Volume XII, No. 10-11-12 First Quarter 2020 CCBJ 2019 Business · Environmental Consulting &...

First Quarter 2020Volume XII, No. 10-11-12

Executive Review & CCBJ Awards for 2019Annual winners of the Climate Change Business Journal Business Achievement Awards are profiled for outstanding performance, innovations or accomplishments in 2019. Climate change industry leaders, specialists, technology developers, and designers continue to demonstrate innovation and resilience as market factors and policy inaction conspire to make business more challenging for the climate change industry 1-10

Rincon’s CAPDash software streamlines tracking GHG emission reductions, provides instant updates 11

Catalytic acquisitions: BrownFlynn and SustainAbility accelerate ERM’s sustainability practice 13

Mabbett & Associates Ltd uses low-carbon expertise to expand base of EHS business for multinationals in Europe 16

EA Engineering Science and Technology finds a growing base of business in coastal resilience 18

LevelTen uses data science to match buyers and sellers of renewable energy while streamlining procurement process 21

Black & Veatch scans for innovation in sustainable infrastructure via growth accelerator program; first class of startup cleantech companies in Black & Veatch IgniteX Cleantech Accelerator 23

Moody’s expands capabilities in ESG space with key acquisitions and expanded services in analytics 25

BrainBox AI uses HVAC modulation technology to reduce buildings’ energy spend by up to 30 percent 29

Environmental Consulting & Technology takes a leadership position in green stormwater infrastructure 30

CCBJ Special Data & Analysis Section: Wind Power and Future Scenarios in Electricity Generation: 33-47

Wind Industry Experiences a Good Year in 2019 33-47

Top 10 EPC companies in U.S. solar & wind in 2019 33

On-shore wind industry faces advanced stages of consolidation in 2020 43

Wind turbine manufacturers report record orders in 2019 44

CCBJ Awards 2019 & Executive Review

®CLIMATE CHANGE BUSINESS JOURNAL

CCBJ 2019 Business Achievement Awards

Climate Change Business Journal is proud to announce the winners of the 12th annual CCBJ Business

Achievement Awards for outstanding busi-ness performance and achievements in the climate change industry.

Congratulations to the 2019 winners and thanks to all companies that submit-ted nominations. All are welcome to attend the official awards ceremony as part of EBI’s annual Environmental Industry Summit in San Diego, CA on September 10, 2020 at 7-9pm. Environmental Industry Summit XVIII runs from September 9-11, 2020.

Awards Process: In October-December 2019, CCBJ solicited industry, govern-ment, non-profits and the broader climate change community via e-mail, social media, its website, industry events and word-of-mouth for nominations for the 2019 CCBJ Business Achievement Awards. Nomina-tions were accepted in 200-word essays in either specific or unspecified categories. Categories may have been adjusted depend-ing on the volume of nominations or the number of worthy recipients. Final awards were determined by a committee of CCBJ staff and contributing editors.

Environmental Industry Summit XVIII, hosted by Environmental Business International Inc., will take place Septem-ber 9-11, 2020 and present panels and dis-cussion on topics including environmental industry performance, market forecasts, 2020 election outlook, diversity, client forecasts, regional markets, global oppor-tunities, politics, policy, market drivers and much more. This national two-day learning event provides ample networking opportu-nities for environmental industry executives and analysts.

2 Climate Change Business Journal 1st Quarter 2020Market Intelligence on Climate Change

ISSN 1940--8781

Editor- in-Chief Grant Ferrier

Research Analyst Laura Carranza

Managing Editor Lyn Thwaites

Contributing Editors

Jim Hight, Adriana Blair, George

Stubbs, Brian Runkel, Charles

Helget, Andrew Paterson, Tom

Aarts

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ADVANCING BEST PRACTICES: MICROGRIDS

Commonwealth Edison Co. (ComEd; Chicago, IL) for developing the country’s first utility-operated microgrid cluster, which demonstrates some of the most ad-vanced grid modernization efforts to reduce carbon and strengthen communities. Built in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, the microgrid is part of ComEd’s Community of the Future, a pilot project demonstrating how advanced technologies make commu-nities more green, connected, and resilient.

The Bronzeville Community Microgrid will leverage a variety of advanced distrib-uted energy resources, from a 750 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) installation at a public housing development to a 500 kW/2 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery en-ergy storage system to supply power for roughly 1,000 residences, businesses, and public institutions, including 11 customers that have been identified as providing criti-cal public services.

Beyond the direct service it will provide, the microgrid will support efforts to make the broader region more resilient and sus-tainable. Within the microgrid, ComEd is leading two projects with the support of the Department of Energy to develop and demonstrate advanced technologies that will make it easier to integrate renewable generation. The lessons learned from these demonstrations will help integrate more low-carbon technologies across the wider grid, helping communities everywhere.

ADVANCING BEST PRACTICES: GHG ANALYSIS

Rincon Consultants, Inc. (Sacra-mento, CA) for its development of a tool that helps jurisdictions meet the require-ments for streamlining California Environ-mental Quality Act (CEQA) greenhouse gas (GHG) analyses, pursuant to CEQA Guidelines Section 15183.5. This section of the law requires regulated entities to ensure that a climate action plan (CAP) quantifies GHG emissions, meets SB 32 reduction targets, and implements and tracks GHG reduction strategies.

These requirements emphasize the need for a tool that enables jurisdictions to ful-fill these requirements on their own in an efficient, accurate, and cost-effective man-ner. Leveraging its extensive experience in climate action plan development and implementation, Rincon has created a proprietary, dashboard-based CAP imple-mentation tool, called CAPDash, that al-lows jurisdictions to update GHG emis-sion inventories and track implementation of GHG reduction strategies in real time through an easy-to-use dashboard interface.

Customized data visualizations can be created and shared immediately, providing staff and stakeholders instant updates to the implementation status of GHG reduction measures. CAPDash enables jurisdictions to manage their own data, meaning they will not have to rely on consultants or ex-perts to update GHG inventories and track success of their CAP implementation.


ADVANCING BEST PRACTICES: COASTAL RESILIENCE

EA Engineering, Science, and Tech-nology, Inc., PBC (Hunt Valley, MD) for its 2019 publication of a report, titled Plan-ning for Coastal Resiliency in the Northern Chesapeake Bay, that is now serving as the foundation for a regional strategy to address sea-level rise (SLR) and shoreline stabiliza-tion surrounding Maryland’s Susquehanna Flats and Upper Chesapeake Bay. The re-port’s purpose is to assist Aberdeen Proving Ground and the surrounding communi-ties in building a greater margin of safety against SLR by identifying associated risks and providing guidance for the incorpora-tion of resilience measures into future infra-structure planning.

The report’s fundamental intent is a “science to solutions” process to develop a long-range plan for SLR based on scientific and policy-based research. The report iden-tifies areas in which to focus management efforts; provides data needed to develop ad-aptation plans; and outlines the steps neces-sary to implement those plans and decrease SLR risks. Nature-based, structural, and non-structural resilience measures are de-scribed with specific focus on their function as well as performance factors. In addition, the report provides an overview of current sedimentation and accretion patterns and rates. It clearly lays out the added benefit that strategies used for coastal resilience may play a role in decreasing sediment and nutrient loading to the Chesapeake Bay.

ADVANCING BEST PRACTICES: GREEN STORMWATER

INFRASTRUCTURE

Environmental Consulting & Tech-nology, Inc. (ECT; Gainesville, FL) for implementing new approaches to the fund-ing and construction of green stormwater infrastructure (GSI). The realities of climate change, including more frequent and in-tense rainstorms, elevated heat and humidi-ty, high water levels, and increased shoreline erosion, are creating a crisis for stormwater managers.

GSI can address these issues, but com-munities are challenged to fund and con-struct projects at large scales. ECT is leading a team of innovators, including profession-als from Corvias and Quantified Ventures, to bring new approaches to funding and constructing GSI. These methods, which combine market principles with commu-nity benefits, are upending the traditional economics and practice of building GSI, ac-cording to ECT. Working with Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, the team has already helped execute one transaction for an ambitious, $20 million community-based GSI partnership (CBGSI).

ECT’s GSI team is now working on two environmental impact bond (EIB) transac-tions in the Greater Buffalo region and in Hudson, Ohio. Altogether, these transac-tions are among the first 10 CBGSI or EIB transactions in the country and could result in cumulative investments of more than $50 million in distributed GSI. They are anticipated to herald a new era in the use of private finance/delivery and pay-for-per-formance concepts and are bringing climate resilience within reach.

PROJECT MERIT: CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION

& RESILIENCE

AECOM (Los Angeles, CA) for its work in development the second-ever Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan. In March 2019, responding to devastation from Hur-ricane Harvey and extreme national socio-economic implications of an unprotected Texas, AECOM and Texas’ General Land Office released the plan, which serves as a long-term, statewide planning tool that directs the agency’s coastal management priorities in developing and implementing projects to restore, enhance, and protect 367-plus miles of Texas coastline and 3,300 miles of bays and estuaries, while protecting multi-billion dollar energy assets and 6.7 million residents. The plan’s strength yield-ed a proposed $100 million of federal and $40 million of state funding toward vital, coast-wide resiliency projects, representing the largest-ever annual allocation of coastal resilience funds at the state level. The cut-ting-edge work communicates the impact of inaction, fosters future land/asset stew-ardship and is already informing resiliency projects/guidelines nationally. AECOM’s unique coastal engineering expertise across city/county/state/federal agencies, environ-mental/technical/engineering groups, re-searchers/universities, and community out-reach programs bore important facilitation and planning. AECOM identified and de-livered: innovative coastal restoration meth-odologies crafted to address interactions/co-benefits between infrastructure- and nature-based engineering solutions; criti-cal consensus building across diverse state/federal agencies, businesses/industries and communities to allow groups to see com-mon goals; and positive collaboration with the Technical Advisory Committee, a 200-plus group of coastal experts, stakeholders, and public and private entities.



& RESILIENCE

Tetra Tech, Inc. (Pasadena, CA) for its development of guidance documents ad-dressing the multiple impacts of climate change on the state of Hawaii. The state’s communities are highly vulnerable to ex-treme natural-disaster events, including hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, seasonal high waves, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, lava flows, and sea-level rise. In addition, cli-mate change is expected to exacerbate the impacts of many natural hazards, thereby increasing the risk of disaster at the com-munity, county, and state levels. Tetra Tech worked with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program and the State of Hawaii De-partment of Land and Natural Resources to develop two guidance documents for Ha-waii addressing sea-level rise in community planning and disaster-recovery prepared-ness.

These guidance documents are intended to help counties, together with their com-munities and partners, address sea-level rise through their existing planning processes and provide model resources to support resilient and streamlined post-disaster per-mitting for reconstruction. Case studies will be used to improve understanding of opportunities and challenges to increase re-silience to coastal hazards and sea-level rise through planning and post-disaster recon-struction. The Disaster Recovery Prepared-ness Guidance was completed in April 2019 and the Sea Level Rise Planning Guidance will be completed in April 2020.


& RESILIENCE

Weston Solutions, Inc. (West Chester, PA) for its work addressing the resiliency of flood-control measures on the Missouri River. Rainfall and snowfall in the lower Missouri River Basin from the fall of 2018 to the spring of 2019 resulted in substan-tial regional flooding. Contracted to close two breaches in the L-550 levee system in Atchison County, Missouri, Weston Solu-tions’ approach contributed both to levee system resiliency and community sustain-ability. The flooding had caused more than 50 levee breaches, broad embankment damage to more than 500 miles of levee system, and catastrophic damage to sur-rounding homes, businesses, and farms. At River Marker 542.8, Weston placed sand that had been removed from inland farm fields to close 75% of the 1,100 foot-wide breach. These steps provided ecological restoration because the deep sand deposits are not farmable: their removal to carry out levee breach repair allows the fields to be quickly returned to productive use. Weston subcontracted to nearly 50 local contrac-tors and farmers, relying on their special-ized equipment, to rebuild the impacted le-vees. The work provided the farmers needed income when they were unable to conduct their farming operations. Following breach closure, Weston expanded the sand closure berm to 500 feet to serve as the foundation for future levee improvements, and it con-structed a temporary sand levee to the same elevation as the original to protect against near-term high water levels.

PROJECT MERIT: GHG MITIGATION

Burns & McDonnell (Kansas City, MO) for its proposal of an alternative en-ergy system to reduce GHG emissions at a manufacturing facility in Denver, Colorado. To reduce waste and its carbon footprint, TruStile Properties LLC proposed construc-

tion of a new door manufacturing facility in Denver. Burns & McDonnell evaluated the environmental impacts and GHG emis-sions of a proposed biomass boiler in lieu of combusting natural gas, diesel, or other fuel. The analysis showed that over 37,000 tons of GHG emissions per year will be re-duced with the new approach. The new fa-cility’s biomass boiler will combust sawdust, a byproduct from the door manufacturing process, as well as generate power and pro-vide heating and cooling to the facility. The plan proposes to not dispose of the sawdust by-product via landfilling, composting, or burning for crop heating, all of which have GHG emissions associated with transpor-tation. The biomass boiler will have the capability to meet all heating and cooling requirements for the new facility, and no electricity from the local power provider will be required for heating or cooling.

PROJECT MERIT: RENEWABLE ENERGY

Black & Veatch (B&V; Overland Park, KS) for its Taiwan project and advances in its sustainability and clean energy devel-opment businesses. B&V subsidiary Di-ode Ventures was selected to finance and develop a solar farm of up to 10 MW in Tainan City, Taiwan, that will help expand Google’s position as the world’s largest pur-chaser of renewable energy. B&V will pro-vide owner’s engineering and construction management services for the 40,000-panel project, while New Green Power will pro-vide engineering, procurement, and con-struction (EPC) and operations and main-tenance (O&M) services. Taiwan recently amended its Electricity Act to allow non-utility companies to directly buy renewable energy and decrease their carbon footprints. B&V also announced that it is reorganizing its global power business, increasing focus on renewables and launching a Distributed Energy operating group. The new structure also enhances the company’s global focus on its traditional conventional and power transmission businesses.


PROJECT MERIT: ULTRA-LOW EMISSION ZONE

Jacobs (Dallas, TX) for its preparation of an impact assessment for a planned Ul-tra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in Lon-don, England. Road transport is respon-sible for approximately half of the nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions impacting health in London, exacerbating chronic illnesses, shortening life expectancy, and damaging lung development. To address this issue, the world’s first ULEZ was introduced in cen-tral London, requiring that all cars (other than taxis), motorcycles, vans, minibuses, buses, coaches, and heavy-goods vehicles meet emissions standards or pay a charge. Prior to the plan’s April 2019 implemen-tation, Transport for London (TfL) com-missioned Jacobs to develop an integrated impact assessment to examine the environ-mental, health, equality, economic, and business impacts of the proposed ULEZ.

The Jacobs team explored impacts across multiple issues, including air quality, the health and well-being of the population, access to health-related services, socio-eco-nomically disadvantaged populations, and London’s economy. Following the plan’s in-troduction, data revealed roadside NO2 re-ductions of 36% within the zone and 77% of vehicles now meeting ULEZ standards. From March to September 2019, there were 13,500 fewer older, more-polluting, non-compliant vehicles detected in the zone, a reduction of 38%.

The ULEZ builds on policies to reduce road transport emissions in central Lon-don, including encouraging more walking, cycling, use of public transport, efficient freight deliveries, and greener TfL bus fleets and TfL-licensed taxis. Expansion of the ULEZ to the North and South Circular Roads is planned for cars, vans, and motor-cycles, and London-wide for heavy vehicles.

PROJECT MERIT: ENERGY MANAGEMENT PLANS

SIA Solutions (Houston, TX) for its development of an installation energy man-agement plan (IEMP) for Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) in Texas. As one of the larg-est Air Force installations in the country, JBSA comprises 11 geographically separate operating locations throughout San An-tonio and spends approximately $60 mil-lion annually on its energy consumption. The IEMP focuses on identifying energy-efficiency project recommendations that support JBSA’s goals to improve resiliency by increasing renewable energy supply, implementing efficiency and conservation initiatives, and implementing redundancy and diversified strategies to ensure mission readiness.

Implementation of the IEMP will ef-fectively decrease pollution and improve efficiencies that enhance the environment. Execution of the JBSA energy strategy will largely be achieved through traditional funding vehicles, public-private or public-public partnerships, and efficient opera-tions. The recommended projects identified provide almost 540 gigawatt hours (GWh) of self-sustainable and resilient energy. The solar and combined heat and power (CHP) solutions provide $9.1 million in total cost savings, which may be used for enhancing other areas of mission readiness.

PROJECT MERIT: RESILIENCE & WATER QUALITY

Hazen and Sawyer (New York, NY) for its management of three projects that were named “Engineering Excellence Award” winners by the American Council of Engi-neering Companies of New York (ACEC-NY). The company’s East Side Coastal Re-siliency Environmental Impact Statement

(EIS) won an ACEC Diamond award, the Alley Creek Tidal Wetland Restoration won a Platinum award, and the Experimental Nitrogen Removing On-site Wastewater Treatment won a Gold award. The East Side Coastal Resiliency Project (ESCR) is the largest post-Sandy resiliency project in New York and the first to be implemented within Manhattan. The $1.45 billion proj-ect involves the construction of an integrat-ed flood protection system for a 2.4-mile section of Manhattan.

Next, the eastern shore of Alley Creek, a tributary of Little Neck Bay in Queens, is the site of a first-of-its-kind wetland re-construction providing year-round water-quality improvements and mitigating the effects of a nearby combined sewer over-flow (CSO) outfall. This pilot project uses progressively smaller sinuous tributaries to maximize contact time between incoming water and native wetland plant species, improving water quality by removing fecal coliform bacteria and increasing dissolved oxygen levels. Finally, for 40 years, water quality in Suffolk County has plummeted due to increasing nitrogen levels, causing issues in local lakes and coastal marine wa-ters, threatening public safety, and restrict-ing growth.

This nitrogen increase is attributed to wastewater discharged from individual on-site wastewater treatment systems or un-sewered systems like antiquated cesspools and septic systems found in 70% of Suffolk County homes. The New York State Cen-ter for Clean Water Technology (CCWT) selected Hazen to evaluate available on-site wastewater treatment technologies. Nitro-gen removing biofilters (NRBs) were found to be the most effective technology based on cost per pound of nitrogen removed. CCWT then tasked Hazen to design and install five NRBs in Suffolk County.


PROJECT MERIT: CARBON CAPTURE

CO2 Solutions Inc. (Quebec City, Can-ada) for commissioning its first commercial carbon-capture unit, working with Fibrek General Partnership, a subsidiary of Reso-lute Forest Products Inc. (RFP), and Serres Toundra Inc. The project team deployed a 30-ton-per-day CO2 capture unit and an-cillary equipment at the RFP pulp mill in Saint-Félicien, Quebec; the captured CO2 is being commercially reused by the adjacent Serres Toundra greenhouse facility. Accord-ing to CO2 Solutions, the unit represents several firsts for the global carbon-capture industry, including the first commercial de-ployment of an enzymatic carbon-capture process, the first carbon-capture unit in the forestry industry, and the first capture unit using only residual thermal energy in the form of hot water, creating no parasitic load on the host plant, a critical factor in reduc-ing the overall cost of carbon capture. CO2 Solutions contracted Tetra Tech to deliver a performance audit report.

PROJECT MERIT: ENERGY STORAGE

GE Renewable Energy (Paris, France) for its selection as the supplier of battery technology for one of the world’s largest grid-scale hybrid renewable energy proj-ects. The Solar River Project in South Aus-tralia will have a 200 MW photovoltaic ar-ray consisting of more than 640,000 solar panels, and it will include GE’s 100 MW, three-hour battery storage system, which will provide nearly 300 MWh of storage capacity. The project, which is located in South Australia’s Mid North region, will power 90,000 homes. The Solar River Proj-ect received Crown Development Approval in June of 2018, and Stage 1 of the project is expected to begin generating electricity in early 2021.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: SMART DRIVING

Greater Than (Stockholm, Sweden) for the selection of its artificial intelligence (AI) platform to support an international “smart driving” initiative. In 2019, Federa-tion Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) launched the FIA Smart Driving Chal-lenge, the world’s first global competition in smart driving. The goal of the partner-ship between Greater Than and FIA, which is the mother organization for motor clubs with 88 million members, is to raise awareness about safe and environmentally responsible driving for everyday drivers. Through “gamification,” drivers are encour-aged to contribute to lower CO2 emissions and road safety. With 16 years of experi-ence with connected cars and a database of 650 million unique driving situations, coupled with AI and machine learning, Greater Than can calculate each trip’s risk in real time and thereby influence drivers, through economic incentives and gamifica-tion, to drive in a safer and environmentally friendly manner. The result after the 2019 season was a reduction in CO2 emissions by 13.8% and related road claims by 52% among participating drivers.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: WILDFIRE PROTECTION

HANA Resources, Inc. (Lake Forest, CA) for its development of the Situation Awareness Fire Expectancy Regression (SAFER) program. SAFER is a predictive deep neural network that integrates state-ful computational graphing solutions with hyperspectral imaging datasets to produce a model that forecasts potential fires and fire zones. This innovative idea was created to mitigate and reduce threats to human life, personal property, infrastructure, and dam-age to the natural resources and watersheds of California by a creating predictive mod-eling system that will predict fire hazards in near real time. SAFER gives firefighters a temporal edge against possible pending

fires, thus allowing additional resources and solutions to be pre-deployed for monitor-ing and early mitigation. Auxiliary features of SAFER, such as short-wave infrared (SWIR) imagery via drone survey, allow for prediction of fire routes and fire spread before a wildfire can occur. Predictive ad-vantages from these features allow for bet-ter “reading” of the fire and bolster more comprehensive firefighting tactics during wildfire operations.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: DAM BREACH PROTECTION

Kleinschmidt Associates (Pittsfield, ME) for its introduction of modeling soft-ware for assessing the risks of dam-breach-ing events. Faced with aging infrastructure, limited resources, dynamic weather events, and the uncertainty of climate change, to-day’s dam owners must manage risk to pro-tect the public and the built environment. Dam breach modeling is an important com-ponent to establishing risk from a potential dam breach event, and HEC-RAS is one of the world’s most popular hydraulic model-ing applications used for this purpose.

