Over the past several years, SEC has worked with a variety of clients including companies, local governments, and national non-governmental organizations. See below for some highlights of our work.
SEC teams have given presentations related to our cases in many different settings. Most notably, SEC sent two members to deliver a presentation at a national conference on carbon capture and sequestration in May 2009.
2008-2009
An SEC team researched issues related to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) for Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), an environmental action group with offices throughout the United States. The research focused on legal and regulatory issues related to carbon sequestration, including potential future legislation that will determine the amount of risk that early CCS adopters will face. SEC analyzed risk management options and investigated precedents set for related forms of underground injection. After the SEC team presented its results, NRDC recommend that SEC send representatives to the 8th Annual Conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration in Pittsburgh, PA. In May of 2009, two SEC members joined over 400 other key players in the conversation on carbon capture and storage, and delivered a presentation of the team's findings. Representatives of the Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, numerous academic institutions, and top utility companies attended this conference.
SEC completed a project on forest carbon with Environmental Defense Fund. The SEC team conducted a survey of methods and technologies used to measure and verify the amount of carbon sequestered in forestry projects. The second component of the project involved an assessment of risk management strategies used in carbon markets to account for uncertainties in projects.
2007-2008
SEC worked with the City of Palo Alto’s Sustainability Team to help develop an environmentally preferred purchasing program for the City. We analyzed the City’s purchases to identify products that could be replaced by more environmentally-friendly alternatives of similar price. SEC researched recycled-content copy paper, remanufactured toner cartridges, and LED street lights, and used a cost-benefit analysis with a life-cycle approach to assess these alternatives. Our street lighting research team developed a calculator tool to aid the City in making future lighting purchasing decisions and gave a presentation at City Hall. Over the course of the project, SEC had the opportunity to receive input from an independent environmentally preferred purchasing expert as well as from City employees from several different departments.
SEC worked with a company that designs and manufactures measurement and evaluation equipment on issues related to REACH – a chemical accountability regulation enacted by the European Union mandating that all manufacturers and importers provide chemical information about their products. SEC aimed to develop a strategy for the company to become REACH-compliant by performing a case study on one of their chemical analysis instruments. Although the project proved infeasible, SEC created a strategy memo as a final deliverable. The document identified several key IT problems that needed to be solved before further progress could be made and recommended a potential approach the company could pursue in the future.
2006-2007
SEC worked with a private equity client to oversee the market outlook for water filtration technologies, spanning the spectrum from traditional methods used in homes (activated carbon) to methods used in disaster zones (air to water generators).
SEC worked with the City of Palo Alto to evaluate the efficiency of municipal waste disposal.
SEC recommended new market entry strategies to a local solar panel installation. The team investigated homeowner incentives and rebates at local, state, and federal levels.
