Environmental Consultants, Environmental Consulting Firm, Environmental Services, Inc.

Rhodes Robinson and Environmental Services, Inc. (ESI) were recently featured in a special "Green Issue" of the Jacksonville Business Journal.

Read the PDF of the article here>>>

Read the article on the Jacksonville Business Journal website here>>>

Environmental Services, Inc. (ESI) is pleased to announce Stewart McMorrow as its most recent hire. Mr. McMorrow's title is Senior Scientist in the Forestry, Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Division of the company. He is based in Lake Tahoe, California, thus expanding ESI's national footprint as it relates to office locations. Mr. McMorrow is a CA Registered Professional Forester #2878 and SAF Certified Forester #164651. His responsibilities at ESI include managing third party validations and verifications in the U.S. and in remote, international locations.

In layman terms, he will confirm that each of ESI's third party verification project fits within the protocol that must be followed. He joins ESI with over twelve years of project management experience and is a 1996 graduate of California Polytechnic State University. In addition to his work at ESI, Mr. McMorrow is a freelance arborist. He also has plentiful experience with salmon restoration as a wildlife biologist working in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Mr. McMorrow began working for ESI in October 2011 and his first job was in Uganda. It was a twelve-day adventure that revolved around meeting with subsistence level farmers, who  grow trees specifically for carbon projects. Without revealing the client's confidential details, for this project, Mr. McMorrow counted trees in groves, met local community members and verified how the project impacted the community. In order to do that, he spent significant time with a variety of community members and visited sample sets of groves in remote areas of Uganda.

When asked how he assimilates into global cultures, Mr. McMorrow explains."Each of these verification projects is unique. I'm always extremely aware that I am a guest in each country I visit. It's important to respect the culture and traditions. We do our homework before each project."

Mr. McMorrow's next trip for ESI will be in Bolivia. He'll be working in the Bolivian rainforest and his accommodations will be rustic camp sites. These remote locations sometimes leave him feeling vulnerable. To alleviate that, he carries a GPS unit called a "Spot Device" that can be used for emergency situations.

No "stranger to danger," Mr. McMorrow once had a job that involved hooting for Spotted Owls, which is done at midnight at known habitats for the species. He would bring a treat for the owl and patiently wait for an owl to swoop down for the treat. Then, he would literally chase the owl through woods in the pitch black forest as the owl flew towards his mate. During this job, he once had a mountain lion cross in front of him - luckily while Mr. McMorrow was in his SUV - but he continued to finish the job despite the potential danger.

He's not afraid of bears either and considers them overgrown rats. Mr. McMorrow and his family live directly beside a protected wilderness area and, often, bears will break into vacant houses and start fires in the kitchen as they destroy the interior of the home  as they search for food. Mr. McMorrow has a lot of experience with these situations because he is also a community volunteer firefighter.

As for his personal life, Mr. McMorrow and his family live in Lake Tahoe, California, an international destination for sports addicts. In fact, Mr. McMorrow is an extreme sports fanatic and has been that way all of his life. Though he stands 6'5" Mr. McMorrow has never played basketball and, instead, prefers back country skiing and mountain biking with his family. All are international travelers and they especially enjoyed their trip to New Zealand. In addition to their home in the Sierra Mountains, the McMorrows own land in Costa Rica where Mr. McMorrow enjoys extreme surfing.

Mr. McMorrow looks forward to more adventures while working in exotic locations for ESI. He says, "I'm excited to be working in the Carbon market because of the market's potential for growth."

Contact Info
California
Stewart McMorrow, Senior Scientist
CA Registered Professional Forester #2878
SAF Certified Forester #164651
313 Alder Street, Tahoma, California 96142
PHONE: 530-525-6692 Phone | CELL: 530-412-1221
EMAIL: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Climate Action Reserve (CAR) is in the process of developing several protocols for greenhouse gas emission reduction and carbon sequestration projects for the agricultural sector. CAR develops its protocols in conjunction with experts in the field and a diverse group of stakeholders from industry, government agencies, environmental consultants, non-governmental organizations, academia and project developers.

