About Us

Who We Are

Active in international standards development, Futurepast is an ideal consulting, training and auditing partner in management systems improvement and carbon accounting services.

What We Offer

  • Training in the field of GHG and environmental management
  • Auditing in the areas of environment, GHG management, and safety and health
  • Counting Carbon through GHG inventory management and carbon footprinting
  • Verification and consulting on GHG statements and sustainability of alternative fuels
  • Consulting in climate change management and green finance

Mission

Futurepast’s mission is to help organizations transition to a low-carbon economy through consulting, training, and auditing.

Vision

We foresee a future where global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius or less.

Futurepast Quality Policy

Futurepast aims to excel at service delivery and product creation by understanding customer needs, delivering appropriate solutions, and meeting or exceeding customer expectations and other applicable requirements. Customer satisfaction is our most important measure of quality, and we strive to earn it in every project we undertake. To this end, we are committed to meeting the requirements of our quality management system and to its improvement.                      

History of Futurepast

Futurepast was founded September 15th, 1994 in Arlington, Virginia by current President, John Shideler. The name “Futurepast” acknowledges our commitment to realizing a better future for our clients and the world by building on the foundations of past knowledge and practice. Our clients include businesses, non-profit organizations, and government agencies.

Futurepast is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. A second office is located in Spokane, Washington. We serve customers in the United States and around the world.

Biographies

John Shideler

John Shideler is an environmental expert focused on decarbonizing the world economy. He helps clients achieve their goals for managing and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, quantifying the carbon footprint of products, and obtaining assurance on greenhouse gas statements. He helps clients develop methodologies for carbon markets and consults on the implementation of projects that earn carbon credits. He manages Futurepast’s validation and verification program and serves as a verifier of sustainability information.

Dr. Shideler is active in international standards development. He has served as a US expert to ISO TC207 Subcommittee 7 on Greenhouse Gas Management and has received five times an “Outstanding Achievement in Standards Development Award” for his work on ISO 14064, ISO 14065, ISO 14066, and ISO 14069. He served until 2021 as a member of the Climate Change Coordination Committee, a group that reports directly to ISO’s Technical Management Board, and was a member of that body’s Strategic Advisory Group on ESG. He served as Chair of Subcommittee 4 on Environmental Performance Evaluation in ISO Technical Committee 207 (Environmental Management) from 2013 to 2021.

Dr. Shideler has represented ISO at at four “Conference of the Parties” meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, including COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland. Hear his remarks from the COP24 where he spoke on the development of ISO 14030, a standard in four parts on green debt instruments (bonds and loans).

Dr. Shideler is accredited by the California Air Resources Board and by the Washington state Department of Ecology as a greenhouse gas lead verifier with specialties in process emissions, oil and gas, and transactions. He developed knowledge about biomass as a Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials lead auditor. He is an associate member of the American Bar Association.

Dr. Shideler earned his PhD degree at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author with Jean Hetzel of Le grand livre de la stratégie bas carbone (La Plaine Saint-Denis, France: AFNOR, 2019), five other books, and several articles for journals and reviews. His book, co-authored with Jean Hetzel, Introduction to Climate Change Management: Transitioning to a Low-Carbon Economy, was published in 2022 by Springer Climate.

john.shideler@futurepast.com

+1 (703) 358-9127 ext. 2 (UTC-5)

Steve Corker

During a more than forty-year long career, Steve Corker managed award-winning public relations and marketing efforts for businesses and nonprofits. In the 1990s his management consulting background helped Futurepast deliver professional training to Russian and Ukrainian government leaders and managers in programs sponsored by the US Agency for International Development.

Mr. Corker previously served as an elected city councilman in Spokane, Washington. He served on the Board of Directors of Spokane International Airport from 2000 to 2003 and has worked extensively in the airline and travel industries.

