Green Success Stories had a great conversation with Jenny Morgan, Market Development Manager of Tradewater. Tradewater collects and destroys dangerous, ozone-depleting greenhouse gases, and provides carbon offsets to firms looking to better protect the environment. To date they have permanently prevented over 7.5 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering our atmosphere. Jenny describes her sustainability awakening, and the exciting and meaningful work that she and Tradewater are engaged in.

Tell us a bit about your sustainability journey.

It all started for me on a quiet morning in August 2020. Our family, along with the entire globe, was trying to navigate the pandemic, while navigating being parents of two young children. Like many others, we were having a tough time.

This peaceful August morning, where I could spend a few moments alone, was thrilling. The morning sky was painted vibrant colors of orange and pink. It was a glorious sight to see. I stared in admiration until realizing that the colors may be an indication of wildfire smoke hovering above us.

For the following nine days, the six of us – two parents, one three-year-old, one seven-month-old, and two large dogs, were unable to go outside due to the air quality in the middle of a pandemic. The smoke was even entering the house. I felt like a cockroach after someone had unleashed an entire aerosol of Raid on my family. This feeling was suffocating. It was something I could not control or reconcile with for some time — until I decided that isn’t who I am. That this isn’t who WE are as humans.

I was no longer going to passively participate in the social and environmental change that was necessary to solidify a safer world. It was no longer enough to wear a “vote” t-shirt, listen to a podcast, or sort my waste into the proper receptacle. We decided that our family must join many others as active participants in positive change.

My husband began an anti-racist group and worked with local officials to protect the safety and rights of our Black American neighbors. I started my own consulting business while juggling a full-time management position with two kids at home. With time being the greatest obstacle for most of us, I focused on what was going to produce the most impact.

During my research, I discovered industries that are transforming themselves to participate in the pursuit of the greater good. Companies are adopting a triple-bottom-line approach to measure their success on profit, people, and the planet. There are stories of truth, courage, and hope driven by powerful individuals committing themselves to climate solutions. I discovered partners that could help me bring sustainable and social action into my personal and professional life.

One of those partners was Tradewater. I heard their story on the Planet Money podcast and was intrigued because I had read about their project type in Project Drawdown. Project Drawdown outlines the top 15 things we must do now if we want to mitigate climate change. At the top of the list is the collection, management, and destruction of refrigerant gases. When I heard that Tradewater does the work themselves, provides the proof, and reinvests in local communities, I was eager to meet the team.

In the two years since meeting Tradewater’s CEO, Tim Brown, and Director of Market Development, Kirsten Love, we’ve been able to partner on multiple projects, brainstorm additional impact initiatives, and sing their praises to other business leaders within and outside of Microsoft.

Now, I am thrilled to say that I have joined the team and actionable climate movement, and have been doing so for years now. In my role, I guide others along the journey from striving to doing, just like they did for me. Luckily, thanks to organizations like Tradewater, curbing climate change is easier than we think. As entrepreneurs, leaders, and community members, we know that the journey must be traveled together.

Tell us a bit about the product or solution you offer.

Tradewater is a mission-based B-Corp. We create, develop, and implement high-value projects that permanently prevent the world’s most potent greenhouse and ozone-depleting gases from releasing into the atmosphere. Our two core project types include the permanent destruction of halocarbons (ozone depleting substances) and permanently plugging orphaned oil and gas wells that are leaking methane. Our integrated approach results in verifiable, permanent climate impact and sustainable economic benefit through the highest quality carbon offset credits.

Addressing these gases and ensuring they never leak into the atmosphere, land, or water, is a key part of the IPCC’s pathway to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Share a green success story with us – how have you helped customers or other businesses in the fight against climate change?

We have many green success stories – we continue to make a great impact in the fight against climate change. Among the more recent impactful efforts has been our work with the Second Nature project, in which we help higher education institutions make and act on bold climate commitments, as well as our ability to encourage funding from the global community toward greenhouse gas reduction efforts.