Recognizing the importance of quanti-fying the risk but also the shortcomings of traditional deterministic methods for ascer-taining the effects of a dam breach event, Kleinschmidt introduced McBreach, a soft-ware application that runs HEC-RAS dam breach models in a Monte Carlo approach to quantify the high degree of uncertainty inherent in dam breach modeling and to provide a risk-based approach to under-standing consequences. The company says that it understands the broad global interest in deploying powerful tools of this nature and is thereby offering it free to the pub-lic. According to the company, the use of tools like McBreach should improve our understanding of the consequences of dam breach modeling, which will lead to better dam design, improved emergency action plans, and an overall increase in awareness of the risks associated with dams in an ever-changing and uncertain climate.


INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: LEAK DETECTION AND REPAIR

Trihydro Corp. for the development of LeakTracker Pro, a web-based software platform that helps organizations manage leak detection and repair (LDAR) pro-grams, which often involve overlapping compliance and reporting requirements. In 2019, a large oil and gas company se-lected LeakTracker Pro to manage the data for voluntary and regulatory fugitive emis-sions reduction programs for all of its facili-ties. With numerous contractors surveying over 2,000 facilities, the company not only needed to communicate, schedule, and de-ploy resources, but it also needed to quan-tify each individual facility’s fugitive emis-sions.

LeakTracker Pro allowed the company to collect all facility data in one database and manage inspection workflows, repair notifications, and results across its entire operation. Technicians from various ven-dors used LeakTracker Pro’s mobile app to consistently collect survey and leak data, even in the absence of an internet connec-tion. Facility managers used LeakTracker Pro’s data visualization tools to analyze re-sults, and they used its EPA-specified emis-sions calculation features to quantify fugi-tive emissions and create submittal-ready reports with a mouse click. In addition to complying with regulatory requirements, the firm continues to use LeakTracker Pro to track and manage its voluntary GHG emissions reduction program. To learn more please visit https://www.trihydro.com/products/leaktracker-pro

NEW PRACTICE AREAS: SURFACE WATER

Weston Solutions, Inc. (West Ches-ter, PA) for the launch of its national sur-face water practice to help clients respond to the effects of climate change, extreme weather, and sea-level rise on surface water needs. Building on the company’s 15 years of experience at its surface water center of excellence in Carlsbad, California, the 25-plus member practice combines in-house water quality, engineering, and modeling expertise, joining several focus areas across Weston offices in New Mexico, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania.

A key offering of the practice is the Mi-crobial Source Tracking (MST) Lab, one of only two MST Labs with a commercial EPA license in the nation. Weston claims that the practice has an enhanced ability to leverage both scientific and engineering ca-pabilities to new geographies, solving new problems for clients, with experts in sedi-ment- and water-quality monitoring; in-frastructure resiliency; engineering design, hydrology/hydraulics; best management practice design and implementation; and human health/ecosystem risk assessment. This year, the practice enjoyed a 70% in-crease in MST procurements and more than doubled the geographic reach and scope of its surface water work.

PRACTICE AREA GROWTH: LOW-CARBON ENERGY

Mabbett & Associates Ltd. (UK), a Scotland-based consulting and engineer-ing firm specializing in environmental and safety services for private and public sec-tor clients, for growing revenue by more than 30% over the past year due in part to growth in its low-carbon energy practice. During 2019, Mabbett delivered on mul-tiple multifaceted low-carbon energy initia-tives.

The company was retained to deliver a pilot program on local heat and energy efficiency strategies for two large Scottish Councils-Municipalities. Mabbett also continues to be retained by the Scottish Government’s enterprise agency to deliver low-carbon advice to 80 Scottish businesses in support of their industrial energy effi-ciency and decarbonization programs. In addition, the company has been retained by Invest Northern Ireland to advance its sustainable development initiative through the support of eight Northern Ireland busi-nesses in the areas of renewable energy, en-ergy efficiency, and emerging technologies. Finally, Mabbett has been retained by 22 of the U.K.’s largest energy users, includ-ing General Electric, Schlumberger, and Xodus, to support their efforts to comply with the EU Energy Efficiency Directive by helping them improve their energy effi-ciency and decarbonize through technology investment.


INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP: COASTAL HIGHWAY RESILIENCE

ICF (Fairfax, VA) for the publication of Nature-Based Solutions for Coastal High-way Resilience: An Implementation Guide. Conventional coastal highway protection includes walls, seawalls, bulkheads, and re-vetments, which destroy the natural protec-tions provided by healthy beaches, dunes, wetlands and other natural coastal eco-systems. Unlike conventional man-made approaches, nature-based solutions can naturally adapt to sea-level rise over time when conditions are suitable. To encour-age consideration of nature-based solutions for protecting coastal highways as part of a broader portfolio of resilience measures, ICF supported the Federal Highway Ad-ministration in the development of a white paper, a series of information sharing ses-sions across the country, and a final report.

In August 2019, ICF completed this multi-year project with the publication of the report, which ICF claims is the first of its kind to provide detailed information specific to transportation professionals on where and when nature-based solutions can be used to improve the resilience of coastal roads and bridges. The report details step-by-step information, providing guidance on how to consider nature-based solutions in the planning process and how to con-duct a site assessment to determine whether nature-based solutions are appropriate. The report also provides key engineering and ecological design considerations, permit-ting approaches, construction consider-ations, and monitoring and maintenance strategies. Transportation agencies across the nation can use this report when devel-oping more sustainable and resilient coastal transportation infrastructure.

INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP: LOW-CARBON ECONOMY

ERM (London, U.K.) for its work in helping organizations determine and re-spond to the business, legal, physical, and social consequences of the transition to a lower-carbon economy. With the appoint-ments of global and regional leaders in 2019, ERM launched a new service to help clients manage the long-term business risks and opportunities related to climate change and other key sustainability topics. With in-vestor and customer pressure accelerating, the company enjoyed a 30% growth in its corporate sustainability and climate change revenue during its 2020 fiscal year. ERM further strengthened its bench through the strategic acquisitions of BrownFlynn and SustainAbility.

Specific projects included the following: helping a power company retire carbon-intensive assets and build new, low-carbon infrastructure; identifying emission/carbon footprint reduction opportunities through-out data center operations for technology companies; embedding GHG reduction programs into an oil and gas major’s op-erations to support investor funding and managing decision-critical data; harnessing digitization to enhance GRI reporting; pro-viding technology-enabled sustainability materiality assessments through its part-nership with Datamaran; reshaping capital investment for a manufacturer to make pro-duction facilities more resilient to extreme weather events; and helping a bank shift its investment portfolios to reflect climate risk.

INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP: HYDROGEN ECONOMY

Jacobs (Dallas, TX) for its development of a new sustainable hydrogen supply chain model tailored for Australia’s large-scale hydrogen economy. Australia has recently seen a renewed focus on hydrogen as an alternative energy storage solution with po-tential to decarbonize a broad spectrum of industries. With excellent renewable energy resources and proximity to large potential export markets in Asia, the country claims it is well positioned to become a leader in this emerging industry.

However, industry conversations had largely neglected one critical issue—wheth-er a large-scale hydrogen economy could live up to its potential for economic growth without compromising broader sustainabil-ity goals, including emissions reduction and water security. In response, Jacobs’ thought leaders asked “what if ” knowledge from the water, power, and transport sectors could be integrated to develop a new supply-chain model, one that would be better-suited to Australia’s climatic conditions and energy landscape.

The resulting white paper, which was re-leased in May 2019, outlined a sustainable vision for hydrogen production in Australia by uncovering new insights into the critical role of recycled water and water utilities in meeting the nation’s future energy and mo-bility needs. The release of the paper has el-evated the importance of sustainable water management practices in the development of a large-scale hydrogen economy and has reinforced the benefits of drawing on inter-disciplinary knowledge in developing solu-tions that will accelerate the transition to a zero-carbon future.


INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP: CLIMATE CHANGE PROFESSIONALS

Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco) for the launch of several programs de-signed to increase the Republic of Korea’s population of climate-change professionals and experts.

The Republic of Korea joined the Unit-ed Nations Framework Convention on Cli-mate Change (UNFCCC) in 1993 as the 47th country after recognizing the need to participate in the international effort to re-duce GHG emissions. As a result, it has be-come an urgent task for the country to lay solid foundations for the implementation of the national GHG reduction target, and to cultivate much-needed domestic experts who will be able to expand the supply of renewable energy and establish and imple-ment policies to respond to climate change. The republic sees that is an increasing need to revitalize climate change-related indus-tries and exploit them as a new engine of economic growth.

To achieve these goals, it is essential to nurture climate change experts and supply them to the industry, thus creating new jobs. To this end, the K-eco is operating various programs to foster climate change-related professionals. Representative programs of the new capacity-building academy include the following: Training Course of GHG Management Professionals; Designation of Graduate Schools Specializing in Climate Change; Designation of Graduate Schools Specializing in Waste Resource Energy; and Designation of Green Campuses.

INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP: EXTERNAL INNOVATION

Black & Veatch (B&V; Overland Park, KS) for the launch of its IgniteX Cleantech Accelerator to seek partnerships with start-ups focused on renewable and distributed energy, mobility, agricultural technology, machine learning and AI, and other tech-nologies or processes adding value to en-gineering services. Picked from more than 120 applicants, seven start-ups were select-ed in September 2019 to join the program, run in collaboration with LaunchKC, a local non-profit. Participants are gaining valuable training and engineering insight to grow their business through collaboration with Black & Veatch professionals, as well as exposure and networking opportuni-ties with experienced investors, supporters and clients. Start-ups include ecoSPEARS, which uses green technologies to extract and destroy polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, and other chlorinated contami-nants; NovoNutrients, which uses energy from hydrogen to transform waste carbon into protein for the aquaculture and ani-mal feed industries; Aware Vehicles (smart drones); Infralytiks (AI data analytics for sustainable infrastructure improvement); and Extensible Energy, which specializes in cloud-based software that controls flexible loads to reduce demand and time-of-use energy charges in small- to medium-size buildings.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Moody’s Corp. (New York, NY) for its acquisitions of majority stakes in Four Twenty Seven, Inc. (Berkeley, CA) and Vi-geo Eiris (Paris, France). Four Twenty Seven is a leading provider of data, intelligence, and analysis related to physical climate risks. Its climate risk scores and portfo-lio analytics cover more than 2,000 listed companies, one million global corporate facilities, 320 real estate investment trusts

(REITS), and 3,000 U.S. counties, and are used by asset owners, asset managers, banks and corporations. The acquisition of Four Twenty Seven, Inc. complements Moody’s acquisition of a majority stake in Vigeo Ei-ris, a leading provider of environmental and social governance (ESG) research, data, and assessments. Together, these acquisitions broaden Moody’s growing platform of risk assessment capabilities and underscore its work to advance global standards for assess-ing environmental and climate risk factors. In a related development, on July 10, 2019, Moody’s released its annual report in re-sponse to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), an organi-zation established by the Financial Stability Board to promote more informed financial decisions and to improve understanding of exposure to climate-related risk. Moody’s report mirrors the TCFD’s recommenda-tions for climate disclosure and includes in-formation on operations structured around four thematic areas—governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

The Ramboll Group (Copenhagen, Denmark) for its acquisition of the French climate change consultancy TEC Conseil. Founded in 2001, TEC develops methods to support climate research and climate change adaptation. It supports the imple-mentation of mitigation policies, programs, and projects of public and private enti-ties, delivering Inventories of greenhouse gas emissions, providing assistance in the development of mitigation strategies, per-forming the monitoring and assessment of emissions, and developing low carbon ser-vices, among others. TEC also works on adaptation projects and policies. The com-pany, whose expertise will be integrated with Ramboll’s air quality services, is cur-rently working on projects such as the Eu-ropean Union-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service and the Horizon 2020 Eu-ropean framework program. Ramboll now has more than 100 experts in France and 15,000 globally.


MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS

Anthesis Group (London, U.K.) for completing three acquisitions in the sus-tainability marketplace. Anthesis has merged with the 200-employee sustain-ability agency Lavola (Barcelona, Spain), thereby marking the group’s entry into the Spain, Andorra, and Colombia markets. Established in 1981, Lavola is one of the largest independent sustainability agencies in Spain. The acquisition followed two oth-er deals completed earlier in 2019, includ-ing the February acquisition of GoodBrand (London, U.K.), a sustainability advisor to several companies, including Unilever, Da-none, and Nestlé. Anthesis also acquired the assets of Made-By, a sustainability advisor to the apparel industry with offices in Lon-don, Amsterdam, and Dusseldorf. Anthesis has grown to more than 450 experts across 14 countries in five years and says that it’s continuing to achieve annual organic sales growth in excess of 25%.

Albireo Energy (Edison, N.J.), the building automation and energy services platform of Huron Capital, for complet-ing deals with several entities in 2019 to expand the platform. In January, Albireo announced its merger with EMS Technolo-gies, a smart-building solutions provider in the Greater Washington D.C. area. In September, Albireo acquired Environmen-tal Energy Corp. (EEC; Deer Park, N.Y.), a provider of energy management systems for large commercial and higher education buildings. primarily in the New York City metropolitan area. The deal is the second tuck-in acquisition for Albireo’s New York division. In October, Albireo announced its acquisition of Bridge Power Consulting’s portfolio of customer contracts. Bridge Power Consulting was founded in 2013 by “deep domain” experts in the energy trading and market risk management business. Fi-nally, in December, Albireo announced the acquisition of Quality Building Controls, Inc. (QBC), which provides building auto-

mation and systems integration services to clients throughout the Central Florida re-gion. As a Johnson Controls partner, QBC offers state-of-the-art building automation technology services, system performance reviews, and control systems electrical in-stallation integrating HVAC, lighting, and security systems. Huron Capital formed Al-bireo in 2014 to enter the U.S. market for energy efficiency, building automation, and energy management. Albireo has invested in 16 companies through 10 separate deals.

Willdan Group Inc. (Anaheim, Calif.) for its acquisitions of Energy and Environ-mental Economics Inc. (E3; San Francisco, CA) in a stock purchase and The Weidt Group (Minnetonka, MN), the energy practice division of EYP. E3 is a data-driv-en energy analysis and strategy-consulting firm employing more than 70 people in San Francisco, Boston, and New York and gen-erating approximately $16 million in rev-enue in 2018. E3 has developed analytical tools in electricity resource planning, GHG scenario analysis, energy markets analysis, and demand-side resource valuation. The Weidt Group is an energy consulting and software development firm specializing in the energy and operational performance of new and existing buildings for utilities. It generated approximately $14 million in revenue in 2018.

CAPITAL RAISES

Sunnova Energy International Inc. (Houston, TX) for raising approximately $170 million in an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO was led by Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The shares are trading under the symbol “NOVA.” Backed by the private equity firm Energy Capital Partners, Sunnova operates in more than 20 U.S. markets and has more than 63,000 customers, offering solar leases and loans along with stand-alone energy-storage services. According to the IPO prospectus,

the number of residential solar systems in the United States is expected to increase from approximately 2.2 million in 2018 to an estimated 5.4 million in 2024. Sunnova CEO John Berger reports that the capital raised through the IPO will help the com-pany expand into new markets and grow its dealer network. The company reported a net loss of $68 million on revenue of $104.4 million in 2018, which represented an increase of 36% over 2017 revenue.

LevelTen Energy (Seattle, Wash.), a startup developing a platform that matches small- and medium-sized businesses with renewable energy suppliers, for helping Starbucks secure a three-project renewable energy portfolio from developers ALLETE Clean Energy, Apex Clean Energy, BayWa r.e., and Cypress Creek Renewables. The portfolio comprises wind and solar farms in North Carolina, Oklahoma, and Texas, custom-built for Starbucks. LevelTen’s al-gorithms calculated which combination of project slices would offer Starbucks the ide-al blend of risk mitigation, value creation, and local community engagement. The portfolio of power purchase agreements (PPAs) will supply more than 3,000 U.S. Starbucks stores and communities by 2021. In June, LevelTen Energy announced that it had raised $20.5 million in series B financ-ing led by Prelude Ventures.

GameChange Solar (New York, N.Y.) for closing on an asset-based working capital line of credit to fund growth in the United States and overseas. Citi Commer-cial Banking is providing the financing. GameChange Solar said it has achieved profitability every year since its inception in 2012, becoming a market leader in the combined utility-scale solar structures and tracker market in the United States in 2019. The company expects sales of its Ge-nius Tracker system to account for 30 GW of solar systems from 2020 to 2022, and its goal is to become the global leader with sales substantially in excess of $1 billion by 2022. R


In 2010, the updated CEQA Guidelines were published and required lead agen-cies to analyze GHG emission impacts on a project-by-project basis. Although the updated requirements necessitated GHG emission analysis, these new requirements did not set a GHG emission significance threshold, which left the concept of what constitutes a significant level of GHG emis-sions ambiguous. Per CEQA Guidelines, lead agencies are required to evaluate the significance of a project’s GHG emissions by two pathways: 1) The extent to which the project may increase or reduce GHG emissions as compared to the existing en-vironmental setting, and 2) The extent to which the project complies with require-ments to implement a climate action plan that establishes a pathway to reduce GHG emissions.

Without accepted GHG reduction thresholds many agencies evaluate project GHG emissions utilizing a “qualified” or CEQA consistent Climate Action Plan. Specific provisions in the CEQA Guide-lines specifically identify the importance of utilizing Climate Action Plans to ensure the impacts of climate change are addressed. CEQA Guidelines even allow projects to streamline GHG analysis and be considered less than significant if the project can prove it is consistent with the growth and reduc-tion forecasts of a Climate Action Plan.

GHG emission reduction legislation has continued to become more stringent in California. The most recent emissions tar-gets include SB 32, which codified a 40% reduction in statewide GHG emissions by 2030 from 1990 levels, and Executive Or-der B-55-18, which sets a long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. Additionally, in 2018 CEQA Guidelines were further re-vised to help clarify the appropriate meth-odology for measuring and assessing the significance of GHG emissions consistent with recent case law. These changes have strengthened the language by replacing ambiguous or discretionary terms such as “should” with mandatory language requir-ing GHG analysis as part of CEQA. The revisions also require that any findings of no significant impact must be supported by “substantial evidence” that proves how the methods and variables used in the analysis demonstrate no significant impact.

CCBJ: How do regulations in California differ from the rest of the country?

Feldman: The CEQA requirements and the included GHG provisions are unique to California. However, the establishment of statewide GHG reduction targets has been growing in prevalence, with more than 20 states having recently implemented GHG reduction targets. The final target years and the methods to achieve those goals vary. Many major U.S. cities, including New York City, Detroit, and Indianapo-lis, have developed GHG reduction goals

Rincon’s CAPDash Software Streamlines Tracking GHG Emission Reductions, Provides Instant Updates

Rincon Consultants Inc. is a multi-disciplinary environmental science, planning, and engineering consulting firm that provides quality professional services to gov-ernment and industry. Professionals are experienced in urban, land use, and envi-

ronmental planning; climate change and resilience analysis and planning; strategic tech-nical advising; California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)/National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) analysis and regulatory compliance; biological resource evaluation and habitat enhancement; cultural resources evaluation and planning; soil assessments and remediation; and related analysis including problem-solving services in geology, hydrol-ogy, and waste management. Rincon was founded in 1994 and has grown to more than 275 professional staff. Its approach is focused on well-designed solutions that respond to clients’ specific needs in a cost-effective manner and is centered upon the development of well-designed and creative solutions. Based on this approach and a highly motivated team, Rincon has experienced consistent growth since inception.

Erik Feldman, Principal - Environmental Planning and Sustainability Department. Mr. Feldman oversees Rincon’s statewide greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reporting and carbon verification programs and is responsible for the leadership and development of Rincon’s sustainability services. Mr. Feldman’s experience includes GHG emission modeling and auditing, climate action planning, and environmental site assessment and remediation. Additionally, he is involved in a wide range of urban planning and land use studies, sustainable development review, and CEQA/NEPA environmental documentation and permitting activities.

Rincon Consultants received a 2019 CCBJ Business Achievement award for Advancing Best Practices: GHG Analysis (see page 2).

CCBJ: How have California Environ-mental Quality Act (CEQA) regulations changed over the past few years in light of the growing need to address climate change?

Feldman: Greenhouse gas emissions be-came a hot political topic in 2006 when the governor signed the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Assembly Bill [AB] 32), which required the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to determine what the statewide GHG emissions level was in 1990 as well as a GHG reduction target equivalent to that level by 2020. This was followed in 2007 by the enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 97 which required updates to the statewide CEQA Guidelines to in-corporate requirements for the evaluation and mitigation of GHG emissions.


and climate action plans (CAPs) that detail strategies to achieve those goals. Califor-nia is leading the nation in the develop-ment of laws established and the amount of money spent to support GHG reduction goals. However, other states are establish-ing significant GHG reduction programs in response to the current impacts resulting from climate change and may one day catch up with or surpass California.

CCBJ: Can you tell us about CAPDash?

Feldman: Most of Rincon’s work is in response to and compliance with environ-mental regulations at the federal, state, and regional level. As such, Rincon works across nearly all of California’s climate laws, including CEQA analysis and technical studies for development projects; GHG reporting and auditing for Cap-n-Trade and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard; and climate action planning associated with AB 32 and SB 97. Based on this experience, and a strong understanding of the legal and regulatory drivers, our goal is to find real world solutions to overcome the regulatory hurdles faced by both private and public sector clients.