Richard Scharf, a Licensed Soil Scientist and Senior Scientist in ESI’s Forestry, Carbon, and GHG Services Division, is honored to lend a hand by joining CAR’s Nutrient Management Project Protocol Workgroup The nutrient management protocol is intended to guide projects that involve a reduction in nitrogen fertilizer application rates on agricultural lands, along with management changes that increase nitrogen (N) use efficiency. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is emitted as soil N is processed by microoganisms.  This natural process is exacerbated by high fertilization rates with N fertilizers. Reduction of these emissions is important because N2O has about 310 times the global warming potential as CO2. From a project developer’s point of view, this means that a tonne of N2O emission reductions is equivalent to about 300 tonnes of CO2 emissions reductions.

Depending on climate, soil type and management practices, a large percentage of the N fertilizers added to crops are not taken up by the plants themselves. N can be lost to the atmosphere, leached to pollute groundwater and surface waters, and taken up by organisms other than the intended crop. Like many other GHG-reducing practices and technologies, increasing the efficiency of crop N use has multiple beneficial effects, including reducing production costs to the farmer and cleaner waterways. Changing the timing and placement of fertilizer applications, as well as changing crop rotations, using slow-release fertilizers and using soil additives that slow some biological activities, can increase N use efficiency.

Much of the protocol is under development, but changes in N2O emissions will use the recent fertilizer use history of a farm as a baseline (provided fertilizer use is in line with that of other farms in the region), and generate emissions estimates using the DeNitrification-DeComposition model (see: http://www.dndc.sr.unh.edu/).

ESI is grateful for the opportunity for hands-on involvement in the shaping of this protocol, and for the potential benefits a strong knowledge of the protocol’s requirements may offer our clients.

Visit ESI Carbon for more information about ESI's Carbon and GHG Services>>>

Low Carbon Earth Summit
Theme: Leading the Green Economy, Returning to Harmony with Nature
October 19-26, 2011
Dalian, China

Carbon emissions have been traded, albeit at minor levels, in the over-the-counter (OTC) market since the 1990s. The value of the carbon market has grown from $727 million in 2004 to $118 billion in 2008. Opportunities for market participants are expected to continue to increase as the value of global carbon markets are forecast to grow by 68% per year to $669 billion in 2013. Therefore, Emission Trade provides huge business potentials for culturing industrial championship to be part of it in this sector. This forum will invite worldwide active players to introduce to you their successful experiences so to gain the insight into this hot area. (Source: http://www.lcesummit.com/fullprogram_track6.asp)

ESI's Janice McMahon will co-chair Track 6-10: Emission Trading Schemes, Measuring, Validation and Verification at 8:30 am-12:10 pm on Saturday, October 22, 2011.

Click here for details>>>

Click here to visit ESI Carbon>>>

Environmental Services, Inc. (ESI) employees will participate in three  environmental industry conferences in April 2011.

Please stop by ESI's booths at these conferences and plan to attend the sessions where our employees speak.

Navigating the American Carbon World
Wednesday, April 13- Friday, 15, 2011
1755 North Highland Avenue, Hollywood, California 90028
ESi employees Scott Sager and Shawn McMahon will meet you in booth #24.
Visit the conference website for more details>>>


2011 American Public Works Association (APWA) Florida Chapter Annual Meeting & Trade Show
Monday, April 18 - Friday, April 22 2011
101 N. Atlantic Ave., Daytona Beach, Florida 32118
Stop by Booth #102 to meet ESI employees Shannon Julien and Courtney Taylor.  
ESI, ETM and Taylor Engineering will also host a reception on April 19, 2011.American Public Works Conference on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 from 4-6pm at the Mai Tai Lounge in Daytona Beach (located next to the conference).
Visit the conference website for more details>>>


2011 National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) Annual Conference
Tuesday, April 26 - Friday, April 29 2011
1550 Court Place, Denver, Colorado 80202
ESI Vice President David Dickson is chairing the wetlands restoration/mitigation tract for the 2011 National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP) Annual Conference. ESI Vice President and Director of Archaeology Brent Handley will chair the Cultural/Historic track. ESI's Ryan Taylor is a featured speaker on Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 3:30 p.m. during Session #22 Wetlands Restoration/Mitigation. The topic will be Wetland Mitigation Banking Success Criteria - Florida Perspective.
If you are interested in speaking or have colleagues interested in speaking, please submit an abstract.  
The current deadline for abstracts is September 30, 2010.  The abstract form is found at the NAEP website.
Visit the conference website for more details>>>

Environmental Services, Inc. (ESI) provided an independent study to the GreenBar Collective entitled ESTIMATION OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL FROM TREE PLANTING EFFORTS.  This study took into account the company's groundbreaking post-production practice of planting a tree for every bottle of TRU Organic Spirits sold.

