Rocky Mountain Institute Joins Chicago Climate Exchange

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) of Snowmass, CO, announces that it has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange®, Inc. (CCX), a market created for companies to buy and sell credits to achieve cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. As an Associate Member, 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, effectively 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," says Amory Lovins, chief executive officer, Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, CO. "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."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. Although RMI does not directly emit greenhouse gases through stationary fossil fuel combustion, it contributes to emissions of greenhouse gases through business-related travel, heating fuel purchases, and some electricity purchases. (Much of RMI's electricity already comes from wind and solar sources, and it uses some exceptionally energy-efficient buildings and equipment.)"Rocky Mountain Institute's experience and expertise in linking organizations' profits to environmental sustainability, and energy use management in particular, is world-renowned," says Richard L. Sandor, chairman and chief executive officer, Chicago Climate Exchange, Chicago. "We are very excited to be able to facilitate RMI's linkage to the greenhouse gas emissions trading market. Its participation will serve both the development of CCX and the business goals of its clients.""Joining the Chicago Climate Exchange takes a step further the work RMI has already done with several clients to reduce their climate-related risks," says Joel Swisher P.E., team leader, RMI's Energy & Resources Services. "Participation in CCX will help us share information and experience with other members. 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-related 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. The New Business Climate is available at http://www.rmi.org/store/p12details2421.php.Other CCX Associate Members include the non-profit World Resources Institute, the law firm Foley & Lardner, and the consulting firm Global Change Associates. The exchange has more than sixty members, twenty-two 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 (2003 - 2006). Net emissions from these members with direct greenhouse gas emissions from on-site fossil fuel combustion will be 4 percent below the baseline average in 2006. Members with direct emissions include American Electric Power, International Paper, DuPont, IBM, the City of Chicago, and the University of Oklahoma.Rocky Mountain Institute is a twenty-two-year-old independent entrepreneurial nonprofit organization. Its mission is to foster the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, profitable, and life-sustaining. RMI's nearly fifty staff members show businesses, communities, individuals, and governments how to meet their goals in ways that create more wealth and protect the environment simultaneously - often through advanced resource efficiency. For more on our work, please visit our main website at http://www.rmi.org, or go to our Media Materials section at http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid65.php.CCX is a self-regulatory exchange that administers the world's first multi-national and multi-sector marketplace for reducing and trading greenhouse gas emissions. CCX represents the first opportunity for North American corporations, municipalities, and other organizations to take part in a rules-based market for reducing greenhouse gases. CCX enables members to receive credit for reductions, and to buy and sell credits to determine the most cost-effective means of achieving emission reductions. For more on CCX, please visit http://www.chicagoclimatex.com.