A cross-industry group of around 20 companies is helping develop plans for a new type of carbon credit to fund the retirement of coal-powered power plants in emerging economies. 

The Kinetic Coalition, the organization overseeing the initiative, is aiming to aggregate demand from the companies and launch an advance market commitment. The group includes Amazon, Mastercard, Morgan Stanley and Tiffany & Co.

The coalition is targeting a major source of emissions that is challenging to decarbonize. Close to a third of global carbon emissions come from coal power plants and almost 80 percent of those emissions come from emerging economies, according to the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the organizations involved in the project. 

Many of these facilities are relatively new. If the plants are retired, owners and investors need to be compensated and the facilities replaced with renewables. The coalition aims to channel money from companies in wealthier nations towards those ends, generating carbon credits for the backers in the process.

“This is both a great way to accelerate climate finance into an area that’s so valuable and so needed, and a way of helping companies meet their climate commitments,” said Nathaniel Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, the non-profit that coordinates the coalition.

Pilot projects

Keohane and team are currently evaluating three pilot projects that could form the basis for future credits. In the Philippines, where coal generates close to 80 percent of the country’s electricity, the coalition is looking to fund the early replacement of one plant with clean energy and storage. Projects in Chile and the Dominican Republic are focused on improvements to modernize the countries’ grids and integrate more renewables.

Credits generated by the projects could be used in multiple ways. Schneider Electric, another participant in the coalition, is considering using them to offset company emissions or, as part of its sustainability consulting work, to sell on to clients, said Mathilde Mignot, a group director at Schneider subsidiary EcoAct and the company’s liaison to the coalition. 

The coalition is also investigating the possibility of using the credits to reduce Scope 3 emissions, a process known as insetting. Companies that buy from suppliers in the Philippines, for example, will likely have emissions from coal power in their Scope 3 accounts. Using the credits as insets would allow them to reduce that category of emissions. Keohane said the coalition is working to align its thinking in this area with ideas being developed by the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation Platform, a non-profit that’s developing standards for this kind of value-chain intervention.

There is little precedent for assessing the integrity of the credits that the coalition will generate, but Keohane said the goal is to align with leading carbon credit standard-setters, including the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. Specific projects could follow a methodology for early retirement of coal plants, released in May by Verra, or guidelines for sector-level intervention being developed by the non-profits Gold Standard and Environmental Resources Trust.

‘The demand will be there’

The sums required will be considerable. Keohone said it was too early to discuss funding for specific projects but estimated that interventions on this scale could run to hundreds of millions of dollars. That would constitute a significant chunk of the entire market for carbon credits, which the finance intelligence service MSCI pegged at $1.4 billion in 2024. 

The credits may have distinctive qualities, however. Investing in projects close to value chains could appeal to the internal company stakeholders that allocate credit investment, said Mignot. They may also be competitive: Keohane said prices between $30 and $60 per ton of avoided CO2 have been discussed for early retirement of coal power in the Philippines. That would make the credits more expensive than many forest projects, roughly on par with biochar and significantly cheaper than direct air capture.

Since upfront capital would be required to retire and replace the plants, the coalition is considering aggregating demand from participating companies in the form of an advance market commitment, a funding mechanism that’s been deployed to generate other credit types. Keohone said he hoped to make an announcement at the COP30 negotiations in November.

“If we can demonstrate that these credits are high integrity — we’re confident about that — and that there’s a business case to help companies meet their commitments, we think the demand will be there,” he said.

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If sustainability has gone the way of rom-com movies, my undergraduate students at New York University’s Stern School of Business haven’t gotten the memo. This spring, my sustainability strategy elective was significantly oversubscribed, and the class excelled — delivering thoughtful materiality assessments and strategic advice for 10 companies across diverse sectors, while continually questioning and improving the status quo. 

Yet, the job and internship markets remain challenging, and media headlines warn of entry-level roles for all fields vanishing into the jaws of artificial intelligence. Advising students to pursue sustainability reporting feels fraught amid political volatility, regulatory uncertainty and backsliding. Sustainability communication roles aren’t much easier, as companies anxiously comb disclosures for risky acronyms and loaded terms, worried about both greenwashing and greenhushing. 

It’s also not lost on me that most of my students in my class are women, surrounded on campus by peers aiming for the well-trodden paths of investment banking and consulting. I want to offer them a different vision of work and success — but one that doesn’t consign talented young people to being underpaid or sidelined. 

So, what exactly is my advice to the next generation?

