Mik McKee Honored with Climate Action Reserve’s Distinguished CARROT Award

Kasey Krifka, The Climate Trust
April 26, 2017
 
The Climate Action Reserve (CAR) has honored Mik McKee, The Climate Trust’s Land Asset Manager, with its distinguished “CARROT” award. Each year, CAR staff gives these awards to select partners that have done extraordinary work in the field of climate action, or who have helped support CAR’s mission of ensuring the highest standards in greenhouse gas emissions inventory and reduction accounting, as well as working towards progressive movement in climate change policy.

CARROT stands for “Climate Action Reserve Recognizing Our Team.” Mik is being recognized for efforts that have gone above and beyond in service to the Reserve, with CAR’s Policy Team advocating for his nomination.

CAR presented the awards in conjunction with the annual conference, Navigating the American Carbon World, April 19-21, 2017 in San Francisco at the historic War Memorial Opera House.

Upon learning of being honored, McKee said, “It’s pretty great to be able to work on the front end of new carbon offset protocols. Being part of the team piloting the Avoided Conversion of Grasslands protocol and contributing to both greenhouse gas emissions reductions and meaningful conservation efforts is extremely rewarding.”

“I was incredibly pleased to learn that Mik is receiving this prestigious CAR award in recognition of his dedication and hard work,” said Sheldon Zakreski, Director of Asset Management for The Climate Trust. “Mik has become a vital member of our team in the relatively short time he has worked with us, and this acknowledgement is affirmation that his work also brings value and impact to our external partners.”

One of the leading carbon offset registries for the North American carbon market, the Climate Action Reserve encourages action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by ensuring the environmental integrity and financial benefit of emissions reduction projects. The Reserve establishes high-quality standards for carbon offset projects, oversees independent third-party verification bodies, issues carbon credits generated from such projects and tracks the transaction of credits over time in a transparent, publicly-accessible system.

The Reserve offsets program demonstrates that high-quality carbon offsets foster real reductions in GHG pollution, support activities that reduce local air pollution, spur growth in new green technologies and allow emission reduction goals to be met at lower cost. The transparent processes, multi-stakeholder participation and rigorous standards of the Reserve help earn confidence that registered emissions reductions are real, additional, verifiable, enforceable and permanent. The Reserve’s expertise and insight helped inform the development of the State of California’s cap-and-trade program, which adopted four of the Reserve’s protocols for use in its regulation.

Image credit: Flickr/Chris Feser