Climate Neutral Business Network and Bonneville Environmental Foundation Announce Innovative Greenhouse Gas Reductions Among 11 U.S. Colleges and Universities

PORTLAND, Ore., October 22, 2014 /3BL Media/ – Corporate sustainability goals are now fueling higher education campus sustainability efforts by providing a new category of certified carbon credits resulting from campus energy efficiency projects. Working on behalf of Chevrolet and its Chevrolet Carbon Reduction Initiative, Portland-based Climate Neutral Business Network (CNBN) and Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) are facilitating the first-ever sales of certified carbon credits generated from campus energy efficiency and clean energy use, including those from Portland State University and Southern Oregon University.

The new carbon methodology opens entirely new capital market funding for campuses that now have the ability to measure and sell their greenhouse gas reductions to fund even deeper campus efficiency measures in the future.

Portland State University, Spelman College, Boston University, Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point and University of Illinois at Chicago announced their Chevy funding today on National Campus Sustainability Day. They join Ball State University, Valencia College, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Grand Valley State University and Southern Oregon University.

Altogether these campuses will receive millions of dollars through the Chevy credit purchase.

CNBN and BEF will share the significance of this new category of carbon credits and the early transactions supported by Chevrolet at the Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Conference and Expo in Portland held Oct. 26 – 29.

In 2010, Chevrolet selected CNBN and BEF to help it reach its voluntary goal of procuring and retiring up to 8 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. However, until now, without the new methodology, there has been no pathway for incentivizing and certifying carbon credits from campus energy efficiency.

“Chevrolet is investing in carbon reduction efforts throughout the U.S. and wanted to make it easier for other organizations to do the same,” said David Tulauskas, director of sustainability for General Motors. “With the help of BEF and CNBN, we created this pathway to help fuel the higher education community’s ingenious efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.

“It’s through collaboration and continued focus that we will all move closer to a clean energy future. We hope other companies will purchase these carbon credits long after Chevrolet meets its commitment.”

Chevrolet sponsored development of the new methodology for U.S. higher education institutes to quantify and produce certified carbon reductions. The methodology, accredited by the independent third party certification nonprofit, the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), pioneers performance benchmark approaches to radically streamline additionality project assessments and quantify campus-wide and/or building-specific emission reductions.

These certified reductions may then be sold by the participating campus, to buyers of carbon credits. Similar to carbon reductions produced from projects such as forestry, renewable energy, or methane capture, these campus projects are measured against a specific protocol and undergo third-party project verification and validation through VCS to produce certified credits for sale.

“It’s no accident that Portland is at the epicenter of this groundbreaking carbon deal,” said Sue Hall, CEO of Climate Neutral Business Network. “Oregon hosts four of the organizations that helped Chevy pioneer this program and it continues to showcase its clean-energy innovation.”

About BEF
At Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF), we believe addressing the planet’s most pressing environmental challenges requires innovation, creative problem solving and discovering a new way of doing business that values the natural resources we depend on. We are entrepreneurs for the planet. Through a full suite of innovative energy, carbon and water solutions we are helping our partners—from the farmer to the corporation—redefine how business gets done. We help our partners meaningfully balance their environmental impact, invest in clean energy and carbon reduction, educate the next generation of clean energy leaders, and effectively and sustainably restore the health of our freshwater resources. Learn more at B-E-F.org.

About CNBN
Climate Neutral Business Network develops strategies that maximize companies’ carbon advantage, forging creative partnerships across corporate value chains and alliances with environmental/community organizations – to maximize the value that they can deliver for their companies, their customers, the community and the climate. Network companies’ innovations have significantly contributed towards climate stabilization by creating profitable new choices for their customers and credible, innovative marketing platforms that have delivered on clients’ mainstream business development goals, achieving consistently superior returns.

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Bonneville Environmental Foundation Patrick Nye, Senior Consultant 503-709-3975 pnye@b-e-f.org    Climate Neutral Business Network Sue Hall, CEO 541-490-2850 sue@climateneutral.com