This week I attended the EPA Climate Leaders (CL) Partners meeting in National Harbor, MD (near Washington DC). EPA Climate Leaders is a very well respected GHG voluntary reporting program run by the EPA with over 200 Fortune 500 companies participating. Over 250 people attended the event, many from large companies such as GE, Staples, Genzyme, Boise, UTC, Sun Microsystems, Sprint, Anheuser-Busch and many others.
My Day 1 notes:
The EPA CL Program continues to grow, but changes to program
- EPA Climate Leaders program continues to grow (67 new partners this year – 17 large companies, 50 small companies)
-EPA is currently accepting feedback on program changes (changes are expected to be announced in January). Proposed changes include move to use absolute reduction goals only (drop intensity goals), public publishing of reports, more programs for small business, and incorporation of scope 3 (when guidance is finalized from WRI). Lots of discussion and debate about pros and cons of absolute vs. intensity/relative goals
Federal cap-n-trade is _at least_ 3 years away from implementation in the States
- This is based on Q&A with speakers, hallway discussions, etc.
Scope 3 work at WRI is getting more complex, skepticism increasing
- I spoke with 3 people who attended the WRI scope 3 working group meeting this week. The concern is that the effort continues to get more complex (current draft is apparently 125 pages) and dominated by LCA purists. One person mentioned concerned that a poorly received and implemented Scope 3 effort hurt the well received scope 1 and 2 efforts by WRI
Numerous companies are actively looking at Enterprise Carbon Accounting software and considering investments in Q4 or Q1.
Frustration with numerous NGOs was expressed privately (“pay to play”, bullying, etc.). This is a growing trend that the NGOs need to get ahead of if they want to keep their credibility (especially in light of the credibility hit scientists took with the leaded climate emails)
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