About the Author
Christopher K. Merker, PhD, CFA, Co-Director, Marquette Business Sustainability Lab (S-Lab: Governance + Sustainability)
christopher.merker@marquette.edu
Chris leads the Sustainable Finance and Business program at Marquette University and is a director and portfolio manager with Baird Private Asset Management.
Chris recently served on the ESG Advisory Panel for CFA Institute and is a past member of the ESG Working Group.
Sustainability is often cast as a trade-off — good for the planet, costly for business. However, increasingly the most durable climate progress comes from a different premise: Sustainability becomes investable when outcomes are measurable, verified and scalable.
One of the most practical near-term levers is methane mitigation. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a high near‑term warming impact, which means reducing emissions can deliver climate benefits quickly. Across legacy oil-and-gas regions, orphaned and abandoned wells can leak methane, posing local environmental and safety risks. Permanently plugging high-priority wells is an engineering intervention with measurable, verifiable and repeatable outcomes.
Water + Energy Forward (W+E Forward), nonprofit Green Bank, was launched through a collaboration between The Water Council and Marquette University’s Sustainability Lab (S-Lab) to advance a market-based model connecting methane abatement with broader water stewardship and resilience outcomes. Wisconsin is an ideal convening home for this work — anchored by deep expertise in water innovation, governance and applied sustainability. The model itself is designed to be replicable and scalable wherever the methane problem is most acute, not tied to a single state.
This intentionally financeable approach is built around four steps:
1. Execute engineered mitigation:
Permanently plug targeted methane-leaking wells to defined engineering standards, prioritizing sites with the greatest impact per dollar
2. Quantify and verify outcomes:
Apply rigorous measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), including pre- and post-plug measurements, standardized methodologies, conservative baselines and independent third-party review
3. Issue high-integrity credits:
After verification, issue unique, traceable credits on a transparent registry with auditability for buyers and stakeholders
4. Reinvest to scale water and decarbonization solutions:
Allocate a defined share of proceeds to fund practical water‑stewardship upgrades and other high-impact decarbonization projects accessible to small and midsized organizations
This is where markets matter. Buyers — especially companies navigating rising energy demand, supply-chain complexity and investor scrutiny — seek climate solutions that stand up to diligence. In environmental markets, credibility is earned through evidence. W+E Forward aligns with high‑integrity market practice: independent validation and verification, conservative baselines, transparent issuance, retirement records and sound governance. MRV integrates field measurements, standardized protocols and periodic re‑checks to confirm durability of outcomes. Where applicable, credits are serialized, tracked on an open registry and retired upon use to prevent double counting. As the market matures, quality differentiation becomes essential — and finance-grade structures become a catalyst for scaling what works.
AI is part of this story in two important ways. First, the growth of digital infrastructure is increasing demand for reliable, high-integrity climate solutions that can be verified and defended. Second, AI can strengthen market integrity by improving monitoring and verification — integrating satellite imagery, sensors and anomaly detection to reduce uncertainty and flag risks earlier. In other words, the same technologies reshaping the economy can help deliver the transparency and accountability climate markets require.
The broader vision aligns with green bank principles: mobilizing capital efficiently, funding real-world upgrades, and scaling solutions with discipline and accountability. By combining environmental outcomes with financial structures institutions understand, we can scale what works and deliver durable climate and water benefits.
To accelerate progress, we should focus less on abstract targets and more on investable projects with measurable results. Methane mitigation — done rigorously — offers a practical bridge to near-term climate impact.
