EPA To Advise New Group On Certifying Corporate Climate Officers
This was submitted to the blog by Kent Jeffreys. Kent is the Staff Vice President of the Office of Global Public Policy for the International Council of Shopping Centers.
An EPA climate official has agreed to advise a professional association forming in the coming weeks to develop a certification program for corporate climate change officers that may lead to best practices for appointing such officials within government as well as the private sector, according to a source with the association.
The group, the Association of Corporate Climate Change Officers (ACCCO), has tapped EPA Climate Protection Partnerships Division Director of Strategic Partnerships Stephen Andersen as a technical advisor to its board and will have its first meeting Jan. 12.
An ACCCO source says the corporate standards could also, in the future, serve as a de facto certification for governmental appointees in climate positions because, although government entities increasingly have a person responsible for overseeing environmental and energy programs, there is currently no baseline for such officials’ requisite expertise.
“Whether that person is in government or in the private sector or in a publicly traded company or the government, there are certain basic skills and knowledge [they need]. The membership of this organization will hopefully come together and really help flesh that out,” says the source.
The group will also provide a forum for the exchange and enhancement of “best practices, industry standards and innovation in the area of corporate response to climate change, and enhance credibility and public understanding of the role industry is playing in response to climate change challenges,” according to ACCCO’s Web site.
ACCCO will also draw upon EPA’s expertise and existing programs. For example, the source says ACCCO may “build on” EPA’s Climate Protection Awards program, which recognizes private-sector leadership and technical innovation in addressing climate impacts. “I think there will be opportunities for us to help them create more-formalized groups of those award winners . . . and turn that into kind of a leadership roundtable, and it’s the sort of thing I think EPA doesn’t have the resources to do,” the source says.
According to the ACCCO Web site, the group will not take any policy positions on climate change but will have several policy-related goals, including “enabling companies to stay ahead of the curve in addressing challenges brought on by climate change and climate change policy”; promoting “working relationships” with its members and government; and promoting “the development and implementation of sound climate change policies and procedures.”
