Leonardo Academy Launches Development of ANSI Standards for
Emissions Inventories, Reductions and Offset

By Michael Arny, President, Leonardo Academy

Leonardo Academy is launching the development of ANSI standards for quantifying and documenting environmental emission inventories, offsets, and reduction credits. These standards are needed to accelerate the growth of market-driven emission reduction actions, and will make it easier for consumers, building owners, and companies to get credit for the environmental benefits of their emission reduction actions. They will provide consistent, integrated coverage of the full range of emissions types, from greenhouse gases to mercury pollution.

The goal of this project is simple and practical one-stop reporting of energy efficiency and other emission reduction achievements. The sale of emission reduction credits earned through energy efficiency and other emission reduction projects can then provide building owners and managers with an additional revenue stream to support building improvements.

Al Gore, the 2006 FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, the World Bank and the HSBC bank all recently brought great attention to emission inventories, offsets, and reduction credits by announcing their action to offset emissions. Al Gore offset the emissions caused by the production of his documentary film “An Inconvenient Truth”, the World Cup Organizing Committee offset the emission of the World Cup event, and the World Bank and HSBC Bank offset the emissions caused by their organizations.

These announcements raise important questions about what emission inventories, offsets, and reduction credits really mean. How does one calculate the emissions caused by a given human activity? What types of emissions should be calculated and offset? Should only greenhouse gasses like CO2 be offset, or should toxic emissions like mercury be addressed as well? And how should we define, measure and verify emissions offsets?

Leonardo Academy launched an ANSI standard development process to create an integrated set of answers to these questions. This process will create a single standard that combines the breadth of current information on the topic into an integrated, easily understood package providing the essential benefits to both the environment and the business world. The objective of this initiative is to develop credible and effective standards for emission inventories, offsets, and reduction credits that are practical for both end users and the marketplace, and are therefore effective drivers for environmental improvement

Leonardo Academy President Michael Arny said, “This is an important initiative because effective emissions crediting and offsetting standards are key to solving both our global warming and toxic emissions problems. Such standards make it economically and socially advantageous to increase this type of environmental stewardship, engaging the creative energy and drive of the marketplace to achieve important environmental goals.”

The need for these standards is profound. Individuals and organizations take action to reduce emissions for many reasons including altruism, the opportunity for recognition, and to capture the market value of these emission reductions. Having a consistent and practical way of keeping score is a driver for action. The development of integrated emissions standards will make it possible for car buyers to capture the economic value, at the time of purchase of their low emission vehicles’ pollution reductions over the life of the car. It will make it possible for a building owner that documents reduced energy use to capture the economic value of emission reductions created by their actions. These are only a few examples of the many applications of the standards being developed.

Numerous government, non-government and nonprofit organizations have made important contributions to the knowledge base on emission reduction credits and offsets in both the regulated an unregulated arenas, but standards and programs remain disjointed and limited in the types of emissions they address, the geographic areas they cover, and the applicable participants. The goal of this standard development initiative is to provide an integrated standard that has broad coverage for types of pollutants, geographic scope and participants.

“This ANSI standard development process will build on all the great work that has been done to date to create an integrated standard that has broad coverage and works well for both the users and the public, “ said Arny. “The open and transparent standards will make it clear in the marketplace what stated emission inventories, offsets, and reduction credits really mean.”

Projected Scope of these Standards:

Project Funding
Funding for all Leonardo Academy projects is being gathered from a variety of sources on an ongoing basis. Johnson Controls, a major creator of emission reductions through energy efficiency, has contributed $20,000 to become a Silver Level Sponsor of this project. Johnson Controls is delivering enough energy efficiency for its customers to meet 4% of the Kyoto goals. Leonardo Academy is seeking additional sponsors at all levels for this project.

ANSI Project Information
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private, non-profit organization (501c3) that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Leonardo Academy is an ANSI (www.ansi.org) accredited standards developer, and this project will be carried out in accordance with Leonardo Academy’s ANSI approved standard development process. This project was announced through the ANSI Project Initiation Notification System on June 23, 2006 and has the ANSI standard development number BSR/LEO 5000-200x.

Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions:
Michael Arny, President, Leonardo Academy
michaelarny@leonardoacademy.org

About the Author:
Michael Arny is frequently called the "Father of LEED-EB." He founded the Leonardo Academy in 1997 and has guided the continued growth and accelerating impact of this organization. He has worked on energy and environmental issues his entire career. After earning a BS and MS in mechanical engineering and a BA in Psychology and Russian language at the University of Wisconsin, Michael was on the Wisconsin Public Service Commission staff for 14 years. He was the chair of the State of Wisconsin committee that developed the State of Wisconsin Greenhouse Gas emissions inventory; emission reduction cost analysis and the economic benefits analysis for emissions reductions. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Wisconsin and a LEED® Accredited Professional, was the Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) LEED for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB) Committee from 2001-2005 and continues to serve on this committee.