Energy Efficiency. The most significant impact you can make on environmental emissions is to reduce your energy use. By taking responsible steps – such as switching to compact fluorescent lighting, updating heating and cooling systems, or using energy-efficient appliances – you can make a big difference in your carbon footprint.

Businesses of all sizes, universities, government agencies, utilities, and individual consumers will turn to XELS to help meet their sustainability goals. Our comprehensive approach works to conserve our ecosystem through the creation and broad adoption of a range of environmental finance, market, and other payment and incentive mechanisms.

XELS does so by:

• Providing transparent information on ecosystem values, finance, and markets through knowledge acquisition, analysis, and dissemination;
• Convening diverse coalitions, partners, and communities of practice, to promote environmental values and advance the development of new markets and payment mechanisms;
• Demonstrating successful tools, standards, and models of innovative finance for conservation.

Climate change is one of the most urgent environmental problems, and it exacerbates the impact of several other social and ecological issues. Keeping the global average temperature rise well below 2°C requires large-scale transformations of the global energy–agriculture–land-economy system, affecting how energy is produced, agricultural operations are organized food, energy and materials are consumed. A low-carbon energy transition relies on three broad types of technologies: renewable energy, energy efficiency, and energy storage. GHG offsets and new technologies feature prominently in most simulations that halt climate change and deliver on the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal.

Blockchain’s main strength could be managing a distributed grid as it facilitates a decentralized energy market and balances supply with demand without needing a third party. It enables trust where there is none and helps promote operability between private and public players, thus lowering transaction costs. It also allows “smart contracts” that automatically facilitate a contract between participants when certain conditions are met. There are several ongoing business pilots applying blockchain to the energy market. Another main application is to help combat deforestation as blockchain makes it easier to uphold supply chain transparencies, as all participants have a copy of all transactions.

By focusing on emission reductions achieved via climate change mitigation projects XELS plans to help institutions, policymakers, and individuals implement market-friendly mechanisms to help offset the increasingly adverse effects of climate change we see today.