Base rates

Most jobs are bid on an hourly basis with a cost cap. I do not bill for job scoping.

Roel Hammerschlag, Principal
501(c)(3) nonprofit or government:	$180/hour
all other:	$220/hour
support staff:	$90/hour

I occasionally partner with other professionals; these are billed through to you at their own customary rate, plus a 2% surcharge to cover Business & Occupation taxes and administrative expenses. If any such partners will be working on your job this will be clearly agreed upon beforehand in our MOU (see under “Contracts” below).

When I travel outside of western Washington for work, I bill 8 hours per day at my full rate, regardless of whether that time is spent flying, driving, or working. This includes the days flying out of and back into western Washington. Hotel and meal expenses are billed at the per diem rates published by the U.S. General Services Administration.

Invoicing

I invoice at the beginning of each month, for the work done over the prior month. (Except in the case of the GHG Management Starter Package, see below.) Payment is due 30 days after invoicing. Once any invoice is unpaid for 60 days or more, I stop work on the job until all outstanding invoices are paid. Each invoice is delivered as a PDF document via email; I will not submit invoices via web-based interfaces to proprietary accounting systems.

Contracts

You and I will draft and sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that specifies the deliverables you expect, the timeline on which they are to be done, and our payment agreement. I don’t have the wherewithal to sue over a broken contract, so I will put significant effort into making the MOU crystal clear to both of us. Some larger clients prefer to use their own, standard contracts and I will work with those in the cases where the terms are reasonable, which is most of the time. Contracts that severely limit my ability to publish or repurpose work I have done for you will be billed at the Corporate rate listed above.

GHG management starter package

Here’s the fine print for the GHG Management Starter Package. The scope of work described here will be incorporated into our MOU or contract, before we begin. Work begins when payment of $7,000 is received. A second payment of $7,000 is due 30 days after delivery of the completed inventory. I will attempt to complete all deliverables within 60 days, but achieving that timeline is dependent on your organization’s ability to turn around requested information as described further below.

First, the description and limits of what the inventory will include:

• The GHG Management Starter Package is only available for corporate entities or communities in the United States.
• For corporate entities, the inventory will use the financial control criterion for defining the organizational boundary.
• For communities, the inventory will include all activity and energy use inside the geographic boundary of the jurisdiction, except for transportation which will be estimated by prorating the surrounding state’s retail gasoline and diesel sales according to population.
• The inventory will be for the most recent, completed calendar year ending before the Starter Package payment is received.
• Scope 1 emissions will be computed from data describing:
  – all fuels used to heat buildings;
  – all fuels consumed to power industrial processes;
  – process emissions from iron or steel production (if present);
  – process emissions from cement production (if present);
  – all fuels consumed by fleet vehicles (for corporate entities) or fuels consumed by vehicles in the jurisdiction (for communities)
  – direct emissions from landfills and sewage treatment plants (for communities)
• Scope 2 emissions will be computed using the U.S. EPA eGRID emission factor relevant to the entity’s location. If the entity purchases steam or hot water (district heat) from another party, then it does not qualify for the Starter Package.
• Corporate entities may submit employee commuting data and receive a computation of commuting emissions under inventory Scope 3.

What you need to supply in order to enable the inventory follows. (This is what will make or break the 60-day timeframe.) If you need me to sign a non-disclosure agreement for the purpose of doing this work I will be happy to do so. The list below is for corporate entities; for communities, this list will be somewhat different.

• A copy of the property, plant & equipment assets listed in your organization’s chart of accounts;
• Monthly electric and natural gas consumption as appearing on utility bills for all properties listed in the chart of accounts, compiled on an Excel spreadsheet;
• All other purchases of fossil fuels used for building heating, industrial processes, machinery or vehicles, compiled in an Excel spreadsheet;
• Annual production of iron, steel and/or cement, if relevant; and
• A tabulation of daily or weekly commuting distances by mode (car, bus, rail) if choosing to report employee commuting.

The site visit:

• Must be scheduled at least 3 weeks in advance;
• Must occur on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday; and
• Will begin at 8:30am local time and end at 3:00pm of the same day.

The Climate Registry, carbonn Climate Registry, or Carbon Disclosure Project participation:

• The Starter Package includes my assistance with your decision to submit emissions data to one of these GHG inventory registries, if you choose to;
• You are responsible for membership and/or verification fees associated with your chosen registry;
• My technical assistance (within the Starter Package) will be limited to creating a simple, secondary spreadsheet that conforms the delivered inventory to match the input format required by the registry. This is a fairly simple process and you may find that after the on-site training your staff will easily be able to do so on their own.