For instance, because CEQA does not establish a significance threshold for GHG emissions, most agencies rely on CAPs to develop a pathway for significance analysis. As practitioners working among all areas of emission analysis and climate action plan-ning, we have a keen understanding of what type and level of substantial evidence is nec-essary to support CAPs and avoid both legal and regulatory scrutiny.

While all CAPs aim to reduce GHG emissions, only “qualified” CAPs can be used to streamline CEQA. CEQA requires that qualified CAPs need to complete regu-lar GHG inventories to establish their base-line emissions, track progress associated with implementing GHG reduction strat-egies, and demonstrate ability to meet the state’s reduction targets over time. Based on these requirements Rincon saw the need to provide a transparent platform to illustrate

the fact that jurisdictions are implement-ing GHG reduction measures and tracking their progress accurately and consistently in real time. It was this understanding of the problem that needed to be solved that led Rincon to develop CAPDash.

The goal of Rincon’s CAPDash software was to provide agencies with a simple, streamlined way to track their progress related to GHG emission reductions by completing regular GHG emission inventories and tracking incremental implementation of GHG reduction strategies in real time through a user-friendly dashboard interface. The tool also provides transparency with the methods and variables they used by providing detailed data progress visualizations. By bringing together a GHG emission calculator, transparent data repository, and data visualization dashboard, we provide clients and their stakeholders instant updates on the implementation status of GHG reduction measures.

Both cities and new development proj-ects are required to meet more and more stringent GHG emission levels and are expected to provide transparent pathways for meeting these standards. We are already seeing jurisdictions that do not transpar-ently disclose progress on their CAPs face litigation over streamlining. CAPDash enables jurisdictions to manage their own data, meaning they will not have to rely on consultants or experts to update GHG inventories and track success of their CAP implementation and ensure the public has access to the most up-to-date status of their sustainability initiatives.

CCBJ: In what way is CAPDash unique? Who are your clients, and are you plan-ning to serve clients outside California?

Feldman: Many tools have been devel-oped to calculate GHG emissions inven-tories. Most CAPs come with spreadsheet-based tools to help track climate strategy implementation, and there are web-based dashboards that are intended to visualize

and publish a wide range of data. However, CAPDash is the first tool that does all three and by doing so meets the needs of cities and their stakeholders to achieve states’ GHG reduction requirements and provide for defensible CEQA analysis by meeting the substantial evidence requirements. This tool is intended to be used by both public and private agencies.

Rincon is a California-based firm fo-cused on serving clients in California. That said, we are watching climate-related laws, and as the preparation of CAPs be-comes standard practice across the United States, we believe there can be a place for CAPDash to serve clients striving to reduce GHG emissions outside California as well.

CCBJ: What are the trends in Climate Action Planning? Do most states and cities have something in place? Are plans already being implemented?

Feldman: As we have seen in California, Climate Action Planning is an evolving practice that is becoming more comprehen-sive and implementable. The first round of CAPs tended to be very general with discre-tionary language that lacked requirements for implementation. After analyzing GHG reduction progress, agencies soon realize they are not well served by discretionary language and start updating plans to re-quire clearer implementation pathways. As implementation recommendations advance and gain momentum this leads to greater implementation efficiency and substantially greater reduction progress.

CCBJ: What major challenges do cities and states face when implementing Climate Action Plans?

Feldman: Recognizing a need for man-datory implementation is the first challenge faced. However, recent case law in Califor-nia has led to significant changes. The State of California has met its first targeted re-duction goal largely by taking care of the “low hanging fruit” or easily implemented projects. The next reduction goal will need


to be met by implementing significantly harder and more complicated measures. These reductions will come through de-carbonizing our energy infrastructure and finding reasonable alternatives to existing fossil fuel transportation infrastructure. To achieve this, we will need to share the bur-den and figure out how to distribute the ef-fort and cost equitably across the state and local jurisdictions.

CCBJ: According to legislation, Califor-nia must achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Will the state succeed in meeting this goal, and what efforts are already being implemented?

Feldman: Carbon neutrality by 2045 is an ambitious but necessary goal. I think it can be achieved but will require significant investment and fundamental changes to our technology and behaviors. California has initiated numerous laws focused on energy, transportation, waste and water. The state is also providing large funding opportuni-ties targeted specifically at the housing and transportation sectors and is actively work-ing to reduce industrial emissions through the cap-n-trade program.

These programs will go a long way. However, it is evident that reaching carbon neutrality cannot be achieved by state ac-tions alone. A large portion of the emissions will need to be reduced at the community and individual level to make substantial progress towards carbon neutrality. We are seeing changes in climate action plans as they are evolving into more detailed and actionable plans. At the same time, many communities in California are experiencing the direct effects of climate change, which is spurring a change in perspective that will lead to further changes in daily activities. I believe we are on a positive trajectory but have a long way to go before we achieve carbon neutrality in 2045, with the hardest work yet to come.

CCBJ: In California, which entities are providing funds for Climate Action Plans and their execution?

Feldman: Most local jurisdictions, such as cities and counties, have completed at least their first climate action plans. Those cities and counties are now completing CAP updates. Much of the funding comes from general funds. However, there is a fair amount of grant funding provided by the state that is administered by a number of individual state agencies. California’s cap-n-

trade program brings in significant amounts of money, more than $3 billion since 2012. This money is required to be spent on re-ducing the state’s GHG emissions to meet reduction goals. As such California pro-vides limited funding through grant fund-ing to local agencies for the development and implementation of CAP measures. Regulated utilities in California are also playing a major funding role and have es-tablished programs to provide funding to local governments for the development and implementation of climate action plans. R

ERM Makes Catalytic Acquisitions: BrownFlynn and SustainAbility

In March 2018, ERM completed the acquisition of BrownFlynn Ltd., a leading U.S. corporate sustainability and governance consulting business based in Cleve-

land, Ohio. Established in 1996, BrownFlynn advised Fortune 500 and privately held businesses on all aspects of corporate sustainability advisory services, setting strategy, helping them navigate reporting frameworks and ratings, undertaking materiality as-sessments and setting bold goals and KPIs, communicating progress through design and storytelling and monitoring environmental, social and governance (ESG) trends. Further, BrownFlynn was a pioneer in integrated reporting and the first U.S. certified Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) trainer. The firm has developed proprietary tools to support their clients’ assessment processes, reporting and engagement with stakehold-ers, providing the capability to deliver on the full life cycle of client needs. ERM said the acquisition also complemented ERM’s strengths in data management and techni-cal solutions in addressing the sustainability challenges.

In January 2019 ERM announced the acquisition of SustainAbility Ltd. Founded in 1987, the sustainability specialist offered consulting services to help clients in-

corporate sustainability into their businesses, within value chains, across markets and through systems. Meanwhile, its think tank is described as an independent, agenda-shaping research and advocacy capability that identifies critical trends, provides ac-tionable insights and builds new ideas and strategies to enable companies to transform how they think and do business. As a ‘global convener’, it also facilitates solutions-oriented expert discussions and runs the Engaging Stakeholders Network. In addition to its London base, SustainAbility also has offices in New York and San Francisco. Although it remains a relatively small outfit - with less than 50 staff in total - Sustain-Ability counted some of the world’s biggest companies on its client list, including BMW, Brown-Forman, Interface, Mitsubishi, Nestlé, Nike, Novartis, RBS and Shell.


Acquisitions Accelerate ERM’s Sustainability Practice

Over nearly 50 years, ERM has become a global provider of EHS, social, risk, safety and sustainability consulting services to the world’s leading organizations in industry, finance and government. A staff of 5,500 people work from 40 countries

and 160 offices to help clients manage the long-term business risks and opportunities related to climate change and sustainability. Recent organic and acquisition-based growth has focused on two goals: “supercharging” ERM’s leading position in sustainability and climate change; and bolstering global capabilities to deliver successful outcomes from “boots to boardroom”—impacting from the ground level to the most senior levels of clients’ organizations.

Matthew Haddon, Global Service Leader, Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change.

Mr. Haddon spearheads ERM’s Corporate Sustainability and Climate Change solutions. Based in the U.S. for nine years, Matt is a UK national who has worked in every world region over more than two decades with the firm. He contributes to thought leadership with organizations such as the Yale Center for Sustainable Finance, SPE and WBCSD.

ERM received a 2019 CCBJ Business Achievement award for Industry Leadership: Low-Carbon Economy (page 8).

CCBJ: How has business been for ERM’s Climate Change and Sustainability practice over the last couple of years?

Haddon: We are on pace for 30% year-on-year growth! It’s the fastest growing service at ERM. This reflects both organic growth and the catalytic acquisitions of two leading specialty companies: BrownFlynn, a corporate sustainability and governance consulting firm; and SustainAbility, an award-winning international consultancy and think tank.

CCBJ: What are the main trends in Climate Change Consulting?

Haddon: With climate change now in the financial and mainstream press every day, the talk of the past decade is turning to action – and fast. In just the past 24 months, the real-ization that climate change is a systemic risk to the global economy has created an upwell-ing of investor and lender pressure, boosted by the framework created by the G20 Finan-cial Stability Board’s Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD). Seem-ingly every day another CEO makes a big, public commitment to reach “net zero” car-bon emissions from their operations within the next few decades.

A potent combination of activist and investor pressure – plus physical evidence of human-caused climate change – have combined to create possibly the most profound structural change the energy sector has ever experienced.

Until the mid-2010s, we saw the energy world move through distinct and steady eras in the environmental space, from the regulatory breakthroughs of the 1970s to global policy efforts that led to the Paris agreement. Now a potent combination of activist and investor pressure – plus physical evidence of human-caused climate change – have combined to create possibly the most profound structural change the energy sec-tor has ever experienced.

While the energy needs of the develop-ing world mean that there will be demand for O&G for several decades, it is certain that the shape, form, and financing of en-ergy companies will never be the same.

CCBJ: Congratulations on launching your new service to help clients manage the long-term business risks and oppor-tunities related to climate change and other key sustainability topics. Can you provide an overview of this new service and the type of clients requesting it?

Haddon: ERM helps executives shape their enterprises to fit the new business im-perative of long-term strategic management of climate change-related risks and oppor-tunities. We help them give confidence to their investors by better connecting their sustainability performance with operations and strategy. Our approach drives real and lasting results by advancing on three fronts:

1) Creating a sound business case for change

2) Managing investor and other stakehold-er expectations and

3) Transforming the company’s operational processes.

Creating a sound business case for change starts with assessing the company’s strategic direction. We help clients understand the changing business context for sustainability, engaging leaders (from the Board to operational management) in defining the case for change, and when appropriate setting new direction aligned with a strong and integrated sustainability strategy. Increasingly, our analytical and science-based approaches to scenario analysis (using frameworks like the one ERM helped design for the TCFD – Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) are helping executives to chart new pathways through the low carbon transition.

Managing investor and other stake-holder expectations requires effective dis-closures regarding their sustainability strat-egy, governance and performance. ERM applies proven methodologies and strategic frameworks, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Ac-counting Standards Board (SASB), and works with our strategic partner Datama-


(ESG) factors that underpin business conti-nuity, ERM is incorporating artificial intel-ligence (AI) into our sustainability advisory services. For example, we have a strategic partnership with Datamaran®, a software platform featuring a unique, systematic pro-cess to identify and monitor material ESG topics to create an AI-powered sustainabil-ity engine, with which ERM sustainability advisors help clients to drive the data-driv-en insights into their business strategy and through to disclosure to stakeholders.

Specific to climate change services, a second fundamental development relates to the proliferation and miniaturization of re-mote sensing technology. From drones with advanced sensors to satellites the size of a loaf of bread, the sheer quantity of techno-logical development in this area is changing the way we measure and monitor emissions. With satellites in particular, global daily monitoring of emissions is already possible. For example, ERM works with GHG-Sat, a company able to measure the concentration and quantify methane emissions anywhere in the world. Data can be fed automati-cally back into a web-hosted dashboard for monitoring of emissions in near-real time, allowing proactive responses to emissions mitigations. R

We see particularly strong demand from energy producers... but also increasingly from technology firms that are rapidly becoming some of the world’s biggest energy users [and]... financial and insurance institutions which hold a lot of consolidated climate risk.

ran to assess clients’ materiality, drive ro-bust disclosure, and help clients respond to investor surveys from organizations such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Dow Jones and Sustainalytics.

Transforming the company’s operational processes is where the rubber hits the road – driving change! We combine business pro-cess transformation skills with technology and deep subject matter expertise to help clients operationalize sustainability-nota-bly environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors-into their organizations to help drive continued improvement.

Typically, ERM works with corporate and business unit executives and managers across industrial and financial sectors, as well as commercial and government clients, to address climate change risks and oppor-tunities. We see particularly strong demand from energy producers, such as those in oil, gas and power, but also increasingly from technology firms that are rapidly becoming some of the world’s biggest energy users, financial and insurance institutions which hold a lot of consolidated climate risk, and heavy manufacturers who need to better manage the carbon ‘embedded’ in their products.

CCBJ: How will ERM’s Climate Change and Sustainability practice evolve over the next five years?

Haddon: We expect strong growth to continue throughout the decade, with the development of new ERM advisory ser-vices and the continued infusion of climate change and sustainability approaches into our core services. We are working on addi-tional acquisitions of companies that want to join us on our mission of helping clients transition to a low-carbon economy.

CCBJ: How do the acquisitions of BrownFlynn and SustainAbility comple-ment your practice?

Haddon: The acquisitions of BrownFly-nn and SustainAbility have been catalytic, accelerating the development of our cli-ent offerings and raising our brand profile. Both firms have infused ERM with new energy, talent and ideas. We are benefit-ting from their structured methodologies and tools, which help us refine our internal training and project approaches.

The acquisitions of BrownFlynn and SustainAbility have been catalytic... Both firms have infused ERM with new energy, talent and ideas.

CCBJ: How is technology impacting the way Climate Change and Sustainability services are performed?

Haddon: Digital technology enables ERM to help clients take a great leap for-ward in “actionable intelligence” across our entire range of services, from our founda-tions of technical environmental work to the changing landscape of corporate sus-tainability and climate change. The rise of cloud computing and the ability to host nearly real-time data in intuitive dashboard interfaces is a revolution in the way com-plex data from a wide array of sources is summarized into actionable intelligence for decision makers. They have much better, faster information across their operations, which makes it easier to focus strategically on material impacts.

Today, “material impacts” means not simply the impacts of a company on the en-vironment, but also the impacts of climate change and reputational issues on the com-pany. Business resilience, which relies on physical, market and social factors, tops the list of corporate sustainability challenges. To improve our clients’ ability to act quick-ly on environmental, social and governance


Mabbett Expands in Europe with Low-Carbon Expertise

Mabbett & Associates Ltd (Mabbett Ltd) was established in 1996 by Arthur N. Mabbett as an independent international safety, environment and engineering consultancy serving the needs of private and public sector clients in the UK,

Europe and globally. The firm is headquartered in Glasgow, Scotland with regional offices in Edinburgh and Inverness, Scotland; Belfast, Northern Ireland; Cardiff, Wales; Liverpool and Middlesbrough, England; and Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Mabbett Ltd is on forecast to deliver revenues of £3.8 million (~$5 million) in FYE May 2020 (up ~30% from the prior year) and has 47 permanent employees across offices in the UK and Ireland.

Derek J. McNab, Managing Director and Principal Environmental Engineer. Mr. McNab has successfully delivered a range of environmental engineering projects to the industrial sector throughout his career to include water and wastewater, energy management, contaminated land and pollution control. He is a former Chairperson of the IChemE Scottish Members Group.

Andrew Lee, Operations Director and Principal Environmental Engineer. Mr. Lee has successfully delivered a range of low carbon energy solutions to the industrial sector in the UK and Ireland, and leads the company’s delivery on several national low carbon energy contracts across the UK and Ireland.

Michael Lynch, Engineering Director and Principal Environmental Engineer. Mr. Lynch has successfully delivered a range of low carbon energy solutions to the industrial sector in the UK and Ireland. He leads the company’s delivery on several national low carbon energy contracts across the UK and Ireland.

Arthur N. Mabbett, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and a Director. Mr. Mabbett is primarily involved in strategic planning, financial management and executive management activities.

Mabbett & Associates received a 2019 CCBJ Business Achievement Award for Practice Area Growth: Low-Carbon Energy (see page 7).

are making greater commitments to carbon offsetting via afforestation and investment in technology like carbon capture.

CCBJ: Is Brexit still creating a high level of economic uncertainty?

Mabbett Ltd: The UK’s environmental policy has been profoundly influenced by our membership in the EU. As we exit, there appears to be more questions than answers on what will happen next with our environmental policies and future legisla-tion. For our clients, both in the private and public sectors, we see them remain uncer-tain about the future direction of the econ-omy due to Brexit and are adopting more conservative behaviors such as less spending and investment. This has driven our firm to invest more heavily in our circular economy and resource efficiency related services (e.g., water and energy efficiency, resource man-agement and new business models). We have been applying these services to support our clients in reducing their operating costs and to help them become more sustainable. Brexit has now occurred and over the next year new multi and bilateral international trade agreements will be negotiated. A re-newed sense of stability is now replacing uncertainty, and we believe that the future remains bright for a UK-wide improvement in economic development.

CCBJ: Can you describe the Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy created by Mabbett?

Mabbett Ltd: We produced a Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy (LHEES) for one of Scotland’s leading local authorities with the aim of improving the energy effi-ciency of buildings and decarbonising heat across the local area. This included estab-lishing a baseline understanding of heat and energy efficiency within the public sector es-tate, engaging with the public sector to help identify low carbon options, evaluating op-portunities to determine the optimum ap-proach, and developing an implementation plan for preferred and viable solutions over the next 15-20 years. The implementation

CCBJ: What are some current trends in the climate change and environmental industries in the UK and Ireland?

Mabbett Ltd: The UK kick-started the Industrial Revolution, which was respon-sible for economic growth across the globe but unfortunately also for increasing par-ticulate, greenhouse gas and other hazard-ous emissions. In 2019, the UK are lead-ing the world again in becoming the first major industrial economy to pass new laws to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. Net zero means any emissions would be balanced by schemes to offset an equiva-lent amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, such as planting trees or using technology like carbon capture and storage. Ireland has followed the UK’s lead and has

also committed to reduce emissions to net zero by 2050 following similar recommen-dations to those identified by the Commit-tee on Climate Change in the UK.

Current trends in the UK and Ireland of setting new climate change targets is leading to new investment in a variety of areas to re-duce emissions: Renewables (without gov-ernment incentives) are back on the table; investment in and access to electric vehicles is growing to offset fossil fuel alternatives; the future banning of oil and gas boilers in new homes is seeing an increase in the use of renewables at home; a number of energy efficiency and decarbonisation initiatives are targeting and supporting businesses and the industrial sector to reduce emis-sions; and the UK and Irish Governments


plan outlines the content, timescales, costs, resource implications, sources of funding and appropriate technologies for improving energy efficiency and decarbonising heat in the public sector estate.

One option evaluated by Mabbett Ltd included the development of a heat net-work connecting multiple buildings with a considerable heat demand. This could be served by an energy centre containing three Water Source Heat Pumps which could cover almost all the scheme’s heat demand and three natural gas boilers which could act as backup and occasionally as top up. Each site would have a heat exchanger served from the energy centre. Such a solu-tion has an estimated annual carbon saving of 1,770 tonnes and a calculated payback period of 10 years; however, this relies on support through the UK Governments Re-newable Heat Incentive scheme.

LHEES are currently being tested through Scottish Government supported pilot studies, such as the project undertaken by Mabbett Ltd, and may become a future statutory requirement for all local authori-ties. The purpose of LHEES are to set out a framework for how each local authority would both reduce energy demand and de-carbonise the heat supply of buildings in its area over a 15 to 20 year period.

CCBJ: How does Mabbett support businesses so they invest in low-carbon energy solutions?

Mabbett Ltd: Our team of Low Car-bon Energy Specialists support our clients to embrace the low carbon economy by undertaking an initial opportunities as-sessment to collect real data on energy and resource use and to generate a Low Carbon Action Plan. We then discuss the various opportunities with our clients and help them understand the program of change we are proposing, and any technology benefits and risks, before preparing a more detailed feasibility study and investment grade busi-ness case. Our team of technical specialists

adopt a client engineer role to support cli-ents in implementing the low-carbon ener-gy solution by leading them from solution concept to system commissioning and post-commissioning performance monitoring.

CCBJ: How are companies investing in technologies to improve energy efficien-cy and decarbonize?

Mabbett Ltd: We continue to identify and implement a range of options includ-ing energy management, utilities, heat re-covery, improved process control, improved equipment design and efficiency (e.g., motors, pumps, compressors, fans, etc.), greater use of insulation, material efficiency improvements, proactive maintenance and staff training.

Woody biomass is the predominant re-newable heat option: However, concerns on local air quality, particularly in built up areas, is limiting the future potential. With the continuing decarbonizing of the elec-tricity grid, electric heat pumps are becom-ing more prevalent and increasing in size.

The natural gas grid in the UK is one of the most developed in the world, pro-viding the main heating medium to more than 85% of all domestic properties. Many businesses are waiting to see what the Gov-ernment strategy will be to decarbonize the gas grid, for example through biomethane, bio synthetic natural gas (SNG) and hydro-gen, before making their own decisions on future strategy.

CCBJ: Mabbett provides anaerobic digestion services. Can you talk about trends in the anaerobic digestion indus-try in the UK and Ireland?

Mabbett Ltd: After many years of growth, there has been some frustration in the anaerobic digestion industry in the UK with feed-in-tariffs suffering continu-ing reductions and some investments being thwarted by continuing policy delays under the renewable heat incentive. Despite that,

the sector appears resilient with dozens of new plants still being built in 2019.Our cli-ent type for anaerobic digestion services are typically single or multi-site food and drink manufacturers interested in the multi-fac-eted opportunity to treat their food and/or other organic waste while generating renewable energy and producing renewable fertilizer.

