Michele is the Founder and CEO of Boundless Impact Research & Analytics, an industry research and impact analytics platform that provides quantitative and evidence-based research and data for investors, companies, and funds. Boundless offers Scope 1, 2 & 3 climate data and analysis and market intelligence across a growing number of emerging sectors that address significant environmental challenges.

From 2010-2013, she was Vice President at Foundation Source where she built a knowledge platform on best practices in philanthropy that was used by a network of 1200 family offices. From 2007-2008, Michele was Director of Communications for Humanity United, a philanthropic entity created by Pam Omidyar and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. She has been involved in the successful development of more than two-dozen startups and is regularly called upon for her innovative thinking about environmental impact measurement.

Michele advises and mentors several emerging clean tech companies and projects and has a proven track record in building new technologies, research methodologies, and companies. She has 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, business executive, and impact measurement expert.

Michele is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University and has a Master’s in International Relations and Communications from Boston University.

Michele Joins the Carbon Accounting and Management Podcast to Discuss:

• Life cycle assessments and best practices
• Setting up and defining boundaries
• Strategies for delivering information to clients
• Avoiding greenwashing
• Importance of using independent experts

Michele's Listener Takeaway: If there's only one thing that our guests take away from this conversation, what do you think it should be?

I would like everyone to understand that lifecycle assessment and like environmental impact measurement is not a 'nice to have.' It's an urgent 'need to have.' We're moving to a carbon price world where companies that are not doing honest reporting on their emissions and their environmental performance are going to now have negative balance sheets and stranded assets and a lot of problems. The companies that are thinking ahead, integrating renewable energy into their supply chains and value in their operations, purchasing and integrating sustainability strategies into products or ways of doing business into their work, they are the ones that are going to be the stocks to invest in. For investors, it would behoove them to not look at this lifecycle assessment and objective LCA data and things like that as something that's just nice to have, but something they absolutely must have in order to derisk an investment.

I would encourage people to be skeptical about the data that's being thrown out there. The data's either being greenwashed a lot way too often, or companies are saying, 'Hey, we've got really impressive emissions.' They're kind of bragging about a number of emissions that is really not very impressive. It's really when you're in the gigatons and megatons of emissions reduction that you're a game changing technology. If you are doing only tons or kilotons, it's not even worth mentioning, because you're not really making a difference. That's the one thing I've noticed, people are not aware of the kind of scale they need to achieve in order to be a game changer. There's an awful lot of folks out there that are doing a little bit, but they're not doing enough. The investors are really focused on the technologies that have gigaton and megaton emissions reduction potential, and I think that's great. Breakthrough Energy Ventures is one of them that actually has a target set. I think there's just a lot of education that investors need to do on how to measure and understand that and set targets for themselves.

Connect with Michele Demers on LinkedIn or at mdemers@boundlessimpact.net, and learn more about the work being done at Boundless Impact at boundlessimpact.net or on LinkedIn.

Miranda Mair is a Senior Carbon Advisor at ENGIE Impact, where she is excited to have an opportunity to help her clients tackle the environmental challenges that come with a changing climate and energy landscape. Miranda’s background as a broadcast meteorologist helps her every day as she guides clients through the science of greenhouse gas assessments and climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts, as well as complex air quality analyses. Her favorite part is communicating these approaches and results to stakeholders, which she learned to do early on as a broadcast meteorologist at the start of her career. These days she’s less focused on the local 7-day forecast and more concerned with how to make a positive impact globally for our next several decades.

Miranda Joins the Carbon Accounting and Management Podcast to Discuss:

• Advice for getting started, collecting data, and setting organizational boundaries
• Ancillary benefits of carbon inventories
• Target reductions
• Tips for rebaselining as data collection processes improve
• Inventory management plans

Miranda's Listener Takeaway: If there's only one thing that our guests take away from this conversation, what do you think it should be?

Carbon is currency, and you need to have good accountants working with you. As a company that has carbon software, software can be a great tool, but if you are any more complex, you probably want to have some consultants and some great advice and carbon advisors to help you through that process. I liken it to doing your taxes. Most people can get by doing their taxes if you have a fairly simple portfolio of assets. But if you start to have a lot of balls in the air, you're going to want to hire a good tax accountant because it makes a big difference. You wouldn't be using TurboTax for your corporate taxes for a business. I think framing it like that helps people realize that you really do get some value from having someone help guide you through this process and help to uncover areas that you can improve, ways that you can make this easier, and make it repeatable year over year.

Learn more about Miranda Mair on LinkedIn and learn more about the work being done at ENGIE Impact at https://www.engieimpact.com/.

Chris Lawless has more than 23 years of GHG management, sustainability, and environmental consulting experience. He has developed or verified more than 500 GHG inventories and is well-versed in GHG reporting and verification protocols, standards, and regulations. Chris is an accredited Lead GHG Emissions Verifier in several voluntary and mandatory GHG reporting programs throughout the US. Chris has developed or verified more than 500 GHG reporting and verification protocols, standards, and regulations.

Chris has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies from Connecticut College and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from University of San Francisco.

Christopher Joins the Carbon Accounting and Management Podcast to Discuss:

• Advice for getting started with carbon emission inventories
• Best practices for approaching Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions
• Verification measures looked for when evaluating inventories
• Strategies for creating an accurate and meaningful Scope 2 inventory
• Considerations for carbon offset projects
• Ancillary benefits to carbon accounting

Chris' Listener Takeaway: If there's only one thing that our guests take away from this conversation, what do you think it should be?

Don't wait, and write everything down. The more documentation you have in terms of how you've established your greenhouse gas inventory, as an example, the better traceability, auditability, year over year reportability you'll have, ensuring that you're using the same methods. This is super important as we move into a more regulated world for some organizations. Some are already there in California and and other places, but having a good management plan is really key.

Learn more about Chris Lawless and the work being done at Cameron-Cole at cameron-cole.com and adecesg.com.