Make sustainability an essential minor

The days of sustainability as a “standalone” capability are numbered, partly because there’s no consensus on its scope or reporting lines. Many firms created sustainability teams solely around ESG reporting, but that responsibility is shifting to chief financial officers or compliance heads. This shift inadvertently exposes companies that were only interested in box-checking and highlights those truly committed to business integration. The next phase of sustainability is all about embedding sustainability into core business decisions and processes, and that requires different thinking about everything, including careers.

The most effective CSOs are those with deep internal credibility and the ability to assemble teams with expertise tailored to their company’s material issues. In practice, this means all young people need a strong grasp of sustainability fundamentals, but can still pursue careers in finance, operations, marketing, strategy or procurement. As sustainability becomes more integrated across enterprises, it’s vital that everyone understands how it intersects with their discipline. The idea of a single “sustainability expert” was always flawed — no one can master every material topic in depth and breadth. 

Experiment for a decade

My students often worry about landing the perfect first job. But, as my yoga teacher reminds me, you’re not glued to where you land. I advise new graduates to treat their first 10 years as a period of experimentation: try different roles, discover what energizes you. Do you prefer structure or variety? Is travel or people management important? Do you thrive on conversation or prefer analytical, solitary work? It’s perfectly normal not to have these answers yet. But if you don’t explore, you risk waking up at 40 in a career you never chose, trapped by bill payments and commitments. Before you pigeonhole yourself, discover what excites you — and stay open to unexpected opportunities. In this sense, your first job doesn’t matter as much as how often you are prepared to pivot until you find a fit.

Here are avenues to explore, in the Trellis 30 Under 30 rising stars in climate in 2025.

Master power dynamics and organizational change

Many sustainability professionals feel ambivalent about their roles or organizations, often entering the field hoping to be society’s voice inside the company. That’s admirable, but real change comes from having influence. Sometimes, it’s smarter to start in mainstream investing before tackling ESG products, or to innovate on sustainability by beginning in R&D. You can’t address Scope 3 emissions or workforce issues without understanding procurement incentives. And you can’t communicate sustainability effectively without strategic oversight. 

Study how power operates and how decisions get made — then position yourself to be part of those decisions, using your insights to steer the organization toward the issues you care about. We need more responsible, ethical leaders, and we won’t achieve this if the most responsible, ethical people in society see power as a dirty word.

With this in mind, also be thoughtful about your own influence. Take social media seriously and understand you’re shaping a profile. Relentless curiosity and willingness to take on new challenges will get you a long way.

Find your fit in a wide ecosystem

Change requires a range of voices and perspectives. Some of us thrive as politically savvy insiders, shaping narratives and influencing leaders. Others excel as advocates, pushing for greater ambition through campaigns and critiques. Some work well bridging different disciplines: policy and business or NGOs and for-profits. Still others prefer the variety of consulting or the hands-on, operational nature of frontline roles. The point is that all these paths are valid. Try several. Which one feels most like home to you?

We are likely already past the high-water mark for the CSO as a defined position. Future roles will be more hybrid, more integrated, more senior and more dependent on internal credibility. Meanwhile, the core thinking and concepts on topics such as environmental responsibility, worker dignity and inclusion are seeping into organizations that need to attract and motivate a new generation of workers. All this means that you can take your time shaping a leadership journey that plays to your strengths and puts human judgment and skills at the center. That’s good news for us, and for the future of responsible, sustainable business. 

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The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is poring over feedback from more than 850 corporations, nonprofits, trade associations, academics and other stakeholders who submitted recommendations for the next version of the corporate net-zero framework.

SBTi published the 132-page outline for an expansive overhaul to its Corporate Net Zero Standard 2.0 on March 18 and gave interested parties until June 1 to suggest revisions. 

The organization, which plans to publish a summary of the comments sometime later this year, declined to release information about the suggestions prior to that. 

Meanwhile, SBTi’s technical teams are reviewing the comments, and whatever recommendations are accepted by SBTi staff and advisors will be incorporated into a draft that will be circulated for additional consultation. 

Emerging feedback themes

Predictably, many recommendations for SBTi shared with Trellis or published as open letters centered on how carbon removals and other environmental attribute certificates can or should be used in the process of becoming net zero. 

That’s partly by design: SBTi specifically requested input for suggested approaches related to carbon dioxide removals between 2030 and the company’s net-zero year to reduce “projected residual emissions” — including one that would require these investments. This issue was the subject of intense scrutiny and controversy last summer.   

The Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University, for example, came down on the side of letting corporations count high-quality carbon removal toward their emissions reduction goals, saying this would help grow the available market. 

“SBTi could incentivize companies to invest in high-quality, durable carbon dioxide removal to address their residual emissions, as they simultaneously work to reduce their emissions as much as possible by their net-zero target dates,” the institute said. The Institute cautions that claims related to those investments must be made judiciously, given current scrutiny of corporation climate commitments, and that clarity from SBTi would help.