CCBJ: The anaerobic digestion market in the United States is much less devel-oped than in Europe. What’s needed to promote higher market growth?

Mabbett Ltd: This is an extremely com-plex question which requires consideration around the economic, social, political and environmental drivers of the market in the USA. In the UK, a major early driver supporting anaerobic digestion was gov-ernment support (via financial incentives) to establish initial treatment plants that al-lowed the technology to be showcased to the market. The number of plants has since grown exponentially. To create higher mar-ket growth in the United States we would recommend focused discussion on waste management, climate change and energy security policies, in addition to financial in-centives for AD operators.

CCBJ: Why has the market grown more successfully in Europe?

Mabbett Ltd: In Europe, governments and industry have worked together in part-nership to create the right environment for anaerobic digestion to be successful, and countries are reaping the environmental, social and economic benefits. The UK and Irish governments are focused delivering the Paris Agreement (and tackling climate change well before COP21). Seeking the climate opportunity from the climate emer-gency makes business sense and is good for the planet. The EU is also structured in such a way that regulatory drivers can be established by law and effectively imple-mented in every EU member country. R


EA Engineering, Science, and Technology Finds a Growing Base of Business in Coastal Resilience

EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc. is a nationally recognized, award-winning environmental and engineering consulting firm providing environmental, compliance, natural resources, and infrastructure engineering and management so-

lutions to a wide range of public and private sector clients. Established in 1973, the com-pany is a 100% employee-owned public benefit corporation with a nationwide footprint of 25 commercial offices and more than 500 professionals who provide interdisciplinary ser-vices to federal agencies; state and municipal agencies; and private sector clients across the country. In 2019, EA was named Best Performer: North America by EcoVadis (see p.19), a result of its commitment to continuous improvement and the dedication of EA employees to company-wide sustainability and corporate social responsibility initiatives.

Sam Whitin, CERP – Coastal Resilience Director. Mr. Whitin has over 20 years of experience with EA related to the restoration and protection of coastal resources and is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) with the Society of Ecological Restoration. He has led specialized teams of engineers, scientists, and risk evaluators to accomplish projects to improve coastal resiliency and water quality for NOAA, USAF, USFWS, USDA-NRCS, and a variety on non-profit partners including Restore America’s Estuaries partners.

EA Engineering Science and Technology received a 2019 CCBJ Business Achievement Award for its Coastal Resilience Practice (see page 3).

sea-level rise and with changes in storm fre-quency and intensity. Now that the there is general widespread agreement that sea levels are rising and that there are changes in storm frequency/intensity - the concern is now focused on what we can actually do in response to these changes. With this new focus on action-oriented efforts, the de-mand for resiliency planning services has moved out of the academic realm and into a space where traditional municipal planners, environmental consultants, and A/E service providers are answering the demands.

Resiliency planning itself has changed as well. Specifically, resiliency planning had been completed in parallel with hazard mitigation planning, both of which had traditionally focused on responses to large catastrophic events. Resiliency planning has now expanded into addressing more chronic issues such as sunny-day flooding (also sometimes referred to as king-tides or nuisance flooding). This type of planning has also incorporated the need to continue to adapt and constantly re-evaluate current conditions as we experience the changes predicted by climatic, weather, and sea level rise models.

CCBJ: Significant investment is required to implement these plans. Where are funds coming from? How much money would be needed in the United States to implement effective coastal resilience?

Whitin: While there is clear evidence that the application of public funding to plan and construct preventive measures related to the improvement of coastal re-siliency makes economic sense, a finite amount of funds is available, regardless of the worthiness of the endeavor. The Ameri-can Shore and Beach Preservation Asso-ciation (ASBPA) states that most projects are funded up to 65% with federal funds and with a 35% local cost share. Federal funding has often been tied to hurricane response bills which are typically allocated at the project level through such federal agencies as USACE, FEMA, NOAA, EPA, HUD, and are also administered through

from emissions/greenhouse gas footprint and climate action plans; vulnerability as-sessments and modeling; hazard mitigation planning and engineering design, permit-ting supporting structural and bio-engi-neered techniques; climate adaptation and resilience planning; and resilient infrastruc-ture design/build. EA works with federal, private, state & local and NGO clients cre-atively utilizing available grants and other funding sources to effectively achieve client objectives.

CCBJ: How is demand changing for Coastal Resiliency Planning?

Whitin: Demand for coastal resiliency planning is certainly increasing and the requests for information and procurement actions are becoming more organized and focused as the practice and related indus-try matures. For many years, response to demand was largely answered by academia, and to an extent by non-profit entities, as there was a need to better understand the science and associated impacts related to

CCBJ: Which climate change services does EA provide and how has the prac-tice grown over the past couple of years?

Whitin: Addressing and adapting to climate change and its effects is a global priority with challenges for both the pub-lic and private sectors. Many of our na-tion’s population centers and their sup-porting infrastructure are at increased risk from prolonged drought, sea level rise, and catastrophic flooding. EA’s climate adapta-tion services help our clients understand potential vulnerabilities and support their initiatives that increase resilience through solutions that protect people and places, anticipate eventualities, and incorporate the ability to recover.

In response to this growing challenge, EA developed a Climate Resiliency strate-gic business line focused on integrating the science, engineering, technology, and plan-ning disciplines/talents across EA to focus on our client’s climate and resiliency chal-lenges. EA’s climate change services range


non-profit grant entities such as the Na-tional Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). Local matching funds are harder to come by and ASPBA has suggested that revenue generation can occur through fo-cused taxing districts, the issuance of special bonds, or the application of parametric in-surance as an example of possible solutions to current funding shortfalls.

As a recent example, California’s Gover-nor Newsom has proposed a wide-ranging climate resiliency bond of $4.75 billion which, while not entirely focused on fund-ing coastal resilience initiatives, does indi-cate a strong local willingness to address the issue. While rarely the politically favorable solution, bonds become more palatable with the passing of each coastal and/or cli-mate change impact event.

More creative solutions such as com-bining functionality goals tied to the use of Blue Carbon sequestration and nature based resiliency solutions (i.e. restore/cre-ate coastal marsh ecosystems) are also a way to fund projects and are an interesting way to deal with issues related to both the cause and impacts relating to sea level rise.

CCBJ: What new technologies are being used in coastal resilience projects?

Whitin: For the most part, cutting edge technologies being utilized in coastal resil-ience projects are being adapted from other countries, most notably the Netherlands. Innovative engineered solutions such as combining natural dune features with in-stallation of an underground garage, use of a “mud motor” to more efficiently raise the elevation of a protective marsh, and the de-velopment of artificial islands have at least some of their origins with the Dutch. Other techniques, such as thin layer placement of dredge material to make natural coastal features more resilient, are being piloted in various areas within the nation, and a sub-stantial number of these types of placement technologies have their origins in the Gulf coast of the U.S.

The evaluation of many of these tech-nologies is being supported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) En-gineering Research and Development Cen-ter (ERDC) who has been working with a variety of stakeholders to implement pilot projects and ensure that environmental impacts are negligible (if not overall net positive) while still providing a high level of protection and resiliency. Many of these approaches will be stretching the boundar-ies of what is currently permissible by the regulatory community as often times these solutions involve the placement of fill in a regulated waterway/wetland. These regula-tory concerns will need to be balanced with the understanding that the ramifications of doing nothing are substantially tilted to the negative, affecting both the built and natu-ral environments.

CCBJ: How is coastal resilience being approached differently in different areas and what is the reasoning behind it?

Whitin: Based primarily on the imme-diate and/or historic impacts being felt by each region, a wide range of approaches are being implemented. Superstorm Sandy,

multiple hurricanes in the Gulf/Southeast, historic high water levels in the Great Lakes, and sunny day flooding events in southern Florida and the Pacific have piqued the concern of the greater public and govern-ment agencies in different ways – which has led to differences in approaches.

For instance, in response to the devasta-tion of Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey has been very aggressive with funding strategies and policy decisions as they seek to re-build and plan for a more resilient Atlantic coast. The NJ Governor recently signing an ex-ecutive order to become the first state in the nation to require builders to take sea level rise into account before they are able to start construction projects. While this require-ment will likely be challenged in court, it demonstrates a progressive thought process that is being mirrored northward into New York City as the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-neers looks at drastic alternatives such as the installation of a massive barrier stretching from Queens to New Jersey.

Elsewhere, in those regions where less acute catastrophic impacts have occurred within the recent past, the focus is on

EcoVadis Provides Sustainability Ratings

Since its founding in 2007, France-based EcoVadis has become a trusted partner for procurement teams in more than 450 leading multinationals organizations

to reduce risk and drive innovation in their sustainable procurements. EcoVadis is also a trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, intelligence and collaborative performance improvement tools for global supply chains. Combining People, Process and Platform, EcoVadis’ team of 600 professionals from 45 nationalities combines ex-pertise in sustainability, with advanced technology and a full service solution to drive meaningful change in supply chains worldwide.

EcoVadis’ easy-to-use and actionable sustainability scorecards provide detailed in-sight into environmental, social and ethical risks across 198 purchasing categories and 155 countries. Industry leaders such as Johnson & Johnson, Verizon, L’Oréal, Subway, Nestlé, Salesforce, Michelin and BASF are among the more than 60,000 businesses on the EcoVadis network, working to assess, collaborate and improve sustainability performance in order to protect their brands, foster transparency and innovation, and accelerate growth. EcoVadis provides scorecards for members of The Together for Sus-tainability initiative which was founded in 2011 to develop a global supplier engage-ment program and improve their own sustainability sourcing practices in line with the United Nations Global Compact.


planning-level responses, such as changes in zoning regulations to restrict new struc-tures from being built in vulnerable coastal areas and more robust beach nourishment programs. As each region experiences more frequent and intense impacts from both acute and chronic events, it is likely that we will see the full range of strategies being em-ployed in all regions of the U.S.

CCBJ: Which tools are being provided by the federal government to facili-tate local climate action planning and implementation of measures?

Whitin: The federal government has pro-vided numerous studies and reports which have given practitioners high level tools in which to begin to assess local vulnerabilities and adaptation strategies. Entities such as USACE ERDC and NOAA have provided a number of data sources and mapping tools that support planning and implementable strategies. Specific federal studies and prod-ucts have also allowed many communities to start the planning process as they develop a more resilient coast.

Along the east coast, USACE completed the North Atlantic Coast Comprehensive Study which identified areas of high risk to sea level rise and storm impacts – and simi-lar studies are in process or being planned in other USACE regions. USACE and lo-cal agencies have tiered off these studies and have begun to develop more focused assess-ments using more refined data sets in order to better assess actual risk.

While the federal government has done a good job with directly providing useful tools to practitioners, they have also pro-vided funding to non-profits and academia to develop nationally useful tools that pre-viously had been developed directly at the federal level. For instance, funding was provided to The Nature Conservancy to de-velop a national GIS based tool in which to assess coastal vulnerability and apply nature-based solutions to vulnerable areas.

That said, the federal government is also facing limitations relative to the assessment of flood risk at a more local scale. Specific challenges are related to the FEMA flood mapping process, which doesn’t take sea level rise into account. The work-around for this issue has come from needs related to the insurance and real estate industry, which has taken on a leadership role in better assessing risk to coastal communi-ties. From this position, a number of map-ping products have been developed that are available for a fee which better map flood risk. However, open source information is also being made available such as the First Street Foundation whose product Flood IQ utilizes predictive rates of sea level rise and other climate change variables to provide a much more accurate depiction of flood risk for certain southeastern states.

CCBJ: What issues related to resiliency are generally being overlooked by the environmental community?

Whitin: There has been a lot of discus-sion relative to the impacts of sea level rise upon structures and the natural environ-ment. However, little attention has been paid to environmentally distressed sites

which had been previously capped or re-mediated. Specifically, engineers developed a basis of design which utilized sea level elevations and storm intensity/frequency forecasts which were based on previously accepted scenarios, many of which didn’t take climate change or sea-level rise into account. As such, the protective features associated with some environmental sites may no longer offer the level of protection originally intended. At the very least, the potential for change in level of remedy pro-tectiveness should be communicated to the community stakeholders where such previ-ously “closed” sites exist, and preferably a remedy be implemented to engineer an ap-propriate level of protection for the site, or at least implement additional monitoring and reporting which addresses these chang-es in risk. These issues are beginning to be addressed through entities as the Sustain-able Remediation Forum (SURF) which published the 2018 report entitled “Re-silient Remediation: Addressing Extreme Weather and Climate Change, Creating Community Value.” So, while some prog-ress is being made it requires additional fo-cus within the environmental/engineering community. R

Coastal Resilience Project Summary: Northern Chesapeake BayEA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc., PBC (EA) published a report

titled Planning for Coastal Resiliency in the Northern Chesapeake Bay which serves as the foundation for a regional strategy to address sea level rise (SLR) and shoreline sta-bilization surrounding Maryland’s Susquehanna Flats and Upper Chesapeake Bay. The study’s purpose is to assist Aberdeen Proving Ground and the surrounding communi-ties with building a greater margin of safety against SLR by identifying associated risks and providing guidance for incorporation of resilience measures into future infrastruc-ture planning. The report’s fundamental intent is a “science to solutions” process to develop a long-range plan for SLR based on scientific and policy-based research. The study identified areas on which to focus management efforts; provided data needed to develop adaptation plans; and outlined steps necessary to implement those adaptation plans and decrease SLR risks. Nature-based, structural and non-structural resilience measures are described with specific focus on their function as well as performance factors. In addition, the report provides an overview of current sedimentation and ac-cretion patterns and rates. It clearly lays out the added benefit that strategies used for coastal resilience may play a role in decreasing sediment and nutrient loading to the Chesapeake Bay.


LevelTen Uses Data Science to Match Buyers and Sellers of Renewable Energy While Streamlining Procurement Process

LevelTen Energy (Seattle, Wash.) is a renewable energy procurement platform for corporate and institutional organizations seeking to meet sustainability commitments. On the LevelTen Marketplace, buyers can access robust analytics

on nearly every renewable energy project under development in North America (and more to come in Europe), giving them the data they need to transact with the highest value and lowest risk projects. To find the optimal project – or portfolio of projects – for its clients, LevelTen Energy engages its Dynamic Matching Engine, which uses data science to analyze the massive amount of data in the LevelTen Marketplace and find an ideal match between buyers and sellers. In addition, LevelTen Energy uses proprietary software to improve the procurement experience, from soliciting RFPs to monitoring a PPA’s performance once the project is producing renewable energy. The result is a vastly more efficient process for buyers and sellers. The company is based in Seattle and currently has 28 employees. In June 2019 the company raised $20.5 million in a series B round, and in October 2019 the company announced its expansion to Europe. To date more than $1 billion worth of renewable energy has been transacted through the LevelTen platform.

Rob Collier, Vice President of Developer Relations, LevelTen Energy, leads project developer engagement at LevelTen Energy, and acted as a key advisor to both Starbucks and the Corporate Renewable Energy Aggregation Group, facilitating the deal between Bloomberg, Cox Enterprises, Gap Inc., Salesforce, Workday and BayWa r.e.. Prior to LevelTen, Rob worked for utility-scale solar developer OneEnergy Renewables.

LevelTen received a 2019 CCBJ Business Achievement Award for Capital Raises for closing a $20-million series B investment round. (see page 9).

of each. In January 2019, we announced that a group of five companies - Bloom-berg, Cox Enterprises, Gap Inc., Salesforce and Workday – used LevelTen to purchase five slices of a single project as a group. In June 2019, we announced that Starbucks used LevelTen to create a portfolio of three power purchase agreements, in three differ-ent markets, and with different technolo-gies (wind and solar). As more buyers enter the market, and larger buyers expand their portfolios, we expect this model to evolve. For example, LevelTen’s Dynamic Match-ing software identifies optimal slices of projects to deliver buyers the economies of scale benefits that come from aggregation, while not requiring buyers to intentionally partner with multiple unrelated companies in a formal aggregation group.

CCBJ: What have you learned from clean energy users and their needs and demands compared to the renewable en-ergy generation industry – and the need to bridge the gap between the two?

RC: The great news is that renewable en-ergy buyers and developers ultimately want the same thing: to get a new wind or solar project built. The purpose of the PPA con-tract is to allocate risk to the party that can most efficiently manage it. LevelTen’s role is to strike the right balance in risk allocation. As the buyer’s advisor, LevelTen’s goal is to ensure the buyer’s downside risk is properly mitigated so their treasury, finance, legal, and accounting teams approve the transac-tion. And, as former project developers, we understand what it takes to ensure a PPA contract is still financeable.

CCBJ: Will you be taking an role in developing utility scale wind and solar?

RC: While LevelTen employs many for-mer project developers, LevelTen Energy is not a project developer; rather, we enable corporations to enter into power purchase agreements (PPAs) that developers need to obtain financing for their projects. By making it possible for more corporations to enter into PPAs, and by accelerating the

CCBJ: Could you share some perspective on LevelTen’s fundraising?

RC: LevelTen Energy is using technology to improve the renewable energy procure-ment process for corporations and institu-tions, and our list of investors reflects that. With LevelTen’s series A funding round, we were primarily talking to venture capital firms that focused on technology companies, including Prelude Ventures, which led the round, as well as Techstars Ventures, Found-ers’ Co-op, Wireframe Ventures, Element 8 Fund and Avista Development. With our series B round, we also secured participation from companies with deep energy industry experience, including Constellation Tech-nology Ventures, Equinor Energy Ventures and Total Ventures. Our board comprises energy experts and technology experts, and together we’re reducing barriers to renewable energy procurement through software and analytics.

CCBJ: Congratulations on raising your series B Investment round. How has your business model evolved since you've been developing business in the market?

RC: On the LevelTen Marketplace, corporations can evaluate power purchase agreement offers from nearly every clean energy project developer in North America (and more to come in Europe). Develop-ers can submit offers for different slices of their projects (in terms of the number of megawatts), which means corporate buy-ers don’t have to commit to buying all of the energy the project is going to generate. This means corporations with smaller en-ergy loads can find a slice that meets their needs, and it also means corporations with large energy loads can buy many slices from different projects to create a diverse portfo-lio of power purchase agreements. Creating a diverse portfolio is one way to mitigate many of the risks involved in these long-term contracts. Last year, we saw examples


process, we are indirectly enabling more projects to be built, but development is not our business.

CCBJ: What kind of partners will you be working with?

RC: We are having discussions with strategic partners and service providers that support the broader renewable energy pro-curement ecosystem. We don’t have details to share at this time but will let you know when there’s news to share.

CCBJ: How did you develop the part-nership with Starbucks?

RC: As a corporation with aggressive sustainability goals, Starbucks was on our radar as a potential client, so we reached out to them. Being based in Seattle wasn’t criti-cal to the initial relationship with Starbucks, but it was nice to be able to meet in person to discuss their renewable energy needs and design a portfolio of power purchase agree-ments that would work for them.

CCBJ: How would you characterize LevelTen’s future customer base ?

RC: Corporations are waking up to the fact that reducing their greenhouse gas emis-sions is critical to long-term sustainability. As a result, the list of companies joining ini-tiatives like RE100, Science-Based Targets and We Mean Business is growing every day. These companies represent a variety of industries, from technology giants like Amazon to business-to-business companies like Salesforce and consumer-facing com-panies like AB InBev. These multinational corporations are starting to look abroad as well. According to BloombergNEF, “corpo-rations bought a record amount of clean en-ergy through power purchase agreements in 2019, up more than 40% from the previous year’s record. The majority of this purchas-ing occurred in the United States, but also underpinning the strong uptrend is a surge in corporate sustainability commitments around the world.” In October 2019, we announced our expansion into Europe, and we look forward to helping multinational

corporations with a carbon footprint in Europe to reach their goals through power purchase agreements there.

Additional info on the Starbucks deal: As part of a broader sustainability initia-tive, Starbucks has announced that by 2030 it wants to reduce its carbon emissions by 50%. The motivation for that goal was to ensure long-term corporate sustainability and to have a positive impact on the com-munities they serve. When companies set emissions targets they have three main routes: 1) Install on-site solutions like solar panels on the roof – but with thousands of stores across the country this wasn’t a viable solution for Starbucks. 2) Purchase unbun-dled Renewable Energy Certificates, which enable them to reach their targets on paper but don’t actually contribute to new clean energy added to the grid, and 3) Enter into a long-term power purchase agreement with a renewable energy developer.

When a corporation signs a PPA, they are guaranteeing that a renewable energy project developer will receive a specific price for the energy the projects sells on the wholesale market. With this guarantee, the developer can secure the financing it needs to build the project. Once the proj-ect is operational, the corporation receives one Renewable Energy Certificate for every megawatt hour sold. In addition, if the en-ergy sells for more than the PPA price, the corporation receives a check from the devel-oper for the difference.

This is revolutionary because it’s not only an economical way for corporations to ac-quire renewable energy certificates, but even more importantly it guarantees new clean energy is added to the grid, which corpora-tions like Starbucks see as critical to long-term energy sustainability. They’re not just moving around economic credit for elec-trons already on the grid but investing in net additional renewable energy, which is what’s really needed to fight climate change. In addition, the corporation has the oppor-tunity to earn revenue from the agreement or at least receive the RECS for a very low

cost. Lots of companies are waking up to the advantages of this approach. According to BloombergNEF, corporations around the globe purchased 19.5 GW of clean energy in 2019, up 44% over 2018. In the United States they purchased 13.6 GW, and the vast majority-80%-was through PPAs.

There’s one other really important aspect of what Starbucks did: Instead of simply going out and finding a single renewable energy project, Starbucks actually cre-ated a portfolio of three PPAs with diverse wind and solar projects across regions. This transaction – in which three nearly identi-cal PPAs were signed at the same time with three separate projects – is unprecedented. That’s actually really hard. Traditionally, a corporation would go to a consultant, who would gather proposals from a handful of developers with data in spreadsheets for-matted in a dozen different ways. Analyzing the value of a single project is hard in that scenario, let alone which combination of projects would be optimal.