Steve Corker’s awards and honors include:

  • 1983 recipient of the prestigious “Clio” Award, honoring advertising excellence worldwide
  • 1990 recipient of the George Washington Medal for Excellence in Public Communications from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge for his article on the Soviet Union entitled “A Caravan of Peace.”
  • 1991 recipient of the Lenin Humanitarian Award for contributions to youth programs in both the US and former Soviet Union
  • Mr. Corker manages the Spokane, WA, office of Futurepast. For many years he taught marketing and public relations as an adjunct instructor at Gonzaga University in Spokane. Mr. Corker graduated from Stanford University with a BA in political science.

steve.corker@futurepast.com
+1 (703) 358-9127 ext. 3 (UTC-8)

Jean Hetzel

During a more than forty-year career, Jean Hetzel managed award-winning environmental evaluation for businesses and nonprofits. At the end of the 1980s, he had designed and implemented pollution evaluation for the French Environment Secretary and started French industry environmental audits before the publication of ISO standards. Mr Hetzel founded and as chair managed the French IFAE for industry environment practitioners. Mr. Hetzel’s clients have included Saint Gobain, Hutchinson, Cogema and the French Environment Ministry.

In the late 1990s, Jean Hetzel designed the French Green Buildings methods (HQE) and developed and trained practitioners for French Green buildings. Mr. Hetzel applied his environmental practitioner knowledge in engagements for the city of Angers, the industrial firm Saint Gobain, and Crédit Mutuel.

Mr. Hetzel was founder and chair of ICEB for building environment practitioners. Mr. Hetzel is author of several books (in French) on the French Green building approach and with John Shideler about the low carbon strategy.

Mr. Hetzel was West CINOV Chair (engineering) from 2006 to 2014. Mr. Hetzel represents French and European environmental NGOs in ISO working groups and is a member of Finance Watch (European NGO). Mr. Hetzel has played a key role in developing ISO 14030 Part 3: Taxonomy.

Jean Hetzel teaches at CNAM (Paris) and Cergy-Pontoise University. He is a graduate of the University of Paris with a Master’s degree in Law and Finance. 

j.hetzel@johanson-international.com

+33 (68) 070-5593 (UTC+1)

Franz Knecht

Franz Knecht (lic.iur.)
CONNEXIS Strategy Consultants
CSR & ESG Advisory 

Franz Knecht – founder and managing partner of CONNEXIS AG/SA/Ltd., a Swiss strategy and implementation advisory company focused on sustainable development – is an expert representative of the Swiss Association for Standardization (SNV) at the International Organization for Standardization.

Franz Knecht has been active in in the field of sustainable development and financial markets for more than 30 years. He has contributed to the mainstreaming of sustainability, which surfaced as a marginal issue in the 1990s and became a central focal point for business and society today. Franz’s career has included many steps: from an academic to senior banker at a major mainstream bank, and from advisor to major manufacturers, commodity traders, and private sector financial services firms to work with multilateral finance organizations (World Bank, International Finance Corporation).

Franz has contributed significantly as expert and leader in the development of many international sustainability guidance documents and certification standards (WBCSD, UNEP FI, GRI, CDP, Natural Capital Initiative, ISO etc.). This background gives Franz unique insight, perspective and authority as an opinion leader and senior contributor on the application of financial solutions to sustainable development, which means fulfilling new societal requirements and meeting the expectations of a new generation of investors for positive Environment-Social-Governance (ESG) impact.

Franz Knecht served as convenor for the new ISO standard 14007 ‘Determining Environmental Costs and Benefits’ and was also expert member of the workgroup for ISO 14008 ‘Monetary Valuation for Environmental Impacts’, published in 2019 and 2020. His standardization work includes contributing to the development of ISO 14030 ‘Green Debt Instruments’ for green bonds and loans, ISO 14097 ‘Climate Finance’, and ISO 14100 ‘Guidance on Environmental Criteria for Projects, Assets and Activities. Franz represents the Swiss Standards Association (SNV) as expert and delegate to ISO Technical Committee 322 on Sustainable Finance and  in several workgroups and as convener of the Ad Hoc Group 2 ‘Future Standards Developments’ which identifies and prepares standardization proposals.

