MAY 2023
Hi everyone,
May is National Clean Air Month, so if you’ve been feeling particularly inspired at work the past several weeks, that might explain why. Some other causes to champion in the few hours before May ends (if you haven’t already): Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, and Mental Health Awareness Month đź’š
In May, CATF released two new methane reports, helped EPA secure a legal victory in the D.C. Circuit, and saw some important policy progress in both the U.S. and European Parliament. Read below for more.
Starting next month, our digital media experts Kara Hunt and Sammie Firth will be taking over production of this newsletter, and you can reach out to them with any questions or submissions. It’s been a pleasure putting the Task Force Times together since it was created in February 2022, and I’m happy to be leaving this project in very capable hands.
If last month’s newsletter got lost in your inbox, you can find a copy here. And if you have any comments, questions, or feedback, please reach out to Kara Hunt.
Staff Highlight: Fatoumata Diallo and the Women's Relief Intiative
This month, we wanted to use the newsletter to highlight the volunteer work of CATF Development Assistant Fatoumata, who is a founding member of the Women’s Relief Initiative (WRI). WRI is a nonprofit organization based in Texas working to provide menstrual aid and fight period poverty in under-resourced communities. This past month, their team conducted a dignity kits distribution drive, assembling and distributing dignity kits, bags of food, and menstrual health and hygiene resource guides to 95 displaced individuals in central Texas. WRI’s Educational Task Force also conducted a comprehensive menstrual health and hygiene workshop for attendees.
Learn more about the Women’s Relief Initiative on their website, and support their work by following them on Instagram, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
Leadership, Ops, HR, and
IT News & Updates
Human Resources
New Staff This Month
⚠️ The HR team will soon be launching a new and improved staff directory! Stay tuned for an email, and we’ll include the updated link here as soon as it’s available.
 New Interns:
- Paige Cowan, Climate Equity, Washington, D.C.
- Colleen Temple, Climate Equity, Ann Arbor, MI
- Tia Brown, Climate Equity, Chicago, IL
- Shania Brace, Climate Equity, Washington, D.C.
- John Ayaburi, Africa Energy & Climate Innovation, Lakewood, CO
Other Updates
- Vacation Policy Change: U.S. employees now have until Labor Day (Sept 4) to use 2022’s accrued vacation hours.
- Resource Optimization: Thank you to everyone who has completed an interview for the Resource Optimization initiative! HR will be completing interviews by the end of May and will start analyzing the data the first week of June.
Present Your Work!
Please sign up to present on your work at an all-staff watercooler! These presentations can range from overviews of your team’s work to deep dives into a specific solution, to an explanation of the policy landscape in a specific region, or anything else you think may be interesting to staff. They do not need to be long or formal. It’s all about sharing your expertise and work with the CATF community! The link to sign up can be found in the CATF Team General channel under the “Forms” tab, and please free to sign up well in advance of your planned presentation date.
Operations
- The Boston Office 7th floor expansion is complete! If you have any questions about the office or reserving space, please reach out to Hervey.
- If you have subscriptions needs, please fill out the subscription request form.
Finance & Accounting
- Friendly reminder: Concur receipts and reconciliations are always due by the end of the 3rd business day of the month.
IT
- The IT team will be reaching out to program leads next week, as part of the process to condense and streamline email distribution lists.
- The endpoint management project to allow for easier computer administration is currently in a testing phase for windows systems. Windows users can expect some communications starting late next week regarding some tasks that need to be completed, such as installation of our management agent and profile migration.
- Other new software projects on deck include an event management system currently in the planning phase and testing a new password management system, as well as our new Salesforce environment for programs. Salesforce updates will be coming in the form of “power hour” meetings to get everyone up to speed.
Project Management Team
- Monday.com: The PM team is concluding the Monday.com onboarding of teams at the end of the month. If you would like to participate, but have yet to, please email [email protected]. The next phase of Monday.com implementation will include an intermediate summer training series. More details to come!
- Meeting Facilitation Training: Thank you to the 14 participants that attended the pilot session of the meeting facilitation training! In the weeks to come, the team will be taking feedback from those sessions and creating a targeted training to roll out to the organization.
- Salesforce: Our consultant is building out CATF’s customized Salesforce space. The PM team has started to solicit input and feedback from a group of stakeholders who represent CATF’s various teams.
View all organizational updates →
Events & Meetings
Announcements & Updates
New & Improved Processes for Events & Meetings!
- Are you planning a meeting, conference, event, webinar, or trip? Are you participating in a 3rd party speaking, sponsor, or exhibit opportunity? We want to know! The events & engagement team at CATF is rolling out new processes for success to streamline, analyze, and maximize our event impact across the organization. Please note the following new tools:
- An event design intake form to be completed with the events team. If you have something on the horizon, please reach out to Mary or Marge ASAP to get started.
- An org-wide event tracker on Monday.com! See what is happening across the org and add your engagements by filling out this intake form.
Other Updates
- As we work to build our event relationships at CATF, Mary and Marge had the recent opportunity to participate in IMEX in Frankfurt, Germany. IMEX is the largest tradeshow in the world for the global meetings and events industry, bringing together 10,000+ planners and supplies each year to educate, innovate, and connect. The team met with important contacts from Dubai to Iceland and beyond while learning tools to help CATF build engaging and sustainable programs. Plus, our very own Marge was featured as a guest speaker at a workshop on Microaggressions and how we can make our workplaces safer for people of all identities.
