Vermont Organization Joins International Greenhouse Gas Reduction Effort

The Middlebury-based environmental organization ECOLOGIA is joining corporate leaders and policy-makers from around the world in a new effort to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, which cause global warming. ECOLOGIA is working within a forum called the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) on a new project to develop a method for measuring companies' greenhouse gas emissions. The project aims to produce an internationally standardized measurement process that companies can use to manage their energy consumption and thereby reduce their production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Experts expect an international standard for greenhouse gas measurement to help create a financial incentive for companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. When companies can measure the emissions from different aspects of their business, they then can better identify ways to save energy and reduce emissions. Also, once companies have a consistent method for measuring their emissions, the will be able to trade emissions credits with one another under greenhouse gas trading markets being established by many governments.

ECOLOGIA co-chairs an ISO committee that will facilitate the development of the greenhouse gas standard by coordinating definitions of technical terms, liaising with climate change experts, and generally smoothing the way for collaboration among the many companies, organizations and national governments that are involved in the ISO climate change initiative.

"An environmental organization like ECOLOGIA has never held a leadership position like this before within ISO," says ECOLOGIA Project Director Heather McGray. "Most ISO participants are from government or big business, so we stand out as a small non-profit from Vermont, and we don't always agree with our colleagues. But we have a unique ability to bring important new perspectives into the discussion. The choice of an environmental organization to co-chair one of ISO's climate change committees suggests that ISO is serious about creating a standard that's acceptable to both global industry and the world's environmental community."

McGray and ECOLOGIA board member Aleg Cherp, of Central European University in Hungary, will attend the next meeting of ISO's Climate Change Working Group in Berlin, Germany from Nov. 11-14. In addition, they have been invited to make presentations on the new standard for government, academic and environmental leaders at the Energy Foundation in Beijing, China, the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, DC, and the US Climate Action Network (also in DC) over the next two months.

For additional information on this news release, please contact hmcgray@ecologia.org or (802) 388-8075.