Here are 10 ways we have made a permanent impact so far:

1. Small team, huge impact: We are proud to share that in 2023, we permanently prevented over 2.8 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering our atmosphere, bringing our total impact to date to nearly 7.5 million tons. As we continue to scale our work, we are on track to have over 5 million tons of impact in 2024.
2. Kickoff of our methane program in the U.S.: Tradewater’s methane program officially launched in the U.S. with the development of several new projects that plugged orphaned gas wells actively leaking methane. These projects permanently prevented the release of large volumes of methane and established momentum for this growing program.
3. Expansion into new global markets: We are increasing our global reach with active project development in 8 different countries, including our landmark Thailand project that kicked off in early 2023. When completed later this year, the project will have permanently prevented over 1.1 million tons of CO2e from entering our atmosphere.
4. Establishment of a new climate benefit facility: The innovative Climate Benefit Facility enables advanced purchase commitments that guarantee access to credit volumes over time with price certainty. The Facility custodian will reserve credits for buyers and deliver them to our customers per the terms of the advanced purchase agreements. This enables us to aggressively ramp up our pipeline development efforts globally, creating new climate benefits today, when they are needed most.
5. Expansion of our global team: We were thrilled to add to our team, welcoming 17 new team members. We now have team members based in Canada, the U.S., Costa Rica, Malaysia, Egypt, India, UK, South Africa, Thailand, and Spain. In November, most of our staff gathered at Tradewater’s Chicago headquarters, where we had the chance to connect in person, share ideas about how to amplify our impact, and solidify our collective vision for 2024.
6. Impactful partnerships: Our list of valued partners in this work grows steadily and will continue to help us scale our efforts. Tradewater became a member of the Project Drawdown Labs Business Coalition and completed our first year of an impactful media partnership with We Don’t Have Time, which included broadcast appearances at Stockholm Climate Week and COP 28. We also partnered with organizations across sectors, including Patch, Watershed, Cloverly, Cool Effect, Lynx Asset Management, Mapbox, Thoughtworks, TTP, Watershed, WeTransfer, Wren, and the list goes on. We currently have a partnership with Second Nature to help higher education organizations prevent over 1 million tons of GHGs from entering the atmosphere by the 2030s!
7. Building new pathways to address non-CO2 gases: Tradewater was recognized for its outstanding global leadership and pioneering work in managing the multinational collection and destruction of dangerous, ozone-depleting greenhouse gases. The innovative methodology we co-developed with ACR Registry was lauded for making carbon financing more accessible for critical ozone-depleting substance collection and destruction.
8. Beyond co-developing pioneering methodologies, last year we utilized four different methodologies that involved the permanent destruction of CFCs and HCFCs, as well as the permanent plugging of methane leaks.
9. Global recognition: We are expanding our presence in the B Corp universe. In November, B Corp U.S./Canada released a case study featuring companies across a variety of industries that are centering inclusive, equitable, and regenerative solutions in their climate actions, and Tradewater was proud to be featured as one of the five companies leading the way. For the fourth year in a row, Giving Green recommended us as one of the most effective carbon offset providers. We attended COP28 and participated in many productive conversations, including this interview on We Don’t Have Time’s The Climate Hub.
10. Jumpstarting new compliance markets: In December, Tradewater was among the two first project developers that were issued offset credits in the state of Washington since the inception of its cap-and-invest program. We developed offset projects providing direct environmental benefits to Washington through their Ozone Depleting Substances Protocol, receiving 139,956 Ecology offset credits—but this is only the beginning of our work to support the state of Washington in meeting their climate goals through high impact climate solutions.

What do you envision your industry looking like in ten years?

Right now, we are focused on today. Our climate solutions help significantly curb climate change today, which will set up us for success today and in the future. Our primary focuses right now include:

• Our U.S. halocarbon program will expand our work in the newly established Washington compliance market while continuing our longstanding work in the California market.
• The International Halocarbon program will deliver projects around the world, including Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Chile, and explore emerging global compliance markets. New development efforts will explore opportunities in dozens of countries, as our international team continues to engage in international policy dialogues including Meeting of the Parties (MOP) of the Montreal Protocol and the Climate and Ozone Protection Alliance (COPA).
• The Methane team will continue to pursue opportunities in the U.S. to expand this critical program. They will also turn their attention to global opportunities, identifying additional countries to pursue, and the necessary protocol development to support this geographic expansion.
• As an organization, we will continue to raise awareness about the absolute urgency of tackling non-CO2 emissions through our outreach efforts, our strong partnerships, and the work of our talented, growing team of climate-committed staff members.