RMI, which coordinated a response from more than a dozen organizations that advocate carbon removal, calls for corporate investments in high-durability carbon removal methods to be required starting in 2030. Like the Policy Institute, the think tank suggests purchases meet a minimum threshold for durability and traceability, and that they be chosen to “counterbalance” the lifetime of the corporation’s actual emissions.  

Other stakeholders are pushing SBTi to clarify how the new standard will recognize the use of emerging methods of indirect Scope 3 mitigation in their supply chains — such as the book and claim systems that companies use to report emissions reductions related to investments in emerging technologies like low-carbon fuels for aviation or maritime shipping. These systems enable companies to support an alternative to purchasing carbon credits or unbundled renewable energy certificates.

“Patagonia views indirect mitigation — reducing greenhouse gas emissions in our supply chain — as a necessary component of strategy to achieve net zero by 2040,” said Kim Drenner, director of supply chain environmental impact at the apparel company, in a statement coordinated by the Zero Emissions Maritime Buyers Alliance.

The Alliance represents companies that are claiming reductions related to their investments in zero-emissions maritime fuel, even if their goods aren’t actually on the ships using it. According to the statement: “Indirect mitigation supports collective action, encourages policy development and enables us to channel investments directly into our supply chain by supporting technologies such as e-fuels in transportation and transitioning textile mills to renewable energy.”

More than 1,500 companies have validated corporate net-zero targets, with another 3,000 committed to doing so. Even companies that aren’t among that number, however, have offered feedback. Microsoft, for example, which has near-term reduction targets validated by SBTi but doesn’t yet have a net-zero plan that fits SBTi’s methodology, remains actively engaged.

“As the CNZS continues to mature, we are thoughtfully evaluating how its evolving requirements align with our broader decarbonization strategy,” the company said in a statement emailed to Trellis. “Some elements of the current standard, including the 90% absolute emissions reduction threshold, the absence of recognition for environmental attribute credits (EACs), and constraints on carbon removals, are areas we continue to assess. These considerations reflect broader operational and market dynamics that many corporates are navigating today.”

Pilot testers sought

SBTi’s next revision is widely expected to be published in the fourth quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, SBTi is seeking companies willing to participate in a pilot test of the methodology.  

“After seeing an impressive level of engagement across the ecosystem in the public consultation on the first draft Corporate Net-Zero Standard version 2, pilot testing is the next stage, where we will gather more practical, first-hand insights,” said Alberto Carrillo Pineda, chief technical officer at SBTi.

That test consists of two phases:

• An additional survey focused on corporate practitioners, which must be completed before Aug. 15. (SBTi says it will take an average of two hours to finish.)
• A hands-on trial in the third quarter in which companies use real-world data to test “near-final” versions of the draft. SBTi is looking to identify implementation challenges and validate methodological assumptions that underpin the standard.   

Participants must complete the survey in order to be considered for the hands-on test. SBTi doesn’t say how many companies will be included, but it’s seeking to represent a diversity of sizes, industry sectors, regions, emissions profiles and business models. 

Transition timeline

While all this is going on, companies can still set science-based emissions reduction targets this year and during 2026 using the existing Corporate Net Zero and Near-Term Criteria methodologies. Goals set in those years will be valid for either five years or until the end of 2030, whichever is earlier. 

Companies must start using Corporate Net Zero Standard 2.0 to set emissions reduction strategies starting in 2027. The finalized methodology is due by the end of 2026.

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As companies pull back on climate commitments (at least publicly) and trim their workforces, it’s a challenging time for sustainability professionals at every career level — but particularly those just starting out. 

The employment rate for recent college graduates aged 22-27 was almost 6 percent as of March, compared with 4.2 percent for the general population. ESG and sustainability teams are not immune to layoffs, and many professionals are reassessing their skill sets to land and keep a job.

To mark the 10th anniversary of Trellis 30 Under 30 list — featuring rising stars in the climate sector — we reached out to the 270 people featured on earlier editions of the list and asked them this question: What one tip do you have for an early-stage sustainability professional? Here are responses from 10 past honorees.

‘Be agile’

Devin Carsdale (2017)

Then: Sustainability compliance auditor for consumer goods purveyor Inter IKEA Group

Now: Associate director of sustainability at pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb, specializing in sustainable procurement and Scope 3 emissions

Advice: “Be amenable to taking on any number of tasks. As you grow in this space it is critical to be agile and a jack of all trades. This means project management, data analytics, change management, reporting and more!” 