LevelTen’s technology made this possible for Starbucks. We have a marketplace with the vast majority of renewable energy proj-ects under development in the nation, and a matching engine which processes massive amounts of data on all those projects to find the optimal combination of PPAs, pricing, location, output, risk models, etc. These are the kinds of analytics that would be literally impossible to calculate manually by a con-sultant in spreadsheets.

The result for Starbucks was a diverse portfolio of PPAs that was designed from the start to maximize value and minimize risk. Not only did this fund 146 MW of net new renewable energy to the grid – enough to power 3,000 stores - it also reduced their PPA energy pricing risk by diversifying the projects, technology and developers. It’s the same approach an investment banker would take when putting together a portfolio of stocks; diversity is key. Starbucks felt it was just a much better overall approach to get to renewable energy at an industrial scale. R


HG: We started by declaring a focus for the program and areas of common inter-est, but selection was competitive and not bound to a defined mix across the portfolio.

CCBJ: We also note the activity of Diode Ventures, a B&V subsidiary providing turnkey asset development in-cluding green energy solutions. Is there a connection between your clean tech accelerator and Diode?

HG: While our groups do work together, Diode’s focus is (infrastructure) project development and financing.

CCBJ: Compared to the average peer company in engineering construction, having a venture fund and an accelerator program is the exception rather than the rule. How do these initiatives reflect the overall culture at B&V?

HG: We seek to be the most innova-tive and rapidly evolving firm in the E&C space. A theme throughout our accelerator program was the pursuit of building the “world we want.” This requires an eco-system approach – large firms like B&V, disruptive startups, clients, other partners. The program is one method for our profes-sionals to collaborate with each other and with partners outside of B&V to develop innovative solutions for our clients.

CCBJ: What’s the strategic value of the venture platform to B&V?

HG: The program is managed by our Growth Accelerator team. This team pro-vides mechanisms for innovation at B&V. The team seeks unique ideas and has process-es to test, learn, and adapt these ideas into in-novative solutions and meaningful business opportunities for B&V and our clients. R

What makes our program unique is the global scale, technical know-how and project experience B&V can provide to start-up partners.

CCB: Was the local VC ‘ecosystem’ instru-mental in helping to start the program?

HG: Many of our participants were sur-prised at the amount of resources available in the VC market for early-stage companies. This is nice validation from those coming from markets on the coast typically associ-ated with more start-up activity. There is a strong concentration of E&C expertise in the market. Investors are pragmatic, ap-proachable and active. Funding is available, and Midwest hospitality makes introduc-tions easy.

CCBJ: How broadly did B&V solicit for applicants for the accelerator in terms of business scope and segments?

HG: We received over 120 applications from around the world. We labeled the pro-gram a “cleantech” accelerator, and the co-hort represented capabilities in Mobility, Ag Tech, Data Analytics, Renewable Energy, Robotics, and Environmental Services.

CCBJ: Were firms selected based on a representative portfolio of areas in which B&V is interested, or were they simply the best seven companies chosen by your committee?

CCBJ: Tell us about the Black & Veatch Growth Accelerator.

HG: The program was set up to be an extension of the innovation programming we have across B&V today. The idea is to scan proactively for entrepreneurs and start-ups with bold ideas in areas of mutual inter-est and collaborate to accelerate the adop-tion of sustainable infrastructure.

CCBJ: The IgniteX Cleantech Accelera-tor is an important component of B&V’s Growth Accelerator program. What in-novation models did B&V look at prior to launching IgniteX last year?

HG: We’ve learned a lot from crowd-sourcing ideas from our professionals and funding internal “start-up” teams. We looked at successful corporate and venture accelerator programs around the world to reuse processes and tools where possible. What makes our program unique is the global scale, technical know-how and proj-ect experience B&V can provide to start-up partners. We emphasized co-development, field testing, and client validation during our program to play to these strengths and drive value for participants.

Black & Veatch Co-Develops Innovation In Sustainable Infrastructure Via Growth Accelerator Program

Black & Veatch is an employee-owned engineering, procurement, consulting and construction company with a more than 100-year track record of innovation in sustainable infrastructure. We design, build and maintain critical infrastructure,

networks and systems in the areas of power, oil and gas, telecommunications and water for an increasingly diverse set of clients. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries by addressing the resilience and reliability of our world’s most important infrastructure assets. Our revenues in 2019 were $3.5 billion.

Hyleme George serves as a leader of innovation and entrepreneurship in Black & Veatch‘s Growth Accelerator, a catalyst for growth and innovation to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable infrastructure. His responsibilities include identification and evaluation of emerging trends and opportunities, and implementation of new business models and partnerships with internal and external entrepreneurs. In 2019 he served as Program Director for Black & Veatch’s inaugural IgniteX Cleantech Accelerator program.

Black & Veatch was awarded 2019 CCBJ awards for External Innovation (see page 9) and for Renewable Energy (page 4)


First Class of Startup Cleantech Companies in Black & Veatch IgniteX Cleantech Accelerator

In partnership with the Kansas City Economic Development Council’s LaunchKC initiative, Black & Veatch’s IgniteX Cleantech Accelerator partners with startups

focused on Renewable and Distributed Energy, Mobility, Agricultural Technology, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence and other technological processes adding value to engineering services.

Seven companies were selected from 120 applicants in September 2019 and joined Black & Veatch’s 75-day program that includes training and engineering insight to grow their business through collaboration with Black & Veatch professionals. Appli-cations are being accepted for consideration for future cohorts. The application asks a number of qualifying questions including what startups will do with the $50,000 grant/investment and if they can maintain a presence in Kansas City for a 12-month period and provide quarterly business information to LaunchKC for a 3-year period.

The companies in the current program include:

Built Robotics, San Francisco, CA, which specializes in self-driving heavy equip-ment to make construction safer, faster, and more productive;

ecoSPEARS, Altamone Springs, FL, which uses green technologies to extract and destroy PCBs, dioxins and other chlorinated contaminants from the environment;

Electriphi, San Francisco, CA, which deploys a software platform for fleet and energy management that provides operational and infrastructure cost savings for light, medium and heavy-duty commercial electric vehicle fleets;

Extensible Energy, Berkeley, CA, which specializes in cloud-based software that controls flexible loads to reduce demand and time-of-use energy charges in small to medium buildings;

InfraLytiks, Urbandale, IA, which employs software featuring AI and machine learning based on images, complex data or text/financials;

Aware Vehicles, Kansas City, MO, which is advancing the future of drone technol-ogy, targeting industries like agriculture and infrastructure developers with a software solution that enables fully autonomous vehicles with smart docking and real-time situ-ational awareness.

NovoNutrients, Sunnyvale, CA, which uses energy from hydrogen to transform waste carbon into protein and other high-value products for the aquaculture and animal feed industries.

(Note: Diode Ventures is a wholly owned subsidiary of Black & Veatch with a global presence in over 100 countries. Diode Ventures is not a venture capital fund and is unrelated to the accelerator, but is a full-service, turnkey asset developer in the commercial, industrial and technology sectors. With its partners, Diode offers our clients financing, site selection, EPC, commissioning and O&M services for their energy, data centers or other specialized infrastructure assets.)

EBI continues its Environmental Industry

Summit series with...

Environmental Industry Summit XVIII

NOW! September 2020Coronado Island Marriott

Resort, Coronado CA

Pacific Northwest Environmental Industry

Summit VJuly 30, 2020, Washington Athletic Club, Seattle WA

New England Environmental Industry Summit VDecember 4, 2020

One Financial Center, Boston

Dates TBD

Texas Environmental Industry Summit II

Houston TX

Washington DC Environmental Industry

Summit IV, Hunton Andrews Kurth Conference Center,

Washington DC

Environmental Industry Summit Japan I

Environmental Industry Summit China I

Environmental Industry Summit Antarctica February 2021 in

cooperation with Oceanites; As part of our philanthropic ac-

tivities, Environmental Business International sponsors and sup-ports the nonprofit organization

Oceanites.


Moody’s Expands Capabilities In ESG Space With Key Acquisitions and Expanded Services in AnalyticsFundamental reshaping of finance is in the offing as climate risk becomes investment risk.

Moody’s serves global capital markets, providing credit ratings, research, tools and analysis that contribute to transparent and integrated financial markets. Moody’s Corporation (NYSE: MCO) is the parent company of Moody’s In-

vestors Service (MIS), which provides credit ratings and research covering debt instru-ments and securities, and Moody’s Analytics (MA), which offers software, advisory services and research for credit and economic analysis and financial risk management. The corpo-ration, which reported revenue of $4.8 billion in 2019, employs approximately 11,100 people worldwide and maintains a presence in more than 40 countries.

Comments provided by:

Neal M. Epstein, VP-Senior Credit Officer, Moody’s Investors Service (NE)Anna Zubets-Anderson, VP-Senior Analyst, MIS Assessments (MISA), andMatthew Kuchtyak, Analyst, Moody’s Investors Service (AZ/MK)

Moody’s was awarded a 2019 CCBJ Award for Business Achievement: Mergers & Acquisitions (see page 9).

the organization and expand its library of data and information and software tools?

Moody’s: Moody’s acquisition of ma-jority stakes in Four Twenty Seven and VigeoEiris, as well as its minority stake in SynTao, have significantly expanded its capabilities in the ESG space. These are leading institutions in the world of ana-lyzing ESG and climate risk matters, and their work can be used to provide greater granularity in assessing such risks and in-corporating them into credit analysis and our other products and solutions. Moody’s expects that investors and other market par-ticipants will find this work very valuable as it becomes more and more visible to them during 2020.

CCBJ: What was unique about these climate-related acquisitions in 2019?

Moody’s: Vigeo Eiris offers specialized research and decision-making tools for sustainable and ethical investments, with products and capabilities based on ESG as-sessments and an extensive ESG database. Four Twenty Seven scores physical risks associated with climate-related factors and

other environmental issues, and provides data and indicators that are used by asset owners, asset managers, banks, corpora-tions and government agencies to under-stand and evaluate the potential climate risk they hold in their portfolios and activities. Both acquisitions solidify Moody’s commit-ment to promoting transparent and globally consistent standards for evaluating ESG risks and opportunities.

CCBJ: MIS’s Issuer Comments on BlackRock Inc. in January referred to ESG announcements signaling leader-ship in sustainable investments: a 2020 letter to clients placing sustainability at the center of BlackRock’s investment approach, and a letter to CEOs encour-aging companies to adopt sustainable accounting standards and climate related disclosures. Additionally MIS noted BlackRock would “hold board members accountable” if their companies were not “producing effective sustainability disclosures or implementing frameworks for managing these issues.” It’s com-pelling reading. Has this been part of BlackRock’s DNA for a while?

NE: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has is-sued an annual letter to CEOs of leading companies in recent years that has con-sistently encouraged corporate leaders to adopt a long-term approach and a sense of “purpose” in managing their companies. BlackRock, as manager of passive invest-ments, is required to be a long-term holder of some $2.7 trillion of securities on behalf of its clients. MIS believes that in encour-aging business leaders and board members to focus on long-term value-generating ac-tivities, Blackrock has over the years chal-lenged corporate leaders to address internal and external ESG challenges for the good of shareholders and all stakeholders. Fink’s emphasis on long-term value creation and risk management also promotes the inter-ests of BlackRock’s clients.

CCBJ: BlackRock’s commitment to sus-tainable investing is described as “credit positive.” How does BlackRock compare

CCBJ: Moody’s was recognized by Climate Change Business Journal for acquisitions in 2019. What contribution have acquisitions made to Moody’s growth and diversification?

Moody’s: Acquisitions are an impor-tant part of Moody’s Corporation’s overall growth strategy, and that includes both credit rating agency acquisitions such as ICR in Chile, and non-credit rating acqui-sitions such as RiskFirst (MA), VigeoEi-ris (MIS) and Four Twenty Seven (MIS). Specific to ESG, a combination of acquisi-tions and internal product development has helped Moody’s keep pace with increasing demand for climate risk, sustainable finance and ESG solutions. Moody’s is working to integrate these additional ESG data sets and capabilities into both MIS credit rat-ings and Moody’s other risk management products and solutions.

CCBJ: Four Twenty Seven and the French company Vigeo Eiris are both specialty service consulting organizations, as well having unique tool kits for analysis. Does Moody’s see acquisitions as a way to access to new clients or a way to build new talent into


in scale to its peers, and how differenti-ated is it on sustainable investing?

NE: BlackRock’s Aa3 rating is the highest MIS has assigned to asset managers, glob-ally. “Scale” is a rating consideration, and BlackRock’s $14.5 billion of revenue earned in 2019 is two to four times as large as its next largest rated competitors. Its assets un-der management tallied $7.4 trillion at year end. Many asset managers are increasing their engagement with sustainable invest-ing activities on behalf of clients, as well as aligning their own corporate activities with standards that promote fair treatment of employees and customers. BlackRock, given its scale, is a fiduciary to client assets that represent significant holdings in virtu-ally every publicly traded company, giving it an unusual opportunity to engage with management teams and influence corporate policies, in the view of MIS.

CCBJ: When Moody’s makes a rating, people listen. So what is meant exactly by describing visibility around sustain-able investing as “credit positive”?

NE: “Credit positive” is MIS’s short-hand way of identifying developments and trends that make a corporation stronger, from the perspective of those who have lent it money and are entitled to expect timely payment of the interest and principal owed. Even developments that may have only a long-term or an indirect benefit to a com-pany’s competitive position and financial

strength may be termed credit positive. In MIS’s view, by aligning itself with ESG principles, BlackRock can influence the performance of its investments for the good of its clients, which will in turn make it a stronger credit.

CCBJ: To what extent will BlackRock’s future strategy consist of avoiding obvi-ous negative climate contributors like coal and oil & gas versus embracing obvious climate positive investments like renewable energy and energy efficiency? Does BlackRock have the potential to re-define sustainable investing?

NE: BlackRock has many investment strategies and will be able to promote a variety of sustainable investment themes, in the view of MIS. The company has as-serted it intends to double its offerings of ESG exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to 150. It offers ETFs that screen out unde-sirable sectors, match the risk of common benchmarks while improving ESG scores, and focus on investments with high ESG ratings. Thermal coal is one sector experi-encing reduced demand and increasingly identified with harm to public health and the environment. Therefore, it makes sense to allocate investments away from this or

Growth of Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds

Quarter Green bonds Social bonds Sustainability bonds GSS as % of globalQ1 2015 $6.7 $0.0 $0.0 0.4%Q2 2015 $14.0 $0.0 $1.1 0.9%Q3 2015 $8.2 $0.0 $0.0 0.6%Q4 2015 $15.6 $0.0 $0.7 1.2%Q1 2016 $16.7 $0.0 $1.8 1.0%Q2 2016 $20.0 $0.7 $1.4 1.2%Q3 2016 $18.4 $1.7 $0.0 1.1%Q4 2016 $29.3 $0.0 $2.1 2.3%Q1 2017 $34.1 $1.0 $3.5 1.9%Q2 2017 $37.2 $3.5 $1.6 2.3%Q3 2017 $34.1 $2.1 $0.7 2.1%Q4 2017 $53.0 $3.5 $3.2 3.7%Q1 2018 $33.8 $2.7 $5.9 2.1%Q2 2018 $45.4 $2.7 $3.5 2.9%Q3 2018 $33.6 $5.9 $4.3 2.8%Q4 2018 $57.9 $2.2 $3.5 4.8%Q1 2019 $55.2 $5.2 $9.8 3.6%Q2 2019 $70.4 $3.4 $17.1 5.0%Q3 2019 $66.5 $3.7 $5.5 4.1%Q4 2019 $65.6 $5.0 $15.2 5.4%

Source: Moody’s

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Growth of Green, Social and Sustainability Bonds

Sources: Moody’s Investors Service, Climate Bonds Initiative, Dealogic


any other sector that exposes investors to foreseeable ESG risks.

MIS believes BlackRock does have the potential to influence the direction of sus-tainable investing by promoting corporate reporting standards that will provide inves-tors with transparency about the ESG risks of investments. Investors who use its risk management tools will be able to make bet-ter-informed judgments about relative ESG risks as they construct their own sustainable portfolios. But one test of its influence for many advocates of sustainability will be the degree it is willing to publicly challenge cor-porate policies that appear to be inconsis-tent with ESG principles.

CCBJ: Moody’s data on the combined global issuance of green, social and sus-tainability bonds portray 60% growth in 2019 to $323 billion, and 24% growth in 2020 to $400 billion. With share go-ing from less than 1% of global bonds in 2015 to nearly 5% in 2019, do you expect a similar growth trajectory over the next five years?

AZ/MK: The MIS forecast for 2020 re-flects expectations for a healthy but matur-ing market, a trend that will likely continue over the next few years. The fastest growth will likely occur among labeled sustain-ability bonds, a market segment that has already exhibited rapid growth that prob-ably reflects issuers’ desire to highlight their broad sustainability initiatives. Alternative labels, such as transition bonds, will likely exhibit uneven growth until there is more definitional clarity as to what projects might qualify for this emerging segment of sustainable finance.

CCBJ: What have been the most influ-ential drivers of green and sustainable bonds? Are these early-stage trends?

AZ/MK: Growth has and will continue to be driven by the increase and diversifi-cation in investor demand for sustainable investments. Beyond green, social and sus-tainability bonds, MIS believes growth in

sustainable finance will be supported by innovation in new labels and struc-tures, particularly with re-spect to transition bonds and sustainability-linked bonds and loans. A height-ened focus on climate ac-tion by governments and the financial sector is ex-pected to drive further growth and innovation in the green, social and sus-tainability bond markets.

MIS expects that inves-tors will remain increas-ingly focused on how companies in every sector are aligning their business models with a sustainable, climate-resilient future. This will expand the focus from the specific projects financed by an issuer toward their overall governance and sustainability credentials, which will likely drive innovation in structures.

CCBJ: Buildings and energy were big categories in green bonds in 2019. We assume these mostly relate to energy ef-ficiency and renewable energy. What are some examples?

AZ/MK: Common green bonds target-ing residential energy efficiency are struc-

Total Green Bonds in 2019: $257.7 Million

Sources: Moody’s Investors Service, Climate Bonds Initiative

ABS 13%

Development Bank 11%

Financial Institution 21%

Government-Backed Entity 14%

Local Government 4%

Corporate 23%

Other Debt Type 4%

Sovereign 10%

tures that finance or refinance residential and commercial real estate that meets re-gional, national or internationally recog-nized standards or certifications. Among MIS Green Bond Assessments, one example is Green Storm 2017 B.V. or Green Storm 2016 B.V., which are green residential mortgage-backed securitizations consisting of prime Dutch energy efficient mortgage loans originated by Obvion N.V.

Other examples, which illustrate pub-lic-private collaborations, are Property As-sessed Clean Energy (PACE) program deals originated by Ygrene Energy Fund, Reno-vate America, Renew Financial or Energy

Buildings 28%

Energy 31%

Transport 20%

Water 11%

Other 10%

Percentage of Green Bonds in Energy, Buildings, Transport and Water

Sources: Moody’s Investors Service, Climate Bonds Initiative


Moody’s Corporation Revenues: 2018-2019 ($mil)Moody’s Investors Service (MIS) & Moody’s Analytics

2019 2018Moody’s Investors ServiceCorporate Finance 1,497 1,379Structured Finance 427 481Financial Institutions 476 442Public, Project and Infrastructure Finance 446 391MIS Other 29 19Intersegment royalty 134 124Sub-total MIS 3,009 2,836Eliminations (134) (124)Total MIS revenue - external 2,875 2,712 Moody’s Analytics Research, Data and Analytics 1,273 1,121Enterprise Risk Solutions 522 451Professional Services 159 159Intersegment revenue 9 12Sub-total MA 1,963 1,743Eliminations (9) (12)Total MA revenue - external 1,954 1,731 Total Moody’s Corporation revenue 4,829 4,443

Source: Moody’s annual report 2019

Analytics & MIS Contribute To Moody’s Robust Performance

Moody’s Corporation reported revenue of $4.8 billion for full year 2019, up 9% from the prior-year period. Moody’s Investors Service (MIS) revenue totaled $2.9

billion for full year 2019, up 6% from the prior-year period. Moody’s Analytics (MA) rev-enue totaled $2 billion for full year 2019, up 13% from the prior-year period. Organic MA revenue for full year 2019 was $1.9 billion, up 11% from the prior-year period.

Moody’s revenue growth for full year 2019 was the result of strong contributions from both Moody’s Analytics and Moody’s Investors Service. Robust performance at Moody’s Analytics was driven by increasing customer demand for core research and data products, along with compliance and know-your-customer solutions. Additionally, Moody’s Investors Service benefited from “increased global bond issuance amid generally favorable market conditions,” said Raymond McDaniel, President and Chief Executive Officer of Moody’s. “For 2020, we expect to continue leveraging the capabilities of our core businesses, further innovate with new technologies and capitalize on strategic investments.” R

Efficient Equity. PACE programs are imple-mented in accordance with a U.S. Depart-ment of Energy framework announced in 2009. They allow state and local govern-ments, where permitted by state law, to extend the use of land-secured financing to fund energy efficiency, renewable energy and water conservation improvements on private property.

CCBJ: Transportation projects in green bonds rose to 20% from 14% in 2018. Please provide examples of typical green bonds in this area.

AZ/MK: One example of a green bond targeting clean transportation came from Wuhan Metro in December 2018. How-ever, among MIS Green Bond Assessments, clean transportation projects typically have been part of broadly diversified programs, such as green bonds issued by China's Bank of Communications and the Government of Poland.

CCBJ: How rapidly is the financial sector prioritizing the incorporation of ESG into risk management processes? How important is climate data to that transformation?

