What happens when a company commits to a decarbonization plan — and then someone finally reviews the baseline?

Dr. Albert Chung, Principal Engineer at GSI Environmental, has spent over 15 years verifying GHG inventories across industries. In this episode, he shares what verifiers actually see when they open an inventory for the first time, the red flags that show up before an audit even begins, and why so many decarbonization plans are built on foundations that were never independently reviewed.

We also get into the practical side of inventory management: why companies that write their IMP at the deadline are setting themselves up for pain, how to think about materiality when your sustainability team is stretched thin, and the spend-based data problem — why switching to a lower-carbon supplier won't show up as a reduction if your baseline isn't built on actionable data.

In this episode:

• The red flags verifiers look for before the audit starts
• Why inventory management plans should be built from day one, not written after the deadline
• The 5% materiality threshold — and how it differs from what sustainability teams use internally
• The spend-based trap: how your Scope 3 reduction initiatives can become invisible in your own reporting
• Why starting in Excel might be the right move, even if you're planning to use software eventually
• How to future-proof an inventory when methodology, regulations, and staff all keep changing

About the Podcast: The Carbon Management and Accounting Podcast is hosted by Aaron Stainthorp and sponsored by North Star Carbon & Impact — the carbon and sustainability management platform built by sustainability professionals, for sustainability professionals. New episodes every other Tuesday.

Learn more or request a demo: northstarcarbon.com

Derek Markolf spent 22 years at LRQA leading GHG verifications across manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and nearly every other sector. Now he runs his independent verification practice while slow-traveling the world with his wife — conducting verifications remotely from wherever they happen to be living that month.

In this conversation, Derek shares what two decades of looking inside other organizations' GHG inventories actually teaches you — the patterns that show up everywhere, the mistakes that keep getting made, and the emerging issues that practitioners need to get ahead of right now.

We cover:

→ Why the smallest sources are the biggest pain — and why this surprises first-time reporters every time

→ The "levers" problem: why spend-based and industry-average data removes your ability to show real emissions reductions

→ Base year recalculation — the most under-enforced GHG Protocol requirement, and why verifiers are giving it a lot more attention now that companies are nearing their target years

→ What inventory management plans need to contain to survive staff turnover

→ Why AI-assisted tools are creating a new challenge for verifiers: "We can't verify a black box"

→ What separates organizations that build solid, verification-ready inventories from those that struggle — and why it almost always starts with leadership commitment.

🎙️ Carbon Management & Accounting Podcast | New episodes every other Tuesday

Sponsored by North Star Carbon & Impact — northstarcarbon.com

Mandi McKay joined Sierra Nevada Brewing Company as a part-time sustainability coordinator — literally driving a forklift and collecting banana peels for the worm bin — and over 17 years grew into her current role as Chief Sustainability and Social Impact Officer. In this episode, she pulls back the curtain on what carbon accounting really looks like at one of America's most sustainability-forward breweries, including the honest story of their first Scope 3 inventory: a 25-tab spreadsheet that took over a year to complete and left her team swearing they wouldn't attempt it again for five years.

We get into the practical realities of carbon accounting across the full beer supply chain — from barley farmers and energy-intensive maltsters to refrigerated cold chain logistics and packaging decisions. Mandi shares how materiality thinking has evolved from their first attempt in 2018 to today, how supplier conversations are actually shifting upstream data quality, and why Sierra Nevada's family ownership structure enables long-term sustainability bets that publicly traded companies simply can't make.

Plus: the story behind Hop Forward — Sierra Nevada's sustainability campaign, annual impact report, and a beer that lets customers literally taste climate leadership.

• How Mandi grew from sustainability coordinator to C-suite over 17 years at Sierra Nevada

• Why their first Scope 3 inventory took over a year — and what they do differently now

• The carbon hotspots in beer: barley, malt, packaging, and refrigerated cold chain

• How materiality thinking should guide Scope 3 data collection decisions

• How supplier conversations are changing upstream data quality

• The cold chain nuance most sustainability teams miss

• How family ownership enables long-term sustainability investments

• The Western North Carolina Brewery Recycling Cooperative and industry collaboration

• Hop Forward: Sierra Nevada's sustainability platform, impact report, and annual beer