Franz Knecht has a law degree (lic.iur.) from the University of Basel and worked in legal and management functions in industry and the finance sector. He is Lead Auditor for ISO 14001 and holds several qualifications in banking, marketing, communication, accounting and sustainability reporting. He was lecturing at several universities as well as faculty member at Prince of Wales Business and Sustainability Initiative. Today his research focus is on the EU sustainable finance initiative impact on business and the development of practical implementation standards at ISO for linking environmental aspects with economics and finance.   

Following the initial career as a lawyer and business association manager, Franz joined SWISS BANK CORPORATION (now UBS AG) as ‘Vice President (VP) Product Development’ in 1986. In 1991 he became ‘Head of Sustainable Banking Solutions’ and developed e.g. ESG policies, the Bank’s first environmental report, the first environmental credit risk procedures, investment banking solutions as well as the bank’s first green fund. He was founding member of UNEP FI, GRI and represented the bank at the WBCSD (World Business Council for Sustainable Development).

After 13 years at the Bank, Franz Knecht founded CONNEXIS AG in 1999 as an international strategic advisory company for sustainable development in the financial industry. Since then, CONNEXIS has grown into an international network that provides global sustainability services and solutions, primarily to the finance and manufacturing sector, but also to international organizations.

franz.knecht@connexis.ch

+41 (79) 415 93 02 (UTC+1)

Daniele Pernigotti

Daniele Pernigotti has more than 20 years of experience in the environmental field.

Since 2004 he has been the Italian delegate at the international level in the development of ISO standards. He convened the ISO Working Group (WG) responsible for the development of ISO 14067, the global reference for quantification of the Carbon Footprint of Products and the convener of ISO/TC 207 Ad Hoc Group on Circular Economy.

Daniele is a member of the ISO/TC 207 Strategic Leadership Group and of the SC7 Mitigation Task Force. He has also been a member of the WG responsible for the revision of ISO 14001 (Requirements for Environmental Management Systems — EMS) and ISO 14004 (Guidelines on EMS implementation), related to the Environmental Management System. In the GHG area he took part in the revision of ISO 14064-1 (GHG Inventory at organizational level) and of ISO 14064-3 (Verification and Validation of GHG statements), and he currently participates in the revision of ISO 14065 (Requirements for GHG validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation) within the SC7/WG6. Daniele has also been involved in the development of ISO 17029 (Requirements for validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation).

At national level he is the convener of UNI (Italian Standardization Body) GL15 on climate change, mirror committee of the ISO/TC 207/SC7 and Vice-President of the Environmental Commission.

Since 2000 he has been operating as Lead Assessor for ACCREDIA (Italian Accreditation Body), and now he works as Technical Advisor on climate change in the mandatory and voluntary area, including EU ETS, Carbon footprint of products, GHG inventories and Monitoring, Reporting and Verification for shipping.

Daniele is qualified as GHG Lead Assessor also by ANSI National Accreditation Body and as a technical expert by RvA (Dutch national accreditation body). He is also an EA peer evaluator in the GHG area, and he regularly performs peer assessment activities at the EU level.

During his career, Daniele has conducted many technical training and capacity building activities regarding carbon management.

dpernigotti@aequilibria.com

+39 (340) 978-3337 (UTC+1)

Trey Neinast

Trey Neinast is the Quality Manager for Futurepast and is responsible for ensuring that Futurepast activities and processes are in line with relevant requirements and standards. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and is primarily driven by working in industries focused on making a positive impact.

The initial years of Trey’s career were spent in the heavily regulated pharmaceutical and medical device industries. This has given him an in-depth knowledge of Quality Management Systems and their implementation, and he is excited to bring these skills to Futurepast and to work in an industry geared towards better environmental sustainability.

trey.neinast@futurepast.com

+1 (703) 358-9127 ext. 5 (UTC-6)