Upcoming Events
⚠️ The events tracker has been moved to Monday.com! View it here.
- June 6-7: ARC Cleantech Innovation Festival (Remscheid, Germany)
- June 6-8: Europe Advocacy Strategy Check-in Meeting (Brussels, Belgium)
- June 12-13: CATF Board Meeting (Boston, MA)
- June 12-13: Fusion Workshop (Boston, MA)
- June 15: Donor Webinar: Beyond the Jargon Series (Virtual)
- June 20: NZIA webinar: How to make it fit for purpose? (Brussels, Belgium)
- June 26-27: Carbon Capture Summit (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Upcoming CATF Holidays
See here for the full holiday lists for all countries.
- Monday, June 5: Pentecost Monday (Greece)
- Thursday, June 8: Corpus Christi (Austria)
- Monday, June 19: Juneteenth (United States)
- Tuesday, June 27: Day of Arafat (United Arab Emirates)
- Wednesday, June 28-29: Eid al-Adha (Nigeria, United Arab Emirates)
- Friday, June 30: Eid al-Adha (United Arab Emirates)
- Friday, July 21: Belgium National Day (Belgium)
Program & Regional Advocacy
Team Updates
Highlights
- CATF’s Legal team, on behalf of clients American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Clean Air Council, and others, helped EPA secure a victory in the D.C. Circuit. The ruling denied a challenge to the Clean Air Act’s Endangerment Finding, dismissing the case based on lack of standing and keeping intact the Finding underpinning standards to reduce pollution and improve public health.
- A major announcement from EPA this month proposed stringent carbon pollution standards for the U.S. power fleet based on the best pollution controls available. Read CATF’s statement, and see below for a summary of press coverage.
- CATF’s Methane Pollution Prevention team, alongside our partners at Ceres, released its third annual report analyzing methane and greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. oil and gas producers, comparing reported emissions over time and highlighting the need for strong federal and state regulations.
- The Methane team also released an updated report on CATF’s work to document methane pollution at oil and gas facilities across Europe, accompanied by a new blog from ThĂ©o Humann-Guilleminot.
- The Zero-Carbon Fuels team published a new Hydrogen Production Calculator along with an accompanying blog post.
- The Carbon Capture team’s Ben Grove helped coauthor a new report on carbon capture and storage in California, which found that several classes of CCS projects are viable in California today and can benefit both host communities and landowners.
- The European Parliament officially adopted its position on the EU Methane Regulation ahead of trilogues – a major step forward in reducing methane leaks and banning venting and flaring of methane at oil and gas facilities. Read CATF’s statement.
- Superhot Rock Energy Program Director Terra Rogers joined Geothermal Rising as a board-level member and the inaugural chair of its Innovation Policy Subcommittee.
- Nuclear Program Director Carlos Leipner participated and led panels at the Nuclear Trade and Technology Exchange (NT2E) international event in Rio de Janeiro, including discussions on advanced reactors and applications of nuclear technologies for industrial applications.
All program & advocacy updates →
Full List of Publications This Month
Reports & Fact Sheets:
Blogs:
Press Statements:
Letters, Comments, and Testimonies:
Comms Corner
CATF in the News
- Throughout April and May, CATF was quoted in over 30 pieces of media (!!) on EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas regulations for the power sector. These included Jay Duffy and Ben Longstreth speaking with Cipher, John Thompson in Nature and Politico, Jay in The New York Times, Bloomberg, ABC News, Fortune, CNN, Washington Post, Reuters, Vox, Harvard’s CleanLaw podcast, and many, many more!
- CATF’s methane work was featured in (again) over 30 news stories this month, including Financial Times, Contexte, Bloomberg, Tagesspiegel, Euractiv Slovakia, and Newsweek Romania — with quotes from Alessia Virone, Jonathan Banks, James Turitto, and Theophile Humann.
- Toby Lockwood was quoted in Carbon Pulse on the recently proposed Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA).
View all press coverage →
Communications Updates & Reminders
Check Out Our Shared Resources!
If you’re ever looking for a CATF logo file, PowerPoint template, branded letterhead, or key messaging doc, be sure to check out the Communications folder in our shared CATF files. And stay tuned for some important updates!
If you are working on a product that will require design through 5IVE (CATF’s creative and branding agency), please submit requests through the project request form a minimum of three business days (and ideally two weeks or more) in advance of your deadline and include a link to the Word or PDF document with finalized content. This includes reports, fact sheets, and slide decks.
Please also factor design time and a few rounds of reviews into your target release date for the product!
Staff Pet Photo of the Month
Colin and Scruffy belong to the family of Digital Communications Associate Sammie Firth. Although they are clearly gifted in the wardrobe department, their names are slightly less fortunate. Scruffy’s full name was chosen by the youngest member of the family, much to the dismay of vet receptionists and pet insurance companies everywhere — HRH Lady Strawberry Fluffington de Bouvoire. If anyone knows the casting director for Bridgerton, Scruffy is open to auditions.
If you have a pet you’d be willing to share, please submit a pet photo for the newsletter! You can do so by filling out this Google Form.
That’s all for this month. If you made it this far — thanks for reading!
|
