SALEM, Mass. February 24, 2009 – With Greenhouse Gas (GHG) legislation impending in the U.S. and environmental pressures from abroad, many industries are considering both the economic and regulatory consequences of their GHG emissions. To help business leaders evaluate regulatory risk and take positive steps toward environmental sustainability, Groom Energy and Goodwin Procter LLP have teamed to build www.GHGquiz.com.

www.GHGquiz.com is a free service and assessment tool designed to help companies understand the risk and likelihood of environmental regulation for their operations. On the site, users are guided through a climate survey and asked to answer a series of questions about their industry, location, and business size. Based on the answers, the tool determines the chances of future regulation for each facility type and location with a high, medium or low rating.

According to a recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce report, millions of organizations from varied industries including: manufacturing, healthcare, universities, local governments, and farming could be subject to new EPA regulations that require monitoring and controls for GHG emissions. The regulations could pose many challenges for businesses that are unprepared and potentially cost millions of dollars.

“It is clear that many industries will face future regulation and should begin planning now,” said Elise Zoli, partner and chair of the Energy Practice at Goodwin Procter. “All types of businesses, schools, hospitals, universities, and hotels emit large quantities of Greenhouse Gas. The administrators of those facilities can use GHGquiz.com to better understand their situation and create an action plan to achieve sustainability.”


US Chamber of Commerce Estimates
According to U.S. Census and Energy Information Administration data from a recent report titled “A Regulatory Burden; the Compliance Dimension of Regulating CO2 as a Pollutant,” the following is a likely scenario:
At least one million mid-sized to large commercial buildings emit enough CO2 per year to become EPA regulated stationary sources. Nearly 200,000 manufacturing operations will be regulated. Likely industries are chemical, metal fabrication, food processing, minerals, plastics, paper and electrical equipment.

As many as 20,000 large farms could face regulation. At the top of the list are greenhouses and nurseries, poultry and egg production, vegetable and melon farms, dairy farms and pig farms.

“We created GHGquiz.com to educate institutions on the regulatory risks associated with impending climate related legislation across the country,” said Jonathan Guerster, founder and CEO of Groom Energy. “Once the businesses have a clear idea of the level of regulation they could face, it will be critical for them to take the proactive steps toward tracking performance and reducing their climate impact.”

“As an example of the potential regulation that companies are facing worldwide, one of our Fortune 500 customers began accruing a 2009 emissions tax bill for more than US $500,000 for GHG emissions from facilities based in the United Kingdom,” added Guerster. “It is very possible for a similar U.S. bill to pass in the next few years and it is our business to help customers prepare for this type of legislation by reducing their environmental impact today.”


Talk to the Experts in Person at an Upcoming Seminar
In addition to launching GHGquiz.com, Groom Energy and Goodwin Procter are hosting an Enterprise Carbon Accounting seminar on Feb. 25, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Mystic Ballroom of the Embassy Suites Hotel at Boston’s Logan International Airport. The event will feature presenters from Ceres, Climate Disclosure Project, Genzyme, Millipore, Sun Microsystems, the World Resource Institute and others, who will address the challenges in defining, accounting and reporting an organization’s GHG emissions.


About Goodwin Procter
Goodwin Procter LLP is one of the nation’s leading law firms with 900 attorneys in offices in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Washington, D.C. The firm’s core areas of practice are corporate, litigation and real estate, with specialized areas of focus that include financial services, private equity, technology, REITs and real estate capital markets, intellectual property, tax and products liability.

Information may be found at www.goodwinprocter.com


About Groom Energy Solutions
Groom Energy is a leading provider of commercial and industrial energy solutions, with customers including Bed, Bath & Beyond, General Electric, Ocean Spray and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The company delivers a range of services from corporate sustainability and whole building energy assessments to turnkey installations at enterprise facilities across the United States. Groom’s projects help their customers reduce costs while positively affecting the environment. Groom Energy is also the founder of Digital Lumens, an intelligent LED lighting company www.digitallumens.com. For more information please visit www.groomenergy.com
or call 978-306-6052.