Work

The problem

Methane warms the planet roughly 28 times more than CO₂ over a century, and far more than that in the near term. Orphaned oil and gas wells leak it straight into the atmosphere: there are over a hundred thousand documented orphan wells in the U.S., and the undocumented count is likely an order of magnitude higher. State and federal funds cover only a fraction of the work needed to find and plug them. That gap is exactly where climate finance comes in. My company had proven the model with a pilot, but addressing the real scope of the problem meant scaling the program, and that meant building the operational and measurement systems to run projects reliably across very different states and field conditions.

What I did

I led the full project development lifecycle, from strategic direction to fieldwork at well sites. I stood up our project management office and implemented a new project management tool, standardized operations across the program, and worked directly with the authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs), most often state Departments of Natural Resources or their equivalents. On top of that, I built the backbone that let the program expand: contractor coordination, field data, and quantification that held up under scrutiny.

The problem

A carbon market is only as credible as the quantification underneath it. For orphaned oil and gas wells, existing protocols did not accurately estimate the climate benefit of plugging them, which led to over-crediting and eroded the trust the whole market depends on. Getting it right meant solving something that had not been done before: a rigorous way to quantify the anticipated climate benefit, accurately and defensibly.

What I did

I co-led development of the methodology (oneshot.earth’s open carbon protocol) that set this standard. Among my contributions, I applied coefficient of variation (CV) to make in-field measurement reliability robust, and standardized the use of decline curves to estimate benefits after the fact, turning noisy field data into credited tonnes a registry and buyers can actually trust.

The problem

A serious energy and climate community needs more than coursework. It needs recurring access to practitioners, real exposure to the industry, and connective tissue that outlasts any one cohort.

What I did

As a leader in the Evening & Weekend Energy & Sustainability Club, I have hosted over half a dozen events bringing in industry experts and organized a climate and energy career trek in Chicago in August 2026. For the 2027 Kellogg Climate Conference, I am leading the effort to build an alumni board of advisors: a standing panel that provides continuing knowledge, serves as an industry pulse, and facilitates connections across the community.

The problem

How can a hyperscaler meet surging AI data center electricity demand reliably and affordably without abandoning decarbonization goals? KESC is one of the flagship energy and sustainability case competitions across U.S. MBA programs.

What I did

I contributed across the full strategy, from location to procurement to grid integration, while leading the demand response workstream. We recommended Texas (ERCOT) via a weighted decision framework and a phased architecture moving from onsite gas and storage toward firm clean power. I designed a 15% flexible-load commitment (54 MW) across four ERCOT pathways, benchmarked to EPRI’s DCFlex.