SNOWMASS, Colorado, July 27, 2004 (ENS) – The Rocky Mountain Institute based in Snowmass powers its offices with wind and solar sources, and uses energy-efficient buildings and equipment. But still the sustainability consulting organization generates greenhouse gases with business travel, heating fuel purchases and some electricity purchases.
Now, to offset those greenhouse gases, the Rocky Mountain Institute has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange, Inc. (CCX), a market on which companies buy and sell greenhouse gas emissions credits, both organizations said Monday.
As an associate member, the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) will quantify its greenhouse gas emissions each year, then purchase through the CCX market an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide credits to offset its emissions.
RMI will then permanently retire the purchased credits from the CCX market, mitigating the Institute's impact on global climate change.
"RMI is excited to work toward climate neutrality with its carbon emissions, both for the environmental benefits and the business case it will help us promote," said Rocky Mountain Institute CEO Amory Lovins.
"RMI's work with clients to create climate mitigation strategies has shown us that greenhouse gas trading can play an important role in those strategies," Lovins said.
CCX is the first system in which entities from the public and private sectors enter into legally binding commitments to use a rules-based market for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
The exchange has more than 60 members, 22 of which are industrial corporations, electric power producers, universities, and municipalities that have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from stationary fossil fuel combustion by one percent per year during the course of the CCX pilot program from 2003 to 2006.
"Rocky Mountain Institute's experience and expertise in linking organizations' profits to environmental sustainability, and energy use management in particular, is world-renowned," said Richard Sandor, chairman and CEO of the Chicago Climate Exchange. "We are very excited to be able to facilitate RMI's linkage to the greenhouse gas emissions trading market.
"Joining the Chicago Climate Exchange takes a step further the work RMI has already done with several clients to reduce their climate related risks," said Joel Swisher P.E., team leader of RMI's Energy and Resources Services. "We plan to explore ways to combine direct emissions reductions with trading credits as a risk mitigation strategy for our clients."
RMI's climate related work includes a greenhouse gas emissions inventory for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, generation risk analysis for the Nebraska Public Power District, and emissions strategies for other corporate clients.
The New Business Climate, published by RMI and written by Swisher, is designed to help companies and other organizations analyze their greenhouse-gas-related risks and determine appropriate mitigation strategies. Find it online at: http://www.rmi.org/store/p12details2421.php.
For more on CCX, visit: http://www.chicagoclimatex.com.
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