Considering the mandate is set at a relatively low threshold, all company's will need to self evaluate whether they will be impacted. LakeShore Global has primarily been working in the voluntary markets, but we are now moving into the the California Air Resource Board mandatory emissions reporting program. Under that program, just about everyone is required to report, and if you breach the threshold, then verification is required. Verification is when a company (like LakeShore) with an accredited verification body perform an independent audit on your emissions inventory... or a measure of your carbon footprint. This includes everything like office electricity usage and vehicle fleet gas consumption... so it's not just for power production and manufacturing. It makes since that the large industry players such as the EPA Climate Leaders are voluntarily involved to stay abreast of developments in this industry. The good news is that at a federal level, there is currently no mandate for verification and this will save the corporate pocket book for the time being. Because the states have been very pro-active at restricting emissions, there are many special interest groups that advocate a federal mandate, but with administration and enforcement at the state level.
So from a compliance standpoint, it is good news that the federal mandate will not require verification, however companies will need to have the ability to evaluate and measure their carbon footprint in order to submit to the mandated reports. So, back to the question of how? Corporate America is being forced to measure their carbon footprint. You should select a reputable company to evaluate your footprint and set up a "self administered" reporting program (alternatively you may want to outsource the function altogether). Select a vendor who submits to voluntary monitoring to ensure quality product and service offerings to participants in the clean energy compliance marketplace. Expect to see high growth rates for the participants in this market in the coming months due to the massive inflows of investment into clean tech by federal programs. Yesterdays renewable energy companies will be the industry power players of tomorrow and the companies who are already established in these markets will be the ones to go with.
It will be interesting to see what happens at the state level. It will likely fall in some form of extension to the state Renewable Portfolio Standards and/or implementation of programs similar to California or some of the regional cap and trade programs that are in place in half the states in the country already. Watch out if you breach the threshold, because most of those programs will likely require verification. If the market participants can measure their footprint, half the battle is won already. And if the players can actually measure the reduction of their carbon footprint.... one would need to ask what are those players doing with that reduction? If they are not monetizing, they could be leaving millions in potential revenue on the table.