‘Take care of yourself’

Christina Copeland (2016)

Then: Manager of disclosure services at sustainability reporting service CDP  

Now: Assistant vice president for sustainable finance reporting and strategy at insurer Great-West Lifeco 

Advice: “Take care of yourself. Working in sustainability can bring a lot of psychological baggage — the anxiety from knowing how bad it can be, feeling like you need to do more and are complicit just because you’re a human living in society. Find your community, your creative release, get professional support if you think it will be helpful. “

‘Ask what makes you come alive’

Lisa Curtis (2016)

Then: Founder and CEO of Kuli Kuli Foods, which makes organic, superfood snacks from drought-tolerant moringa trees planted to combat deforestation

Now: Curtis still leads the company, which counts Walmart among its retail partners

Advice: “I strongly believe in the Howard Thurman quote of ‘Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.’ Start by understanding the type of work that gives you energy — the work that you could do even if no one paid you to do it — and then figure out how to get paid for it.”

‘Don’t wait for permission’

Phil De Luna (2019)

Then: Program director for the Energy Materials Challenge Program with National Research Council Canada

Now: Chief science and commercial officer for Deep Sky Alpha, a Canadian direct air capture innovation and testing center that has raised more than $90 million

Advice: “As someone who has navigated the intersection of science, entrepreneurship and policy, my advice is: Don’t wait for permission — start building now.​ Sustainability challenges are multifaceted, and addressing them requires proactive engagement. Build your network, seek mentorship and don’t hesitate to pursue innovative ideas.​ Remember: Impactful change doesn’t come from waiting for the perfect moment; it comes from taking the first step and learning along the way.”

‘Stay curious and adaptable’

Franck Gbaguidi (2023)

Then: Director of sustainability at Eurasia Group, a political risk research and advisory group. 

Now: Practice head for global sustainability, biodiversity and water at Eurasia

Advice: “Stay curious and adaptable. Sustainability is constantly evolving — from the early CSR days to the ESG boom to today’s anti-ESG wave. Those who thrive are lifelong learners who anticipate shifts and shape the agenda, not just follow it. That mindset will position you to lead through whatever phase comes next.”

‘Don’t chase trends’

Pedro Alexandre Martins (2024)

Then: Senior sustainability source manager at meal kit company HelloFresh 

Now: Senior engagement manager at Capitals Coalition, which helps companies consider natural capital, social capital and human capital alongside financial metrics as part of decision-making

Advice: “Figure out where you thrive on the transformation spectrum. Change happens in startups, corporations, civil society and advocacy spaces — but the paths and pace differ. Don’t chase trends. Test what energizes you most! Systems change needs diverse builders; find where your purpose and skillset align best.”

‘Ask questions’

Hardik Miyani (2022)

Then: Senior energy and commissioning engineer at building sustainability and efficiency firm Baumann Consulting

Now: Miyani, named Young Energy Professional of the Year in 2024 by the Association of Energy Engineers, is the energy and decarbonization manager at Baumann

Advice: “Build a strong foundation by mastering the basics of energy systems and data analysis, but always stay curious — ask questions, seek mentors, and connect your work to real-world impact. Sustainability is a marathon, not a sprint. Focus on measurable progress, not perfection.”

‘Learn from the past’

Kaity Robbins (2024)

Then: Senior program manager of waste diversion at Whole Foods Market

Now: Same 

Advice: “Approach every situation with curiosity first. It’s essential to acknowledge and learn from our past. Understanding why things are done certain ways provides the knowledge needed to chart better paths forward.”

‘Engage with seasoned professionals’

José Miguel Salazar Hernández (2020)

Then: Senior specialist for corporate sustainability at CSRone, an ESG consulting firm in Taiwan

Now: Manager for ESG, sustainability and climate change services with PwC Spain 

Advice: “Sustainability careers cycle along regulations and investor views, which are currently facing a scale back. This phase is temporary, as fundamentals shall endure. Climate, nature and human rights will remain key financial risks and opportunities. Newcomers should engage with seasoned professionals to get sufficient context and perspective of where to focus priorities.”

‘Be brave and be loud’

Emily Sambuco (2023)

Then: Lead catastrophe analyst and atmospheric scientist with the corporate enterprise risk management team at  Liberty Mutual Insurance

Now: Same

Advice: “Be brave and be loud. Leverage your expertise — whether in climate, sustainability, environmental science, whatever — and advocate for scientific and data-driven decision-making within your organization. Communicate, educate and build relationships. Your experience is unique and valuable; you can integrate sustainability into your teams and organizations.”

[Join more than 5,000 professionals at Trellis Impact 25 — the center of gravity for doers and leaders focused on action and results, Oct. 28-30, San Jose.]

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