Moody’s: Demand for climate risk, sustainable finance and ESG solutions from investors and other stakeholders is global and irreversible. Data and global standards are key in this rapidly developing space. Moody’s as a corporation has several projects under way to enhance its analytical tools and assessments across ESG. Moody’s Investors Service, notably, is taking steps to further enhance the transparency of how ESG factors are considered in its credit ratings and to produce thought leadership research on the credit implications of ESG. R


BrainBox AI Uses HVAC Modulation Technology to Reduce Buildings’ Energy Spend By Up To 30 Percent

BrainBox AI (Montreal, Quebec) builds cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) technology for commercial real estate that meaningfully reduces the energy consumption of a building’s existing HVAC system. BrainBox AI overlays deep

learning algorithms on existing HVAC functionality to automate the modulation of each component, reducing a building’s total energy spend by 25-35% while significantly improving occupant comfort. The solution is quick to install (under 3 hours), is non-intrusive, and generates savings within three months of installation with minimal upfront capital investment. BrainBox AI will extend its product to communicate with utilities providing energy supply to further optimize energy efficiency across the grid as a whole.

BrainBox AI officially launched to market in May 2019 after two years of research and development. The company currently employs 45 people, triple the number they had at launch. Our regional footprint expands over 15 cities across North America, Australia, and parts of Europe and we are currently managing over 18,000,000 square feet of commercial real estate space with our powerful technology.

The BrainBox team is led by CEO and Co-founder Sean Neely; CTO and Co-Founder Jean-Simon Venne; and CBDO Sam Ramadori.

Sean has international experience in energy efficiency, real estate development, acquisitions and finance. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Yale University.

Jean-Simon is a tech expert with experience in energy-efficiency, telecom and bio-technology, specializing in the rapid migration of technology innovation to commercial applications. He holds a B.Eng. in Industrial Engineering from École Polytechnique de Montréal and a Certificate in Logistics from the University of Georgia Tech.

Sam is a private equity investor with significant experience in identifying investment opportunities and supporting management teams in developing and executing growth-oriented business plans. He has an MBA from the Ivey School of Business as well as degrees in common law and civil law from the University of Ottawa.

cial intelligence in the realm of energy ef-ficiency for commercial buildings. With all of this in mind, Jean-Simon set out to find a way to engineer an AI-based commis-sioning approach to deliver a new longer-lasting HVAC solution, which would make efficient use of building tech to maximize savings while minimizing occupant dis-comfort. The final product of this journey was BrainBox AI, a solution that is both in-expensive and requires little human capital.

CCBJ: Who are your main clients and how do you charge for your products?

BrainBox: We are currently serving five main verticals: office buildings, commercial retail, hotels, airports, and grocery stores. The total commercial real estate sector in the United States alone amounts to over

100 billion square feet with an annual en-ergy spend estimated to be over $200 bil-lion. Beyond the sheer size of the market is the industry push towards Net Zero build-ings given that buildings are the single big-gest energy consumers in our economy. We sell our HVAC optimization algorithms as a SaaS subscription priced as dollars per square foot per year. Our solution is brought to market through an in-house direct sales team, through channel partners representing various stakeholders in the landscape, and through partnerships with hardware manufacturers.

CCBJ: BrainBox AI is the first company to introduce artificial intelligence that supports a self-operating building to reduce energy consumption. Could you please explain this in more detail?

BrainBox: Buildings are typically con-trolled based on schedules of operation and setpoints. The schedules state when the building is typically occupied or unoc-cupied. When the building switches mode, the heating or cooling starts to bring the temperature towards comfort. The amount of heating or cooling provided into a space is proportional to the difference between the current and desired temperatures. When the operation mode is switched from unoccupied to occupied, suddenly this dif-ference becomes significant and the heaters or coolers are turned on full capacity caus-ing a peak in power. To reduce the peak, better conventional controls soften this state change using a ramp.

In a larger building, each room is con-trolled independently. If a room needs cool-ing, it opens its air damper; if it doesn't, it closes the damper allowing less cold air into the room. There’s a limit though, as people need fresh air. If the minimum amount of air required in a space is enough to make the space uncomfortably cold, heating is needed. Buildings end up reheating cool air, resulting in energy wasted. Most build-ings have rules with delays to ensure that this waste is minimized.

CCBJ: How did BrainBox AI’s technology come about?

BrainBox: Our Co-Founder and CTO Jean-Simon’s journey into HVAC technol-ogy began while working on energy effi-ciency projects throughout North America and Europe. During this stage of his life, he dealt with the technology in a plethora of buildings. These were buildings of different sizes and purposes: anything from hotels all the way to data centers. It quickly became apparent that continuous commissioning approaches would generate consistent energy savings but would require extensive amounts of both financial and human capital.

He then found himself in a test drive of an autonomous car, which prompted the thought of a new application of artifi-


Many other rules are written by ex-pert operators to improve the efficiency of buildings. These rules are static and need to be updated with time. Most rules seldom make use of weather and occupancy fore-casts, nor do they make use of dynamic elec-tricity pricing. Hiring an expensive controls technician to improve the commissioning of the building does not guarantee savings.

HVAC control systems must be adap-tive. The building structure is designed to last at least 100 years, and offices are re-modeled closer to every 10 years. Also, with new tenants come new demands. The origi-nal design may not always be accommodat-ing and updates to the system are necessary and can be costly if they need to be done by an engineering firm. An adaptive system would learn the new occupancy and guar-antee comfort in real-time.

By using an artificial intelligence (AI) model-based optimized method, we can explicitly state what we want to maximize (comfort) and minimize (cost and green-house gas emissions) and what are the limits to respect (equipment use/cycling). Rule-based methods are implicit in their intent offering no guarantees in performance.

BrainBox AI provides a powerful so-lution to this challenge by introducing dynamic modulation and AI to the built environment. By analyzing hundreds of thousands of real-time data points such as outside temperature, sun/cloud position-ing, fan speed, duct pressure, heater status, humidity levels, occupant density, Brain-Box AI identifies and catalogues your build-ings’ specific operating behaviour to create a unique building energy profile. This profile enables BrainBox AI to make informed pre-dictions about the future energy flow with-in the building. By switching from reactive to pre-emptive HVAC commissioning, BrainBox AI can make micro adjustments, every few minutes, to the HVAC system to ensure that future energy needs are met in the most cost-effective way.

The result? A fully autonomous self-adaptive HVAC systems that delivers 25-35% in energy savings, 20-40% reductions in carbon footprint and an average 60% increase in occupant comfort.

CCBJ: What impact will AI have on reducing climate change?

BrainBox: Put simply, AI can help us optimize sustainable technologies, such as those for building automation, to make them as efficient as possible in an extremely scalable manner. In our industry, it is im-portant to note that each building is unique and modelling them on a case-by-case basis is neither cost-effective nor scalable.

By installing our proprietary system into buildings or our firmware in partner hard-ware solutions, we start interfacing with the building and start collecting operational data and upload to our cloud. This data is then cleaned, filtered and processed to train generic and very powerful machine learning models. These models are used to predict the thermal and electrical behaviour of a build-ing where we can optimize the controls to save energy and GHG emissions; the more buildings’ HVAC systems we optimize, the more GHG emissions we reduce.

AI will also play a large role in energy management for cities as a whole. At Brain-Box AI, we are developing the concept of “Swarm Intelligence,” which will essentially allow intelligent buildings across a met-ropolitan city, such as New York, to com-municate with each other to redress utility load ramps and valleys. Ultimately, this will reduce the reliance on polluting gas-turbine peaking plants as energy grids will be able to operate predictively instead of reactively. R

Environmental Consulting & Technology Takes Leadership in Green Stormwater Infrastructure

Headquartered in Gainesville, Fla., Environmental Consulting & Technology, Inc. (ECT) is a

31-year-old, employee-owned firm special-izing in the resolution of complex environ-mental issues through cost-effective project planning, management, applied engineer-ing, and scientific expertise. The company maintains 22 offices in 10 U.S. states and employs more than 200 full-time staff, in-cluding professional scientists, engineers, planners, landscape architects, and man-agement consultants. ECT offers services in five service lines, including natural re-sources, water resources, air quality, site as-sessment & remediation, and performance assurance & compliance.

Sanjiv Sinha, Ph.D., P.E., is a Senior Vice President & Water Resources National Director. Dr. Sinha is well known for his work on the emerging applications of market-based options, including public-private partnerships within the green stormwater infrastructure sector. He is a recipient of the 2019 CCBJ Business Achievement Award.

Jason Cooper, PLA, is a Landscape Architect who has led the integration of green infrastructure systems and restorative design principles around the Great Lakes region and beyond. His design portfolio is comprised of headquarters for Fortune 500 companies as well as leading municipal agencies, more than 50 park and recreation facilities, sustainable downtown streetscapes, and many natural area restoration projects.

CCBJ: What is GSI and why is it impor-tant today?

Sinha: Green Stormwater Infrastruc-ture (GSI) is the multi-functional site de-sign practice that meets traditional water


quality and quantity standards required by many stormwater ordinances. It also helps projects meet advanced rating systems such as LEED and Living Building Challenge. The practice addresses both the quantity and quality of stormwater runoff from de-veloped sites. With more than 25 years of experience designing and researching these systems, ECT helps our clients implement their green goals in cost effective ways. Ex-amples of GSI features include bioretention systems and rain gardens, green roofs, na-tive landscape systems, porous pavements, rainwater harvesting, and wastewater reuse. These features can help manage rainwater while providing wildlife habitat and en-hanced open space.

Use of Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) is playing an increasingly important role in balancing the development and pro-tection of our shared natural resources, as well as a means to comply with regulatory requirements. As access to clean, fresh wa-ter decreases and changing weather patterns cause more flood events, we will require new solutions to manage rainwater runoff. GSI strategies receive and treat rainwater runoff where it falls. This decentralized approach uses innovative strategies such as permeable pavement and green roofs to integrate water treatment and storage with other functional elements in a development. It can save land for other uses which is particularly useful in dense urban environments.

CCBJ: Can you describe ECT’s award-winning GSI projects?

Cooper: ECT’s Integrated Design & En-gineering Studio offers value to our clients through the combination of civil engineer-ing, landscape architecture, and ecological services. Our cross-disciplinary, climate-resilient approach engages each team mem-ber to collaborate on creative solutions that thoughtfully integrate with the landscape and associated buildings, and helps our cli-ents implement their green goals in cost ef-fective ways.

ECT supports the widespread adop-tion of voluntary rating systems to encour-age sustainable development. Programs such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED Rating System, the Sus-tainable Sites Initiative (SITES), and the Living Building Challenge promote re-sponsible design and provide a benchmark for tracking the performance of projects. To date, ECT has completed a large number of LEED projects as well as many SITES and Living Building certified projects. A detailed list is available on the ectinc.com website under LEED awards.

CCBJ: Is GSI really a viable solution for many cases or is it mostly a pipedream?

Sinha: Faced with mounting infrastruc-ture construction costs and more frequent and severe weather events due to climate

change, cities across the country already are managing the water pollution chal-lenges of stormwater runoff and combined sewer overflows through GSI to mimic, maintain, and/or restore natural hydrologi-cal features in the urban landscape. When utilized properly, GSI can obviate the need for more expensive pipes, storage facilities, and other traditional “grey infrastructure” features, so named to acknowledge the vast amounts of concrete and other materials with high embedded energy necessary in their construction. GSI can also provide substantial co-benefits to city dwellers, such as cleaner air, reduced urban temperatures, and improved quality of life associated with recreation areas and wildlife habitats. With a good plan in place, a community can lay the groundwork to improve quality of life, protect the environment, improve public health, become economically stronger, and prepare for climate change impacts.

Unfortunately, while the short- and long-term benefits are now clearly docu-mented (see Benefits chart on this page), there still are many barriers to the use of large-scale GSI, such as (see Barriers chart overleaf ).

Uncertainty about maintenance and long-term performance are perceived to be the highest barriers to the use of GSI. In the cost category, installation and maintenance costs are key concerns. In the political cat-

How GSI Users View Benefits of Green Stormwater Infrastructure: Take the Long View

Source: Figures reproduced from “A survey of barriers and opportunities to adopting green stormwater infrastructure in Michigan,” Avik Basu, Sanjiv K. Sinha, and Donald D. Carpenter, Michigan Sea Grant Report MICHU-20-502, 5 pp, January 2020


egory, acceptance among local leaders, municipal staff, and prac-titioners are big barriers which is closely followed by conflicting codes and ordinances.

CCBJ: Are there definitions and standards for GSI?

Cooper: Yes, many stormwater regulating agencies have their own design specifications and perfor-mance standards. These mostly focus on permeable pavement and bioretention facilities which are very similar to traditional deten-tion basins, but they use special engineered soil and are under-drained. Many states and larger cities also issue standards for GSI for use in public projects.

CCBJ: Is there a governing body or association that oversees GSI standards and promotes best practices?

Cooper: Yes, GSI is a heav-ily debated subject at all levels of government and private practice. Nearly every jurisdiction has advisory com-mittees that review current standards and practices and recommend regulatory frame-works. Certain practices, like green roofs, have national ANSI standards for certain aspects of the design. Many professional so-cieties, like the American Society of Land-scape Architects and the American Society of Civil Engineers, organize workshops and publish research on GSI.

CCBJ: You use the term distributed GSI. Is that like distributed energy?

Cooper: Yes, it is. GSI is a distributed stormwater management approach, i.e., not centralized like an underground tun-nel. GSI strategies are designed to accept rainwater where it falls. We should note that most impervious surfaces in our urban areas can be re-designed with GSI so that nearly every surface is permeable and water receiving (i.e., green roofs can cover build-

ings, parking lots can be constructed of per-meable pavement, etc.).

CCBJ: We assume permeability is one of the key attributes of GSI.

Cooper: Yes, permeability is key and most GSI strategies use surfaces that are permeable. The permeable nature of strat-egies such as bioretention slow rainwater runoff down and allow it to cool and be filtered of pollutants. This also encourages infiltration into the soil and recharge of un-derground aquifers where that is possible.

CCBJ: So how does one know green infrastructure is better than gray infra-structure? Are there any metrics, and can you provide a few examples?

Sinha: Green infrastructure provides more benefits than traditional grey infra-structure. In addition to the runoff volume

and rate controls which traditional gray in-frastructure provides, green infrastructure can also provide infiltration, evapotrans-piration, habitat, beautification, and long-term cost savings (as mentioned previous-ly). Not every GSI practice provides all these benefits, and not every GSI practice is suited to all projects. Many GSI practices have higher upfront construction costs, so their benefits need be weighed against the cost.

Three ECT projects that demonstrate the successful implementation of green infrastructure include: Johnson Controls Corporate Headquarters where 30,000 gal-lons of rain runoff is captured and reused for toilet flushing; Cardinal Campus Green Office Park where the robust GSI approach across the low lying 9-acre site was one of the reasons the property could be devel-oped; and Iowa State College of Design King Pavilion which is the state of Iowa’s

Key Barriers to Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI)

Source: Figures reproduced from “A survey of barriers and opportunities to adopting green stormwater infrastructure in Michi-gan”, Avik Basu, Sanjiv K. Sinha, and Donald D. Carpenter, Michigan Sea Grant Report MICHU-20-502, 5 pp, January 2020


first LEED Platinum higher education building.

CCBJ: What other key attributes of GSI are driving its implementation? GHGs, water quality, habitats, other natural resource measures?

Cooper: The effectiveness of GSI to address stormwater runoff volume, rate, and water quality are the biggest drivers for its use. There are other benefits for certain applications. Bioretention prac-tices are often promoted for their ability to replicate the full suite of historic hy-drologic processes, including infiltration and evapotranspiration. Practices such as bioretention and green roofs are vegetat-ed and so offer the opportunity to intro-duce habitat for native plants and animals which can be important in developed ur-ban areas. Other practices, such as perme-able unit paving have been shown to offer a long-term cost savings over conven-tional practices like asphalt paving. This is due to the longer lasting pavers and the less frequent maintenance for them when compared to asphalt.

Sinha: I conclude with a message to the environmental industry community that we work with many of the readers of EBJ and we welcome continued engage-ment on GSI topics from everyone.

Finally, Jane Goodall said: “You can-not get through a single day without hav-ing an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

I quote her to put our work in per-spective. Of all the things one could work upon, we are associated with GSI as it helps us restore the planet and leads us to a more resilient future. What a privilege it is for me to make a good living while pursuing innovation on such a fascinat-ing topic! R

Top 10 EPC Companies in U.S. Solar & Wind in 20191) Mortenson Construction (Projects: 153; Capacity (MW): 20,246): Mortenson’s Re-

newable Energy Groups represent about one-third of its revenue that was reported as $4.6 billion in 2019.

2) Blattner Energy (Projects: 80; Capacity (MW): 13,912): Blattner delivers construc-tion solutions for transmission, substation, solar, and wind energy projects. Blattner has installed more than 35,000 megawatts of wind power across North America, including the 5 single-largest projects in the United States. Blattner also provides complete engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for utility-scale energy storage projects..

3) RES Americas (Projects: 67; Capacity (MW): 7,897); RES Americas has been develop-ing, constructing, owning, and operating renewable energy projects since 1997. RES Group, (U.K.) was founded in 1982 and develops, constructs, and owns wind projects. RES Group has 94 wind projects with a capacity of 5,113 MW around the world.

4) Sentry Electrical Group (Projects: 55; Capacity (MW): 7,415): Sentry is a Georgia based company providing high and medium voltage electrical construction and maintenance services of electrical infrastructure for private owners and utilities.

5) Rosendin Electric (Projects: 70; Capacity (MW): 7,248): Rosendin provides high-way/offsite services, such as utility work, equipment, cabling, and gas lines; airport light-ing systems; berth and electrical work; and traffic signals and operation systems. Rosendin constructs wind energy plants and offers troubleshooting and diagnostics, power quality assessment, equipment hook-up, premises wiring and connections, and maintenance plans. It also serves biotech/pharm, commercial, data center, entertainment, healthcare, high tech, institutional, power, residential, schools, telecom and transportation industries.

6) IEA Renewable Energy (former RMT, Inc.; Projects: 69; Capacity (MW): 6,949): IEA is an integrated network that allows self-perform siting, permitting, engineering, and construction services on utility-scale wind and solar energy projects. IEA has completed over 190 wind and solar projects with an average workforce of 2,000+ skilled laborers.

7) Quanta Power Generation (Projects: 73; Capacity (MW): 6,065): Quanta has a focus of EPC services to the utility scale power generation industry with solar, geothermal, natural gas, and biofuels. Quanta has 300 MWdc generation capacity in utility-scale PV.

8) EDF Renewable Energy (formerly enXco, Projects: 54; Capacity (MW): 5,776): EDF covers development to O&M of renewable energy projects with a focus on wind, solar, stor-age, and marine and emerging technologies. The EDF Group has power generation (130 GW), transmission and distribution (850,00 miles of networks), trading and retail (37 mil-lion customers). Its goal is to double the net installed capacity of renewable energies from 28 GW in 2019 to over 50 GW in less than 15 years.

9) First Solar (Projects: 57; Capacity (MW): 5,706): First Solar has more than 8 GW of PV installed, and has developed, financed, engineered, constructed, and currently operates many of the world’s largest grid-connected PV power plants.

10) Wanzek Construction (Projects: 46; Capacity (MW): 5,667): Wanzek offers wind site services including the management, monitoring, and maintenance of civil, crane, tur-bine, blade, substation and T-Line collection, as well as continuous improvement wind pow-er maintenance services.

Source: Figures for 2019 published by Energy Acuity a leading provider of power generation and power delivery market intelligence. Text adapted by CCBJ from Energy Acuity and other sources.


Wind Industry Experiences a Good Year in 2019Third Strongest Year on Record With 9,143 MW of Wind Power Added to U.S. Grid

Wind Farm Construction and Advanced Development Pipeline Up 24% Year-over-Year, representing potential $62 billion in new investment.

Rapidly growing Offshore Wind Development Now Accounts for 17% of Development Pipeline, while East Coast States Announced 16 GW in New Offshore Wind Targets

Demand for Wind Power sets new record as Utilities and Businesses Announce 8,726 MW in Power Purchase Agreements

Texas and Iowa Lead 19 States in Wind Installations in 2019

We’re entering a new decade with the wind at our backs,” said Tom Kier-

nan CEO of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). “There are nearly 60,000 wind turbines spinning across 41 states powering the equivalent of over 32 million American homes. Demand for wind energy is greater than ever as evidenced by corporations and utilities signing contracts in record numbers… and nearly 200 proj-ects are underway in 33 states.”

AWEA reports that the U.S. wind indus-try experienced its third strongest year on record in 2019 as project developers added 9,143 megawatts (MW) of wind power capacity to the grid. Another 44,000 MW of wind projects – representing over $62 billion in investment – were either under construction or in advanced development at the beginning of 2020.

Utilities and businesses set a record in new Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) in 2019 and East Coast states continue to drive demand for offshore wind energy with 16 GW in new offshore wind targets pledged in 2019—more than doubling pre-vious state targets for offshore.

Demand for wind power reached new heights in 2019 as utilities and corporate buyers announced a record 8,726 MW of PPAs. Utilities represented 60% of power purchase activity for the year at a total of 5,266 MW, and corporate buyers account-ed for 40% with a total of 3,640 MW of contracts. The top three purchasers for the year were Northern Indiana Public Ser-vice Company, Walmart, and AT&T. In the fourth quarter at least six companies signed significant contracts for the first time including oil & gas company Baker Hughes, Estee Lauder, and McDonald’s.

