Research necessary to Transition to a Low Carbon Society by Promoting the Manufacturing of Low Carbon Products through a Market Driven Carbon Reduction Mechanism.
CO2e Research Foundation (CRF) is initially formed to manage and perform research arising out of the development of a market driven mechanism to reduce greenhouse gases (CO2e) known as ICEMAN®. The results, conclusions and determinations of the research contemplated will have potential national and international significance and will be published in major scientific journals. The proposed research will result in further research in other related areas of study that CRF plans to continue to investigate through public and private funding sources. CRF plans to manage the contemplated research and other ongoing research by becoming the depository of funds for the purpose of funding, managing and coordinating multiple collaborative partnerships with public and private institutional and academic research organizations, such as but not limited to Brookhaven National Laboratory, Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center, New York Energy Policy Institute, National Association of Home Builders Research Center, U. S. Green Building Council and other institutions.
International Carbon Equivalent Mechanism Attributed to Neutrality, ICEMAN® is a methodology that applies well accepted sciences developed for the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions to provide a quantitative measure of factors that reduce or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. These quantitative measures are converted into an indexing system that represents a percentage of carbon neutral. An index number of “50” represents 50% Carbon Neutral; an index number of “100” represents 100% Carbon Neutral. The index number will be certified and registered on a website for public access. The index number will be incorporated into a logo certification mark that will be licensed to businesses to be placed on packaging, websites, advertising or any means the business uses to promote themselves or their products or services. A consumer of products or services will have an additional attribute by which to evaluate those products or services. The index number defines the greenness of a product based on the product’s embodied greenhouse gas emissions. It enables the market forces of competitive advantage to be a contributor to the overall reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
Elements of Research:
- Collate and synthesize extensive energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions data from Department of Energy: US Energy Information Administration (DOE-EIA) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) including underlying data when available and useful. Examples of some data: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/states/_seds.html http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/state_energyco2invcomparison.htm
- Analyze various existing Protocols, Procedures and Standards for Measuring, Monitoring, Verifying and Reporting greenhouse gas emissions. Recommend and implement the highest and best Protocols and Procedures in one harmonious system. The goal is to assist businesses and industries to expeditiously and efficiently meet emerging measurement and reporting requirements.
- Conduct Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emission measurements of businesses within industry sectors identified in the North American Classification System (NAICS) to the greatest detail, six digit grouping. There are approximately 1,200 industry six digit groups.
- Compare and analyze DOE-EIA and EPA data with actual measurements to determine variables in energy consumption, emissions from manufacturing processes, production efficiencies and any other variable that exists. The benchmark year will be 2005 to coincide with US emission reduction goals reported at Copenhagen. The determination will identify the worse case scenario greenhouse gas emissions for each NAICS six digit group. The worse case scenario of emission variables will establish a baseline for ICEMAN CFI “0” and also be useful to measure and report greenhouse gas reduction goals at a detailed industry level based on a standardized baseline.
- Retain an independent third party carbon auditing firm to conduct actual greenhouse gas emission measurements of businesses by NAICS industry sector to independently test the accuracy of the new baseline data.
- Research and establish a user friendly, automated, and scalable web based data base computer system to collect input data received by businesses to seamlessly determine an indexing system based on the baseline data and organized. The web based system will become available to the public with search capabilities.
- Test the ICEMAN, International Carbon Equivalent Mechanism Attributed to Neutrality mechanism as a viable carbon emissions indexing scheme.
- Assess, Define, Integrate and Conduct Market Research for the integration of ICEMAN® into the existing National Green Building Standard ICC 700-2008 through the following tasks:
- Assess and Define ICEMAN® CFI Implementation into National l Green Building Standard ICC 700-2008
- Assess and Define ICEMAN® CFI Implementation into National l Green Building Standard ICC 700-20XX (next version)
- Develop Case Study describing attributes for a range of CFI dwellings 25, 50, 75, 100.
- Integrate ICEMAN® CFI into National l Green Building Standard ICC 700-2008 online Scoring Tool.
- Conduct Market Assessment of Builders, Product Manufacturers, Realtors and Home Buyers to Assess Messaging and Demand
- Test and evaluate the feasibility to use available measuring instruments to automatically monitor carbon emissions and transmit the data via the web to the computer data base computer system. The purpose is to study the feasibility of developing a smart monitoring system for reporting greenhouse gas emissions and identify potential R&D programs to create new smart monitoring systems.
- Develop Education, Training and Capacity Building Programs for businesses and industries to meet the required expertise needed for the transition to a Low Carbon Society by creating Low Carbon Jobs.
Respectfully Submitted by: Frank Dalene, Founder of ICEMAN®; Co-Founder of Hamptons Green Alliance; Co-Founder of Telemark Inc. In collaboration with Dr. Alan Rice, Nuclear Engineering, Applied Physics, and Mathematics; Appointments at American Museum of Natural History and Stony Brook Southampton.