reduce their own carbon footprints and those of other industry sectors as the region focuses on resiliency in the face of growing climate change effects such as rising sea levels and extreme weather, endangering coastal communities and industrial infrastructure.

“There is tremendous industrial activity in the Gulf Coast Region supporting a strong economy. At the same time, companies want to avoid putting more carbon into the atmosphere. They are interested in learning different strategies, techniques and ways they can work together to leverage greater carbon reduction.” - Andrew Mangan, Founder of US BCSD

A broad range of stakeholders want to see companies take the lead in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and forward-thinking companies have been responding by modernizing equipment, switching to electricity/other low- and zero-carbon fuels, and using both nature and technology to capture and store carbon. The Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative was organized by the US Business Council for Sustainable Development and Entergy Corporation to accelerate cross-industry carbon reduction.

The US BCSD is a nonprofit business association that gives leading businesses a shared platform to identify and jointly solve critical sustainability challenges. The collaborative is designed to establish new projects that help companies reach carbon reduction goals. It is an action-based model that can be replicated in other parts of the country.

“If we can bring the collective power of this group and examples of the projects that come out of it to bear on developing good policies, they are much more likely to become reality.” - Chuck Barlow, vice president, sustainability and environmental policy for Entergy. “The result will be greater net benefits to our communities and our planet.”

Entergy is an integrated energy company that delivers electricity to customers in multiple states covered by the collaborative including Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy made a commitment to action on climate change more than 20 years ago, recognizing the threat it posed to the health and vitality of the Gulf region the company serves. Entergy adopted a new emission rate reduction goal and issued a climate scenario analysis earlier this year.

A new report by the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES) recommends that companies seek out opportunities to work across sectors to reduce emissions, which is the basis of the Gulf Coast Carbon Collaborative. Interested companies are encouraged to join the effort.

“Decarbonization will move faster and more efficiently if more oars are rowing in the same direction,” the report, Getting to Zero: a U.S. Climate Agenda, notes.

For more information:

• Daniel Kietzer at the US BCSD; kietzer@usbcsd.org or 512.981.5417

• Neal Kirby at Entergy; nkirby@entergy.com or 504.576.4238