We are partnering with K&L Gates to host a quarterly Debate Series. This is an excellent opportunity to learn from the experts on both sides of critical cleantech and energy issues. This is also your chance to network with K&L Gates representatives, our speakers, and your fellow cleantech industry leaders and innovators in a relaxed setting.
April 20, 2023: A Discussion on Washington’s Working Forests and Carbon Offsets
4:00 – 5:30 PM PT
Hybrid
K&L Gates Seattle Office
925 4th Ave #2900, Seattle, WA 98104
What are forest carbon offsets? How are companies using them to monetize timber assets? And what are university researchers learning about the role of soil health and carbon sequestration in climate change mitigation? Join us as we seek answers to these pressing issues within Washington’s working forests.
Introductory Speaker:
Endre Szalay, Partner (Environment, Land, Natural Resources Group), K&L Gates
Endre Szalay is a partner in the Environment, Land, and Natural Resources group in the Seattle office. Endre assists a broad range of clients, including public entities, utilities, small businesses, and large corporations, in developing compliance strategies to solve complex problems. His practice focuses on compliance counseling
under the full suite of environmental statutes, with an emphasis on the Clean Water Act (CWA); National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and state equivalents; Endangered Species Act (ESA); and the Comprehensive, Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) and state equivalents.
Endre is also a member of the firm’s top-ranked environmental litigation practice, and has assisted clients in complex litigation ranging from claims under core environmental statues and the Administrative Procedure Act to constitutional causes of action. Prior to joining K&L Gates, Endre was assistant regional counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 where he worked on complex environmental enforcement, civil defensive litigation, permitting matters, and regulatory counseling involving water quality standards among other issues. Endre was Region 10’s
Senior Water Enforcement Attorney, handling enforcement actions under the CWA and Safe Drinking Water Act. He served as Region 10’s lead attorney for CWA jurisdictional issues, including waters of the United States rulemaking, and mining-related issues.
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Sally Brown, Research Associate Professor, Soil Amendments, In situ Remediation, Carbon Sequestration, School of Environmental and Forest Resources, University of Washington
Dr. Sally Brown is focused on identifying resources in wastes—turning discards from homes into a tool for sustainability. She has worked on studies involving soil health, climate change mitigation, biosolids recycling and wastewater treatment. At the root of her work, she believes that soil amendments, in the form of residuals from different industries (composts, for example), offer the potential to help us to live in a more sustainable manner.
Her goal is to turn cities green by making the use and re-use of wastes part of our daily vocabulary. She has received a number of awards for her work, including the Rufus Chaney Research Award from the U.S. Composting Council, special recognition from the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Green Globe Award for outstanding achievement in environmental stewardship. She is a Fellow in the Soil Science Society of America and was a member of the National Academy of Science Committee on Soil Science.
Kate Simonen, Founding Director, Carbon Leadership Forum & Professor of Architecture, School of Built Environments, University of Washington
Kate Simonen, AIA, SE is the founding director of the Carbon Leadership Forum and Professor of Architecture at the University of Washington. Connecting significant professional experience in high performance building design and technical expertise in environmental life cycle assessment, she works to spur collective action to bring net embodied carbon to zero through cutting-edge research, cross-sector collaboration, and the incubation of new approaches.
Kate directs the research of the Carbon Leadership Forum. Under her leadership, the Carbon Leadership Forum has become globally recognized for advancing embodied carbon data, methods and policy, as well as inspiring and empowering collective action through the online and in person communities.
Michael Finley, CFO, Tribal Carbon
Born and raised in Inchelium, Washington, Michael is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and is a two-time chairman of the Colville Business Council. He also served as first Vice President to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI). He earned his BA in American Indian studies and History (2003) and an MA in History (2005) from Eastern Washington University (EWU) and has received numerous awards for his academic and professional achievements. Between 2014 and 2015, Michael launched several businesses, Feathered Arrow, LLC, ExciteFight, LLC, and Inchelium Short-Stop, LLC. His primary business, Feathered Arrow, LLC, is a consulting business that primarily serves Indian tribes in national policy issues and realizing economic development opportunities.
Sponsored by K&L Gates
Previous Debates:
2023 Debate Topics:
- February 2023 – Future-Proofing Farming: Will Agriculture Move Indoors?
2022 Debate Topics:
- November 2022 – Lower Snake River Dam Removal at Energy Leadership Summit 2022
- October 2022 – Offshore Wind Development on the West Coast
- May 2022 – Decarbonizing Transportation: Public and Private Sector Views on EV
- March 2022 – Reframing the Discussion: Building a Better Future by Decarbonizing the Built Environment
2021 Debate Topics:
- September 2021 – The Next Disruptor in the Transition to a Clean Energy Economy: Hydrogen or Fusion?
- May 2021 – The Role of Natural Gas in the Transition to a Clean Energy Economy
- March 2021 – The Biden Clean Energy Plan: Does it Go Far Enough?
2020 Debate Topics:
- August 2020 – Is Nuclear Energy Critical to our Carbon Goals?