In the offshore market, six states an-nounced 16,300 MW of new offshore wind targets in 2019 alone, more than doubling total state targets to 25,000 MW. The lat-est announcement came from New Jersey increasing the state’s offshore wind target to 7,500 MW by 2035. States also moved forward with offshore wind project selec-tion. In the fourth quarter, Massachusetts selected the 804 MW Mayflower Wind project, while Connecticut selected the 804 MW Park City Wind project. Further South, New York signed contracts with two projects: Ørsted & Eversource’s 880 MW Sunrise Wind project and Equinor’s 816 MW Empire Wind project. With these an-

nouncements, states have selected a total 6,297 MW of offshore wind projects. Off-shore wind farms now represent 17% of the overall wind development pipeline.

Swelling demand for wind power has left the near-term pipeline close to record levels. At the end of 2019 there were 191 projects under construction or in advanced development. These projects are spread across 33 states and total more than 44 GW of wind power, representing more than $62 billion in investment. Kiernan empha-sizes that “wind power is driving economic growth and employment across the coun-try, especially in rural areas. More than 114,000 Americans are directly employed by the industry and the industry delivers over $1 billion each year in state and local taxes and land-lease payments… We look forward to setting more records in the year ahead.”

U.S. EIA: Wind Passes Hydro in 2019

In related developments, the U.S. En-ergy Information Administration re-ported that wind surpassed hydro as the most-used renewable electricity generation source. In 2019, U.S. annual wind genera-tion exceeded hydroelectric generation for the first time, according to EIA’s Electric

Top Ten States by Megawatts of Wind Power Generating Capacity

Total Capacity in MegaWatts (end 2019)

2019 Share of State Electricity Generation

Texas 28,843 16%

Iowa 10,190 34%

Oklahoma 8,172 32%

Kansas 6,128 36%

California 5,973 6%

Illinois 5,350 7%

Minnesota 3,843 18%

Colorado 3,762 17%

North Dakota 3,628 26%

Oregon 3,423 11%

Washington 3,085 6%

Others 23,186

USA Total Wind Capacity 105,583 MW 6.5%

Source: American Wind Energy Assn.: U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report; MW operating as of January 2020


generation in different regions, capacity growth has been the predominant driver of growth in wind generation.

Both hydroelectric and wind generation follow seasonal patterns (see EIA’s chart of monthly generation in this page.) Hydro-electric generation is typically greatest in the spring when precipitation and melting snowpack increase water runoff. Seasonal patterns in wind generation vary across the country, but wind generation is usu-ally greatest in the spring and fall (with, of course, solar greatest in the summer).

As of the end of 2019, the United States had 103 GW of wind capacity, nearly all of which (77%) were installed in the past decade. The United States has 80 GW of hydroelectric capacity, most of which has been operating for several decades. Only 2 GW of hydroelectric capacity has been added in the past decade, and some of those additions involved converting previously non-powered dams.

Although total installed wind capac-ity surpassed total installed hydroelectric capacity in 2016, it wasn’t until 2019 that wind generation surpassed hydroelectric generation. The average annual capacity factors for the hydroelectric fleet between 2009 and 2019 ranged from 35% to 43%. The average annual capacity factors for the U.S. wind fleet were lower, ranging from 28% to 35%. (Capacity factors are the ratio of the electrical energy produced by a gen-erating unit for a specified period of time to the electrical energy that could have been produced at continuous full power opera-tion during the same period.)

Total Global Wind Installs Up 22%On the global front BloombergNEF

(BNEF) reports that global commission-ing of wind turbines was up 22% in 2019, thanks to a bumper year in China and the U.S. and an acceleration of offshore instal-lations, with a further 24% jump to 75 GW is forecasted in 2020. Developers commis-sioned almost 60.7 GW of wind turbines globally in 2019 compared with 50 GW

Power Monthly. Wind now narrowly tops hydroelectricity in renewable electricity generation.

Wind generation totaled 300 million megawatt hours (MWh) in 2019, exceed-ing hydroelectric generation by 26 mil-lion MWh. Wind generation has increased steadily during the past decade, in part because the Production Tax Credit (PTC),

which drove wind capacity additions, was extended, says EIA. Annual hydroelectric generation has fluctuated between 250 mil-lion MWh and 320 million MWh in the past decade, reflecting a stable capacity base and variable annual precipitation. Annual changes in hydroelectric generation are primarily the result of variations in annual precipitation patterns and water runoff. Al-though weather patterns also affect wind


in 2018. Most of 2019 installations were on land (88%) but the share of turbines installed offshore is growing, up four per-centage points to 12%. Just four manu-facturers accounted for more than half, or 55%, of the machines deployed: Denmark’s Vestas, Spain’s Siemens Gamesa, China’s Goldwind, and General Electric of the U.S. BNEF data show that Vestas remained the world’s leading turbine maker in 2019,

while a busy year offshore propelled Siemens Gamesa to second place, up from fourth in 2018. Nearly half of all new megawatts in-stalled in the U.S. were from GE, enabling it to seize the top spot in its home market from Vestas. GE outperformed its rival by commissioning 40% more than it had in 2018, while Vestas’ U.S. installation total was stable. Siemens Gamesa enjoyed the biggest bounce of any of the players in the

U.S., tripling its 2018 numbers and taking over the third place from Nordex.

Weaker activity in specific markets hit some firms. Enercon and Senvion saw commissioned capacity plummet as Ger-many’s onshore wind market collapsed due to a shortage of available sites, litigation and drawn-out lead times for projects. Suzlon suffered a similar fate in India, where proj-ect execution challenges resulted in installa-tions falling short of expectations.

Total onshore wind additions in 2019 were 13.3 GW in the Americas, 9 GW in Europe and 0.5 MW in Africa and the Middle East, while Asia Pacific accounted for 30.4 GW, according to BNEF’s data-base. Siemens Gamesa’s retains the number one position in the offshore wind market after more than doubling its installations compared with 2018. The company com-missioned almost two gigawatts in the U.K. alone, including the 1.2 GW Hornsea Proj-ect One.

Tom Harries, head of wind research at BNEF, said: “This bumper year for offshore wind is just the start. If you look past a likely blip in 2020, installations are set to accelerate, breaking the 10 GW-a-year bar-rier in 2023. This growth outlook has led to intense competition between turbine mak-ers. At the moment, the advantage lies with the manufacturer selling the most powerful turbine. Industrializing the production of a slightly smaller turbine through higher volumes could lower costs and prices. The opportunities for turbine makers to offset lower prices with long-term maintenance contracts is less clear than it is in onshore wind.”

GWEC Reports on America, Mideast & Africa

Meanwhile the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) released some initial reports on 2019 installations in February 2020, showing that North, Central and South America and the Caribbean installed 13,427 MW capacity of onshore wind

Global Wind Energy Turbines: 2017-2019 by GW Commissioned

Source: CCBJ, adapted from figures published mostly by Bloomberg NEF amd company sources

7.5 10.1 9.6

5.46.7 8.34.95.0

7.46.84.1

8.8

22.4 19.6

27.8

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

2017 GW 2018 GW 2019 GW

Vestas Goldw ind GE Renew able Energy Siemens Gamesa Others

USA Wind Energy Services Market ($billion)

Source: CCBJ model of the global wind industry derived from GWEA, AWEA, EER, BTM, U.S. DOE, Bloomberg NEF and other sources.

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Operation & Maintenance

Construction

Consulting & Engineering


Global & USA Wind Energy Industry $ Billion in Revenues2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

Global Market

Turbine Sales 65,190 50,220 64,200 67,320 57,020 47,710 46,600 49,660 52,730

Electricity Sales/Value 54,040 62,920 76,440 90,020 100,970 116,150 132,600 151,220 163,900

Consulting & Engineering 2,220 2,700 2,550 2,380 2,260 2,140 2,290 2,360 2,410

Construction 13,510 10,090 13,310 14,880 13,240 12,060 10,970 11,700 12,440

Operation & Maintenance 3,360 3,630 4,170 4,550 5,140 5,480 5,790 6,240 6,720

Global Total 138,320 129,580 160,670 179,160 178,640 183,530 198,250 221,180 238,200

US Wind Energy Market

Turbine Sales 13,400 2,190 6,610 8,850 8,330 6,250 6,590 8,280 9,760

Electricity Sales/Value 10,590 11,030 12,700 13,790 15,790 17,710 19,820 22,410 24,770

Consulting & Engineering 100 210 220 210 170 190 260 230 150

Construction 3,780 710 1,810 2,380 2,390 2,070 2,030 2,580 2,910

Operation & Maintenance 710 700 740 780 870 900 940 1,020 1,120

USA Total 28,590 14,830 22,090 26,010 27,540 27,130 29,640 34,520 38,710

Source: CCBJ model of the global wind industry derived from GWEA, AWEA, EER, BTM, U.S. DOE, Bloomberg NEF and other sources.

power in 2019, an increase of 12% over 2018. In Canada and the U.S., new capac-ity additions grew by 18% while elsewhere in the Americas new capacity additions de-creased by 5%. The U.S. saw an installation rush last year with nearly 10 GW installed, driven primarily by the Production Tax Credit (PTC) phase-out that is expected to continue driving installations in 2020, says GWEC, while the recently approved one-year PTC extension is likely to create another installation rush in 2024. In Cen-tral and South America and the Caribbean, strong growth has occurred in key mar-kets such as Mexico, Argentina and Brazil. However, the outlook for wind power in the next two to three years in some of these markets – namely Argentina and Brazil – is threatened by regulatory and political chal-lenges.

GWEC notes that the offshore market in the U.S. is progressing, with the first large-scale installations expected in 2022-2023 and more than 10 GW expected to be built by 2026. Brazil is also looking to tap into

the offshore market and has the potential to deploy as much as 700 GW of offshore wind, according to a roadmap for offshore wind released by the country’s Energy Re-search Office (EPE) in January 2020.

Ben Backwell, CEO of GWEC, said: “It is encouraging to see that installation levels for wind energy in the Americas are continuing to rise. However, policymakers need to be doing more to accelerate these volumes and take advantage of the full potential wind power has to offer. Mean-while, the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China continues to constitute a threat for the industry, as tariffs on steel and aluminium, which make up about 90% of wind turbines, put price pressure on the US supply chain and risk increasing wind power projects by as much as 10%.”

Ramón Fiestas, Chair of GWEC’s Latin America Committee, said: “Latin America has massive potential for wind energy, and we have seen many countries in the region emerge in recent years as renewable energy

leaders through auctions which have deliv-ered wind energy at some of the most com-petitive prices globally. New markets such as Colombia, which successfully executed its first renewable energy auction in 2019, and existing ones like Chile, which saw a record year installing 526 MW, show that there is still great untapped potential in the region. Yet, with the cancelling of planned auctions and changes to the clean energy credits scheme in Mexico in 2019 as well as political and economic shifts in Argentina leading to uncertainty for future auctions, these key markets risk losing the momen-tum which they have worked so hard to create and missing out on a massive oppor-tunity to transform their energy systems to cleaner and cheaper wind power.”

GWEC reported that Africa and the Middle East installed 894 MW of wind energy capacity in 2019, a decrease of 7% from 2018 installations. Total installed wind capacity in Africa and the Middle East is now over 6 GW, still a small fraction of the global total of about 660 GW.


U.S. Electricity Generation Annual Energy Outlook ‘Reference Case’ for 2010-2050

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration; Annual Energy Outlook

0

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

3000000

3500000

4000000

4500000

1949 1953 1957 1961 1965 1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 2001 2005 2009 2013 2017

Wind

Solar

Geothermal

Waste

Wood

Conventional Hydroelectric Power

Nuclear Electric Power

Natural Gas

Petroleum

Coal

Annual U.S. Electricity Net Generation: 1950-2020

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration; units in thousand Megawatt-hours


Wind energy capacity is expected to surge by 11 GW over next five years, driven by installations in South Africa (3.3 GW), Egypt (1.8 GW), Morocco (1.2 GW) and Saudi Arabia (1.2 GW). Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Ethiopia led 2019 installations in the region.

Jon Lezamiz, African Market Develop-ment Director at Siemens Gamesa and Chair of GWEC’s Africa Task Force, com-mented: “Africa and the Middle East are endowed with fantastic wind resources, and the industry is committed to supporting policymakers in the region to reap the ben-efits wind power can provide for their en-ergy systems and economy. In those coun-tries with proper frameworks and stable bankable pipelines, we are already seeing a local supply chain being developed, such as Siemens Gamesa’s blade factory in Moroc-co, to meet wind energy demand increases while providing local jobs to build a long-term industry and economic opportunity in the region. We see many exciting develop-ments in the region including construction starting on hybrid renewable projects, in-creases in regional cooperation and opening of markets to corporate PPAs, all of which we are convinced will drive growth in the coming years.

1950-2050: A Century of U.S. Electricity Generation Trends

The history of electricity generation in the United States provides a fascinating graph but little insight into the future. The charts on page 39 illustrate the history of generation from 1950 to the present based on total megawatt hours generated and pri-mary source. Below this chart appear two recently released scenarios for electricity generation 1) by all fuels and 2) by renew-able sources from 2010 to 2050.

Noteworthy observations of this data are that the increments of years to generate the next 10000 MW hours of electricity each year are increasing over time. Over 10000 MW hours were generated in the year

Monthly U.S. Net Electricity Generation in thousand MWh: Coal vs. Wind vs. Solar, 2000-2020

Monthly U.S. Net Electricity Generation in thousand MWh: Wind vs. Solar, 2000-2020

2019 U.S. Net Electricity Generation in thousand MWh

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration; units in thousand Megawatt-hours

0

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coa l thousand megawatthours

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wind thousand megawatthours

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coal24%

natural gas39%

nuclear20%

conventional hydroelectric

7%

wind7%

all solar3%


1964, and it took 12 years to pass 20000 MW hours, another 14 years to pass 30000 MW hours, and then another 17 years to pass 40000 MW hours in 2007; and elec-tricity generated has hovered around 40000 MW hours a year since. EIA Reference case scenario for 2050 has a total of 4000 bil-lion kilowatt hours, to use their preferred unit, increasing to about 7000 billion kilo-watt hours in 2050, largely because of the growing trend of the electrification of the economy reaching deeper into transporta-tion and buildings.

From a source standpoint looking back-wards, steady growth into the 2000s was driven primarily by coal and then the ad-dition of nuclear in the 1960s along with the steady presence of hydro. Nuclear power grew steadily along with generation at around 20% of the pie for some time, and has leveled off as the overall generation has also leveled off in the last 10 years. The contribution of natural gas is the most no-ticeable since the turn of the century, but the presence of wind in particular and to a lesser extent solar does now register visually on the 50 year history chart.

From a source standpoint looking into the future, notable trends are the increas-ing share of both natural gas and renew-ables and the basically flat contribution of coal and nuclear in the EIA forecast from 2020 to 2050, which EBI feels is highly unlikely. Considerable investment has been made, and billions is what are often called ‘sunk costs’ have been made, in the coal and nuclear fleets that together accounted for 44% of 2019 U.S. generation as illustrated on the pie chart at the bottom of page 39. This combined figure is down from 72% as recently as 2001 when coal was 51% and nuclear 21% of U.S. generation, and wind was only 0.2%. The contribution of coal is likely to decrease in the 2020s, although if it did equally as dramatically as it did in the 2010s when it dropped 21 percentage points it would be at 2-3% in 2030, hard to conceive given the existing fleet and pro-jected lifecycle of it. Regarding nuclear, cer-tainly we can conceive scenarios where the

share will increase especially with smaller modular reactors and related technologies become commercially viable as presented at EBJ’s Washington DC Environmental Industry Summit in October, 2019 and detailed by EBJ federal analyst Andrew Pa-terson. In addition, more aggressive GHG or carbon emissions regulations, or market based climate and carbon emissions poli-cies that most environmental economists would prefer as a carbon tax, will support long-term investment and growing share of nuclear.

The EIA forecast that renewables even-tually surpass natural gas in terms of annual generation is entirely plausible and maybe even sooner than 2045. Similarly the sce-nario where solar supersedes wind inside the renewable portfolio is also plausible, but by no means certain, although one would acknowledge that the pure acreage of available resources for solar generation is more abundant than for wind. Inside re-newable is again a ‘flatline’ for hydro and geothermal that in EBJ’s opinion seems to be pretty unlikely all the way to 2050, but we do understand that the case presented graphically at the bottom right of page 39 is EIA’s ‘Reference Case’. Admittedly the scenario for the continued level production of hydro assets is entirely logical, although that assumes a relatively flat overall level of electricity generation and relatively stable precipitation scenario that most of climate scenario planners would deem highly un-likely. Geothermal could be argued to be still a largely untapped resource, and the intriguing category of “other” will continue to attract scientists and technology devel-opers across the spectrum. Tidal energy or the proverbial summoning beacon of fusion nuclear power that has been a generation away since seemingly at least the 1970s.

2000-2020: Two Decades of Renewable Electricity Penetration

The first 20 years of the 21st century have seen quite a transition in the U.S. electrical economy, and the emergence of renewable energy from a proverbial drop

in the bucket to more than a bucket in of itself. The three charts on page 39 illustrate some notable facts and trends that will likely impact planning and implementation over the next 20 years.

Comparing coal with wind and solar over this 20 year time frame illustrates what can fairly be characterized as an era of “peak coal” from 2000 to 2008. Here coal con-sumption and output of electricity from coal was remarkably consistent year-by-year with the obvious seasonal variations of win-ter heating and summer air conditioning, as illustrated on the monthly chart. This pe-riod also coincided with a relatively robust economy and consistent demand for power. But as the chart illustrates, the contribution of wind power in the 2000s was infinitesi-mal, and solar electricity generation didn’t even register until 2013. The 2010s ushered in the hydraulic fracturing or the “fracking era” and the era of cheap gas which was the largest contributor to the dramatic decline of coal electricity generation over the de-cade, although efficiencies, fiscal policy and investments in renewable energy played a not insignificant role still more influential than any climate policy.

A more granular look at solar & wind generation by month on the second chart highlights the peaks & valleys of the inter-mittent sources of wind & solar. And in-termittency is an important term, as it is usually the most frequently cited obstacle to full-on solar and wind implementation, with land use and cost-efficient storage also significant factors. The chart’s peaks & valleys show wind generation is more variable and therefore less predictable than solar. Also wind power generation most frequently hits peak generation in spring and fall. Solar’s peak is in the summer and therefore complements wind, highlighting the power gap of the winter months. Win-ter is the season when “baseline generation” of fossil and nuclear will have to fill in, say many analysts-until efficient storage comes of scale or some alternative strategy, usage pattern or fuel source is developed.


EIA in its own reporting highlighted the fact that wind passed hydroelectric in 2019 in generation and in 2016 in capacity as previously noted, but the chart on page 39 illustrates EIA’s assumption in its Reference Model that renewables will overtake coal in generation in 2021.

Short-term planning certainly indicates positive trends for both solar and wind util-ity scale applications, as well as distributed installations. Tax credits and other fiscal policies will have an enduring impact on the investment and installation cycles of both of these renewable sources, but will have a diminishing effect as markets, and corresponding policy instruments, evolve. Long term, the costs and efficiencies of storage, as well as the evolution of the grid, ‘smart grids’, micro-grids and the U.S. spaghetti=bowl of a transmission system, will have a significant impact on the source mix in the 2020s.

Investment approaches of all of these key players, that each will be impacted by possi-bly separate but overlapping issues, will im-pact the future of electricity generation in the United States, and indeed the rest of the world, and possibly in other parts of the so-lar system. Investor-owned power utilities, state-owned power companies, and quasi-state power entities, as well as independent power producers or IPPs, as well as major power-using corporations and institutions like universities, prisons and hospitals will have independent, but likely public-policy driven and even possibly coordinated, ap-proaches to generation, storage, self-suf-ficiency and usage during the 2020s. No wonder scenario planning is more than a commodity service in today’s’ high-value market for executive or C-level consulting services, enhancing the value of full-spec-trum perspective for the consultants firms, business units and experts operating in the market.

CCBJ Data Highlights ServicesClimate Change Business Journal has

spent considerable time and effort over the

last decade on defining and quantifying the climate change industry. A major segment is Clean Energy Systems & Power (also used in EBJ’s classification of the environmental industry), also referred to as Low Carbon Power, with wind energy as the most sig-nificant contributor in annual revenues to that segment.

The table on page 38 illustrates the result of our accumulated research, dividing the wind energy industry into five distinct seg-ments and portraying both the total global market and the United States market.

As part of CCBJ’s analysis we do count the value of the electricity generated, whether consumed by the generator or sold through the retail power utility system or analogous businesses around the world. Similarly we count turbine sales in dollars of revenue generated each year, complementing existing non-monetary statistics for power generated in megawatt hours, or for turbines sold based on megawatts of capacity.

The steady growth of wind energy gen-erated has led to the increasing share of the global wind energy business being represented by power sales of the value of power generated: The current forecast for 2020 being $164 billion worth of electric-ity out of a $238 billion global wind energy business, according to CCBJ’s model that

incorporates regional pricing trends. The U.S. market exhibits similar proportions with about $25 billion worth of power ex-pected to be generated in the year 2020 out of a total wind energy industry of close to $39 billion.

Electricity prices are on a largely differ-ent cycle than turbine prices, but price is a significant factor in both of these two major categories. Continued demand for electric-ity as the electrification of the economy strengthens in the 2020s, is sustainable if not on a positive trajectory as vehicles and the built environment increasingly converts over, bolstering price forecasts for electric-ity. Turbine prices however, will be more significantly impacted by competitive fac-tors illustrated in the subsequent article on turbine manufacturing trends and global leaders, although demand will always play a role, along with financial incentives, in emerg-ing markets in particular.

