E&EM Masters student Doug Rossin spent the summer of 2005 working for the giant international management consulting firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in Brazil working on Kyoto Protocol implementation activities. PwC operates in 138 countries across the world, including Brazil.
During his assignment with PwC, Doug worked on the “Sadia 3S” program. Doug reports that Sadia is the largest meat and food product company in Brazil. The company currently is undertaking a project to install large biodigesters at swine farms to capture methane of the purpose of capturing carbon trading credits under the Kyoto Protocol implementation process.
Part of Doug’s job involved helping to develop the biodigesters and provide technical assistance. However, Doug reports that his principal task involved preparing part of the write-up of the Clean Development Mechanism Project Design Document, the document that is sent to the Executive Board so the carbon credits are awarded. The Clean Development Mechanism, as outlined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol and elaborated in the Marrakech Accords, is a project-based mechanism that allows public or private entities to invest in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigating activities in developing countries. Such projects can earn GHG abatement credits, which can then be applied against their other GHG emissions or sold on the open market. In addition to reducing emissions, CDM projects contribute to the sustainable development of the host country.
Doug said, “This has been a great experience because I have been working with a great deal of what we have been learning throughout the E&EM program. In the meantime, I have been reading up on Kyoto and Clean Development Mechanisms projects which are really interesting."