The combined results of ESI’s study and GreenBar’s independent GHG inventory are unprecedented, and show that the GreenBar Collective's product TRU Organic Spirits is 760 TIMES CARBON NEGATIVE. TRU Organic Cocktails plants its trees through Sustainable Harvest International, a Maine-based non profit and TRU has planted over 50,000 trees. A single TRU Organic Cocktail will more than negate an American's average carbon footprint for a day. Currently, you can find TRU Organic Spirits at Wyndham Hotels.

Click here to view the Wyndham Cocktail Menu, where ESI is highlighted>>>

Environmental Services, Inc. (ESI) was chosen by the U.S. EPA (EPA) as third-party, independent, verifiers to participate in the Small Business Network Member Third Party Assurance Pilot Program (August 2010-January 2011).  As a certified GHG verifier (GHG-v) through CSA America, Janice McMahon, represented ESI during the pilot program and conducted GHG inventory verifications for EPA’s Small Business Network members, and provided “best practice” feedback to EPA on the process.

The goal of the pilot program was for ESI and other verifiers to improve guidelines and checklists that the EPA will use in the future to efficiently and effectively provide assurances on small business network members GHG inventories and reductions.

Additional information on EPA’s Small Business Network can be found at the Small Biz Network.

ESI has certified Greenhouse Gas Verifiers and Qualifiers through CSA America on staff.  The CSA America certification program assures third-party objectivity, quality assurance and helps establish consistency and competency in GHG verification services.

Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) Approves Fourth New Methodology for Crediting Projects that Reduce Deforestation (REDD).

Click here to read the press release.

The VCS is the most widely used carbon accounting standard among projects issuing credits in the voluntary market. Founded in 2005 by the Climate Group, the International Emissions Trading Association and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, VCS has pioneered trusted and innovative tools for generating quality GHG credits.

Through our ANSI accreditation, ESI is authorized to conduct third-party GHG project validations/verifications for seven GHG programs, which establish ESI as a leader in the environmental field. These GHG programs include: Climate Action Registry (CAR), CarbonFix (CFS), American Carbon Registry (ACR), Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), and Pacific Carbon Trust (PCT).

Click here to read more about ESI's Carbon services.

ESI has developed international business connections and experience through its carbon related work. ESI currently has initiatives and inquiries for work in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Sudan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia, Brazil, Peru, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Canada as well as various additional sites in the US.

The following snapshots are from a current project in Kenya that involves carbon sequestration, ecosystem restoration, and social benefits for the indigenous people.

ESI employees Shawn McMahon and Scott Sager are working on this large-scale project. Our clients have agreed that we will post photos and comments about this exciting project.

Check back often for updates. To learn more about ESI Carbon and GHG Services, please click here.

Shawn McMahon meeting with our client in Nairobi over breakfast.

Shawn visiting a  "shamba" with clients near Meru, Kenya. A shamba is a combination agricultural field, orchard, and garden. The project is associated with planting trees in these shambas to sequester carbon, improve wildlife habitat/water quality/etc., and create a sustainable supply of firewood/animal fodder/food.

Scott Sager conducting field verification. This is another shamba near Meru. Part of the process of validation/verification is to talk with the landowners/farmers about the project - how it's working and how the community views it.

Tea plantations are plentiful.

This is a roadside stand. There are tree seedlings for sale in the foreground.

The area around Meru (3 of the 4 project areas) is "dry" tropical forest, but generally very lush. The other project region is on the opposite (west) side of Mt Kenya, and is more open grasslands with scattered acacia trees.

Site visit with clients.

There are several coffee plantations on the site.

This is another landowner/farmer in her shamba. She intends to sell some of the fruit and nuts produced by the trees planted as part of the project to her neighbors - a valuable source of income.

We invite you to read the online December 2010 ESI Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Newsflash by clicking here.