In services, construction contracts have always represented the largest portion of revenues, but they haven't quite proceeded in lockstep with turbine sales, although they are obviously linked by the project de-velopment cycle. Likewise linked frequently are the front-end services of consulting and engineering (most commonly planning and permitting but also specialty site evaluation

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

Wind

Solar

OtherRenewable

Gas

Coal

Contribution Of Generation Types In U.S. Annual Capacity Additions1998-2018

Source: U.S. DOE; 2018 Wind Technologies Market Report, released in 2019


ElectricityGenerationCapacityAdditionsbyU.S.Region(2009-2018)

GenerationType West Interior GreatLakes Southeast Northeast U.S.Total

Wind 10.0 49.0 9.0 0.8 3.7 72.4

Solar 27.9 5.3 0.7 10.2 7.3 51.3

OtherRenewable 3.1 0.7 0.5 2.1 0.6 7.1

NaturalGas 14.7 22.8 7.8 42.6 16.7 104.7

Coal 0.5 8.4 4.1 4.9 0.0 17.8

Othernon-Renewable 0.5 0.7 0.2 2.3 0.9 4.6

Total 57 87 22 63 29 258

Source: U.S. DOE; 2018 Wind Technologies Market Report, released in 2019

CumulativeCapacityAdditions(GW)

and design services). The growing opera-tions and maintenance or O&M market is a more consistently growing platform and also more closely linked to the growing base of generation assets as exhibited by the growth of electricity value. The O&M mar-ket has attracted more and more attention from global turbine companies as discussed in the following article, with leading manu-facturers generating a growing portion of revenues from operations.

Varying shares of commissioned installa-tions in GW of the global leaders are por-

trayed on page 37, with the top four repre-senting more than half of the 2019 market in a consolidating business sector. Leaders and close followers mostly exhibit a global focus and an emphasis on off-shore, tech-nology and digital improvements, and mul-tiple brands, in addition to a growing com-mitment to recurring revenues of service contracts as part of their strategies.

The U.S. wind energy services market is illustrated at the bottom of page 37 and shows the dominant portion of construc-tion on the revenue pie, the leaders of which

are profiled in snapshot on page 34. Annual trends in overall growth of services are also evident over the last decade on the chart. The year 2013 saw a major drop off with the expiration of the production tax credit (PTC) program the previous year, although subsequent years show relatively notice-able more consistent growth; and similar to global markets, a more consistently grow-ing market for O&M services in the United States. Consulting and engineering, while hardly registering on the chart, does rep-resent a not insignificant annual market of about $200 million. R


The On-Shore Wind Industry Faces Maturing Stages of Consolidation in Turbine Manufacturing in the 2020sLeading manufacturers invest in turbine improvements and software solutions.

The maturing wind power industry could be in the final stages of consolidation, according to industry experts, with five manufacturers expected to dominate the market globally before the end of the decade, and three or possibly even two

OEMs excluding China.

According to Shashi Barla, principal analyst for Global Wind Supply Chain and Tech-nology at Wood Mackenzie (London, UK), Vestas claimed the number one ranking again in 2019 with 18.7% global market share, followed by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), Goldwind, GE and Envision. The combined global market share of top five turbine OEMs was around 71% in 2019 up from 47% five years ago. Wood Mackenzie predicts that the top five leading OEMs by 2028 will garner 76% global share. Chinese leaders, Goldwind and Envision, rank in the top five OEMs worldwide, and increased activity by Chinese OEMs will result in five Chinese companies in the top 10 by 2028, Barla noted.

ing to Deutsche Welle, nationwide only 35 new windmills with a combined output of 290 megawatts (MW) were installed in the first half of 2019, down 80% from the same period of 2018 and the lowest in two de-cades.

Siemens Increases Stake In SGREIn February 2020, Siemens AG an-

nounced purchasing the Spanish utility Iberdrola’s 8% stake in SGRE for €1.1 bil-lion. Siemens will transfer the shares to its future Siemens Energy unit, combining it with its gas and power business. “Siemens Gamesa is a vital cornerstone in the new Siemens Energy portfolio in order to shape the necessary energy transition from con-ventional to renewable energy,” said CEO Joe Kaeser. Siemens Energy will now hold about 67% of SGRE. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy was formed in 2017 through a merger of Gamesa of Spain and Siemen’s wind energy business.

Suzlon Still Teetering in IndiaAfter talks with potential buyers col-

lapsed, wind turbine maker Suzlon En-ergy (Pune, India) and its bankers are still reportedly working on a debt restructur-ing program to avoid bankruptcy court. In 2012, Suzlon failed to repay $209 million of convertible debt, causing India’s biggest

convertible-bond default, and has yet to dig itself out of debt. The Indian OEM posted a net loss of 7.43 billion rupees ($104 mil-lion) for its financial quarter ended Decem-ber 31, 2019. In India, Suzlon has lost its leadership position to SGRE, according to a study by BloombergNEF. Formerly ranked among the top six wind turbine suppliers globally, Suzlon no longer makes the top 10.

Acciona Bids For NordexSpanish renewable energy developer and

infrastructure company Acciona merged its turbine business with Nordex in 2016, giving Acciona a nearly 30% share in the publicly traded company at that time. In October 2019 Acciona raised its stake to 36%-above the 30% level that triggers a mandatory takeover bid under German law. The capital increase was valued at €99 million and intended to strengthen Nor-dex’s balance sheet in a challenging market environment and reinforce Acciona’s long-term commitment to Nordex. However, in a statement at the end of December 2019, Nordex abstained from making a recom-mendation to shareholders regarding a ten-der offer, stating the consideration, while fair in reflecting the current period of up-heaval in the wind power industry, did not fairly reflect Nordex’ medium- to long-term value potential.

Investments and Tuck-In Acquisitions

Consolidation isn’t the only way turbine makers invested to increase efficiencies in a competitive market. Other advantages are being accrued from investment in digi-tal technology to help reduce outages and streamline maintenance.

GE estimates that by deploying its Digi-tal Wind Farm solutions and wind turbine software, the wind industry could save as much as $10 billion a year. Wood Macken-zie suggests digital technology will unlock O&M efficiency gain by potentially reduc-ing unplanned repairs – estimated to nearly

When announcing FY2019 results Markus Tacke, CEO of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE, Zamudio, Spain), told reporters that pricing pressure and regulatory uncertainty would persist in 2020 creating conditions for a “transitional year.” Excluding Chinese OEMs, “We see four players going forward. Two of them are struggling and two are on the strong side.” (Tacke was referring to his own company and most likely Vestas as the stronger pair.)

SGRE Acquires SenvionIn 2019 German turbine maker Senvion

went into voluntary administration, with most of its assets subsequently acquired by SGRE. This included Senvion’s intellec-tual property, a blade facility in Portugal, and its European service business. The deal added an estimated €150 million in reve-nue, approximately 9 GW of serviced fleet, operations in 13 countries, in addition to strengthening SGRE’s multibrand strategy.

Germany’s onshore wind industry crum-pled in 2018-19, causing problems above all for turbine makers that depend heavily on the domestic market. Instrumental in Senvion’s downfall was the introduction of power contract auctions in Germany. To-day’s much slower permitting process and related lawsuits continue to put a sharp break on wind farm development. Accord-


double over the next 10 years. Unplanned repairs are expected to cost the global wind onshore industry approximately $14 billion by the end of the decade up from the cur-rent $8 billion, Wood Mackenzie recently reported in its “Onshore Wind O&M Technology Outlook.”

Leading firms also made smaller acqui-sitions to strengthen their presence in ser-vices, technology and project development. In 2019, Vestas acquired a minority stake in SoWiTec Group GmbH, a sustainable energy developer with a broad portfolio of renewable projects. Vestas also took over RES America Developments Inc.’s (RES) share in Roaring Fork Wind LLC, a co-development joint venture between Vestas’ wholly owned subsidiary Steelhead Ameri-cas and RES.

Technology Advantage MagnifiedTurbine OEMs are continuing to fo-

cus on improved technologies to lower the levelized cost of electricity. The investment required also brings more pressure to bear on smaller companies. More than 70 new onshore and offshore wind turbines were introduced in 2019, reflecting an increase of 32% compared to 2018, according to Wood MacKenzie.

In 2019,Vestas invested €729 million in technology and took a leap into modular product development by introducing the EnVentus platform.

GE secured nearly 5 GW of commit-ments for its new offshore wind turbine, the Haliade-X, recognized by Time magazine as one of the top 100 inventions of 2019 in the Sustainability category.

Nordex introduced new turbine models and expanded production capacity world-wide. In the fourth quarter, more than half of its volume was attributable to its Delta4000 series. This latest generation of turbines already makes up 44% of all orders for the full year, the company said.R

Wind Turbine Manufacturers Report Record Orders In 2019

Leading wind turbine manufactur-ers reported record orders in 2019 despite ongoing pricing pressure,

trade wars, and regulatory uncertainty in some markets.

According to global research and consul-tancy business Wood Mackenzie (London, UK), last year saw nearly 100GW of global wind turbine order capacity, shattering the previous record set in 2018. This record de-mand resulted in an estimated $78 billion in wind turbine order capacity in 2019, $25 billion of which is attributed to Q4 2019.

Vestas Leads Industry, Reports Record Order Intake In Tough Market

Vestas Wind Systems A/S (Aarhus, Denmark) installed its first wind turbine in Jutland, Denmark in 1979. Forty years on, despite challenges from trade wars and tar-iffs, Vestas reported 20% revenue growth to around €12.15 billion in 2019, EBIT mar-gin of 8.3%, and record-breaking onshore order intake for the year corresponding to a value of €13.8 billion.

“Wind energy manifested its position as a leading global energy source in 2019, driving Vestas’ order intake to a record 17.9 GW,” said Henrik Andersen, Group Presi-dent and CEO-up 26% for the year.

The United States represented the com-pany’s largest market in 2019, and while traditionally strong markets such as Ger-many and India remained in a state of un-certainty, others such as Brazil, Poland, and Australia showed progress, Vestas reported.

Vestas’s EBIT margin was 8% in 2019 compared to 9% in the prior year, main-ly due to lower gross profit margin and higher capacity costs related to trade wars and tariffs. Service businesses are proving an increasingly important stabilizer for the

competitive turbine business, and Vestas was no exception: “Once again, our Service business delivered year-on-year growth and improved profitability, underlining its stra-tegic importance in a tough market.”

For 2020, Vestas expects revenue to range between €14-15 billion, includ-ing service revenue, which is expected to grow by approximately 7%, with a service EBIT margin of approximately 25% and an equipment EBIT margin of 7-9%.

“We remain focused on executing our strategy and pushing the industry to higher levels on technology, profitability and sus-tainability,” Andersen said.

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Reports Strong FY2019

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE, Zamudio, Vizcaya, Spain) closed fiscal year ended September 30, 2019 with a 12% year-on-year revenue increase to €10.2 billion while doubling its net income to €140 million compared to FY 2018. “There is no question that wind energy is coming of age and is now leading the en-ergy transformation which is so critical to tackling climate change,” said Markus Tacke, SGRE’s CEO.

All SGRE business units increased reve-nue compared to last year: Onshore by 7%, Offshore by 18%, and Service by 17%. The solid performance was attributed to sig-nificant public and institutional attention in 2019 “that accelerating investment in clean energies is vital to respond to climate change.”

Siemens Gamesa logged strong order intake in its onshore business, up 4.8% in megawatt terms, with the U.S. contributing 27% and India 20%, followed by Chile and China at 7% each. The company’s offshore unit registered double-digit growth up 11% thanks to new markets, notably Taiwan.

Siemens Gamesa’s service orders in-creased by 13.4% in FY 2019 to €2.7 billion, with the Service business unit ac-


counting for nearly half of the company‘s order book (47%). Order backlog rose a record 12% year-on-year to €25.5 billion.

Price pressure continues to impact the wind industry‘s margins and with profit-ability and competitiveness top of mind, SGRE said it plans to reduce its global team of up to 600 white-collar headcount world-wide over the next two years.

Despite SGRE’s strong year in 2019, predicting the fortunes of the global wind industry is never straightforward. In the three months to December 2019 SGRE re-ported a net loss of $192.34 million due to project delays caused by harsh weather in Europe.

GE Thrives In Home Market But Profitability A Challenge

GE Renewable Energy (Boston and Paris), a division of General Electric, contin-ues to thrive on robust U.S. demand, with the United States contributing 48% of GE’s global installations in 2019. In addition, GE has successfully diversified into other re-gions in Europe and APAC, primarily Spain, Sweden, Australia and India, according to Shashi Barla, principal analyst for Global Wind Supply Chain and Technology at Wood Mackenzie.

However, GE’s global market share in wind is lower compared to Vestas and SGRE due to serving fewer markets: “Both Vestas and SGRE have wider market reach with 45-plus countries and 40-plus coun-tries, respectively on an annual basis com-pared to GE positioned in 35-plus mar-kets,” observed Barla.

GE’s primary challenge is profitability. The GE Renewable Energy segment [wind, grid solutions, services/products for hydro] recorded a loss of $666 million in 2019 despite a 7% increase in revenues to $15.3 billion.

“GE must establish even stronger foot-holds in some of the emerging markets, and needs a more robust product portfolio to

compete with Vestas and SGRE,” Barla sug-gested, adding that GE has been struggling to gain share in the European markets pri-marily attributed to less competitive prod-ucts against peers.

GE Renewable Energy highlights in 2019 were total orders of $16.9 billion, up 10% for the year, with backlog up 16% to over $27.5 billion.

GE has also made positive strides with its Cypress platform, taking more than 1,000 MW of orders for Cypress turbines, the company’s most powerful onshore wind turbine with a rotor diameter twice the length of a Boeing 747.

GE also secured 1,215 MW of onshore wind orders or commitments in China, in addition to signing offshore wind com-mitments for nearly 5 GW in the UK and United States.

Just as renewable energy sources are be-coming an inextricable part of the electrical grid, GE announced the consolidation of its Grid Solutions business into GE Renew-able Energy, which comprises a streamlined portfolio of GE’s onshore and offshore

wind projects as well as hydro, grid assets, and hybrid renewables including solar and storage systems.

Nordex Reports Strong Orders In Transitional Year

In 2018 the German wind turbine mar-ket faced an unprecedented decline in vol-umes that demonstrated to Nordex Group (Hamburg, Germany) how important it is to have a global presence. In 2018 revenue declined by 20% to €2.45 billion, and 2019 became a year of transition. Last year, con-solidated sales increased to €3.28 billion up from €2.46 billion the previous year, according to preliminary figures. In 2019 EBITDA rose by 21.7% to €123.8 million from €101.7 million.

“Nordex managed to turn around the company in the past 12-24 months, with an increased pace of new product intro-duction,” said Barla. “Early positioning of the 4.X/5.XMW platforms resulted in in-creased order intake in the past two years.... Nordex should focus on project execution and timely commissioning of projects/tur-

Top Global Wind Turbine Manufacturers in 2019 (GW commissioned)

Source: BloombergNEF; units in gigawatts commissioned wind capacity in 2019; global total was 60.7 GW; Vestas

capacity does not include MHI Vestas capacity, a joint venture with Mitsubishi.


bines in 2020 to increase market share and revenue.”

Overall, the Nordex Group received or-ders to deliver 1,616 wind turbines in 2019 with a total output of 6,207 MW, represent-ing a 31% increase on the previous year. Or-der intake was attributable to orders from Europe (51%), North America (28%) and Latin America (18%). In Europe, demand from Turkey, Spain, the Netherlands and market entry in the Ukraine compensated for the continued weakness of the German market. “Demand for our wind turbines is very strong around the world,” said José Luis Blanco, CEO of the Nordex Group.

Enercon: Second Year of LossesFacing immense cost pressure and tough

competition from major global compa-nies, Enercon GmbH, which is rooted in the German market, has been severely challenged. Greentech Media reported in December 2019 that Enercon, with an es-timated 53% share of the German onshore market in 2018, saw its first-ever loss that year of €200 million.

Attributing the downturn to failed gov-ernment policy reforms, CEO Hans-Dieter Kettwig said in late 2019 the company was “suffering significant losses.” At the end of 2019, Enercon announced it was cutting 3,000 jobs or 17% of total staff, accord-ing to industry sources cited by the news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (DPA). “The current energy and climate policy not only jeopardizes know-how and jobs created in our industry over the years, but also climate protection and the energy transition as a whole,” Kettwig told DPA.

In 2019 Enercon also reported a com-prehensive turnaround program to get back on the road to profitability and speed up the company’s pivot towards international markets, new business segments, and glo-balization of its supply chain and all of its divisions from sales to project management.

Record Wind Turbine Capacity Ordered Globally in 2019Analysis of global turbine orders finds China integral to growth both onshore and off.

by Wood MacKenzie

Global wind turbine order intake increased by 8.4GW in Q4 2019 and 39GW for the full year, according to new analysis by global research and consul-tancy business Wood MacKenzie (Global Wind Turbine Order Analysis: Q1

2020). China was integral to this growth, both onshore and offshore, with developers in the country ordering an astounding 50GW of wind turbine capacity in 2019. A per-fect demand storm last year yielded three consecutive quarters of 12GW-plus of wind turbine order intake in China.

“Demand in China was primarily driven by the expiration of the feed-in-tariff (FIT) but was also enabled by new transmission capacity and the easing of red warnings in Northern provinces,” said Luke Lewandowski, Wood Mackenzie Research Director. Global offshore order intake reached 17GW last year, with orders in China accounting for 76% of total demand.

“A nearly 2GW surge in offshore orders in Taiwan last year – and to a lesser extent in Vietnam – resulted in firm offshore wind turbine order intake in Asia Pacific, excluding China, exceeding offshore order intake in Europe for the first time within the annual period,” added Lewandowski.

Demand for 4MW-plus onshore turbine platforms increased by 202% year-over-year, with a remarkable 8GW ordered in China alone. According to Wood Mackenzie’s figures, developers globally ordered more than 1GW for seven different onshore tur-bine models rated at 4MW or higher last year.

Lewandowski said: “A lower share of orders for offshore projects in Europe lowered the global average turbine rating for offshore orders to 5.8GW. However, increasing demand in China for turbines in the 6-8MW class and accelerated commercialization of offshore models rated more than 10MW have increased the market’s average rating year-over-year.”

Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas dominated in 2019. The company won the most wind turbine order capacity in every quarter, averaging 4.5GW per quarter and nearly 18GW for the year. “Chinese OEMs claimed six spots in the full year top 10 ranking for order intake, led by SEwind which recorded 4.9GW of offshore orders. This was the first time a non-Western OEM won the top spot for the sector,” added Lewandowski.

“Enercon must focus on cost competi-tiveness across the board spanning from the cost of technology, procurement costs and compelling commercial offerings in con-tract negotiations,” Barla noted. In addition the company must continue to innovate and rapidly introduce next-generation tur-bines, leverage independent suppliers, and and shut down in-house manufacturing footprint in high-cost European markets.

On the bright side, “Enercon’s new EP3 platform garnered huge success with more than 3GW of projects in the backlog to-day.” Another bright spot for Enercon at the end of last year was a contract with a Chilean utility to supply 132 machines for the country’s biggest-ever wind farm, a 607-megawatt project to be commissioned in 2024. R


CLIMATE CHANGE BUSINESS JOURNALCOMPANY INDEX

AECOM 3

Albireo Energy 10

American Shore and Beach Preservation Association 18

Anthesis Group 10

Aware Vehicles 24

BlackRock Inc. 25

Black & Veatch 4, 9, 23, 24

Blattner Energy 34

BloombergNEF 36, 44

BrainBox AI 30

BrownFlynn 1, 13, 14

BrownFlynn Ltd 13

Built Robotics 24

Burns & McDonnell 4

Carbon Disclosure Project 15

CO2 Solutions Inc. 6

Committee on Climate Change 16

Commonwealth Edison Co. 2

Datamaran 14

EA Engineering Science and Technology 3,18, 21

ecoSPEARS 24

EcoVadis 18, 19

EDF Renewable Energy 34

Electriphi 24

Enercon GmbH 47

Environmental Consulting & Technology 3

ERM 8, 14

Extensible Energy 24

First Solar 34

Four Twenty Seven 25

G20 Financial Stability Board 14

GameChange Solar 10

GE Renewable Energy 6, 46

GE 44, 46

Global Wind Energy Council 37

Goldwind 44

Greater Than 6

HANA Resources 6

Hazen and Sawyer 5

Iberdrola 44

ICF 8

IEA Renewable Energy 34

InfraLytiks 24

Jacobs 5, 29

Kansas City Economic Development Council’ 24

Kleinschmidt Associates 6

Korea Environment Corporation 9

LevelTen Energy 10, 21

Mabbett & Associates Ltd 1, 16

Mabbett & Associates Ltd. (UK) 7

Moody’s Corp. 9

Moody’s Corporation 25, 28

Moody’s Investors Service 25

Mortenson Construction 34

National Fish and Wildlife Foundation 19

Nordex Group 46

NovoNutrients 24

PBC 3

Quanta Power Generation 34

RES America Developments Inc. 45

Rincon Consultants 2

Rincon Consultants Inc. 11

RiskFirst 25

Rosendin Electric 34

RES Americas 34

Sentry Electrical Group 34

Senvion 44

SIA Solutions 5

Siemens Gamesa 44, 45

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy 44

Solutions, Weston 7

SoWiTec Group GmbH 45

Steelhead Americas 45

Sunnova Energy International Inc. 10

SustainAbility 1, 13, 14, 19

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board 14

SustainAbility Ltd. 13

Sustainalytics. 15

Suzlon Energy 44

SynTao 25

Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure 14

Tetra Tech 4

The Ramboll Group 9

Trihydro Corp. 7

United Nations Global Compact 19

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 19

U.S. Energy Information Administration 35

Vestas 44

Vestas Wind Systems A/S 45

VigeoEiris 25

Wanzek Construction 34

Weston Solutions 4

Willdan Group Inc. 10

Wood Mackenzie 44, 45, 46

Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables 44, 46

First Quarter 2020Volume XII, No. 10-11-12

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Volume XII, No. 10-11-12 First Quarter 2020 CCBJ 2019 Business · Environmental Consulting &...

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