Benjamin Munzel

Biography

Professional Summary

Benjamin Munzel (MBA, MSc) is a Managing Consultant at Navigant in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Benjamin has nine years of experience in the energy and climate field. He has an excellent track record of consulting and research projects with governments, multinational industrial companies and associations, and utilities. Benjamin’s expertise is in developing sustainability strategies and assessing distributed energy systems. These skills, complemented by his outstanding academic qualifications and his entrepreneurial spirit, have enabled him to become a trusted advisor to senior leadership on strategic orientation and planning.

Most recently, Benjamin held a series of webinars on the Leonardo Energy platform addressing the various options of sourcing green energy and the related certificate markets. He also analyzed the decarbonization roadmaps of the major European industries.

Areas of Expertise

• Sustainability Strategies: Guides senior leadership on decarbonizing their operations and footprint in various industries. Specializes in market-based instruments to enable organizations to achieve sustainability targets. Assesses environmental market products (carbon offsets, renewable energy certificates) and bilateral purchase agreements for emission reductions and green power. Manages stakeholder engagement for strategic alignment.
• Distributed Energy Systems: Provides technical expertise and strategic guidance to policy makers and senior operations executives of grid operators, energy market players, and energy-intensive industries. Models and examines systems and markets with distributed energy resources (generation, battery storage) and flexible consumers (demand response, electric vehicles). Carries out market sizing, competitive analysis, and stakeholder consultation to inform strategic decision making.

Professional Experience (excerpt)

Sustainability strategies

• Assessed carbon offsetting instruments and projects to improve the guidance documents of the Airport Carbon Accreditation program. Leveraged strong network and created a practical framework and guidelines for credible offsetting of carbon emissions. Led a team of five, coordinated the work, and managed client interactions.
• Developed green procurement strategies for various multinational industrial companies. Complied energy profiles and load curves of production plants. Defined needs and requirements for green energy supply. Assessed markets for Renewables Energy Certificates in countries. Reviewed quality and cost considerations and derived sourcing strategy.
• Developed a climate strategy for a multinational supermarket chain. Evaluated various
  aspects of carbon neutrality.
• Evaluated costs and risks of emission reduction projects in developing countries. Performed
  extensive data research and developed a simulation model to advise a large utility on their carbon sourcing and investment strategy.
• Carried out a meta-review of decarbonization roadmaps drawn up by European associations for energy-intensive industries. Advised the European Copper Institute on their roadmap development.
• Provided an in-depth overview of options to source green energy for large industrial consumers. Evaluated costs and credibility of Renewable Energy Certificates, green Power Purchase Agreements, and on-site generation. Presented findings in a webinar organized by the European Copper Institute.
• Provided an in-depth overview of markets for tradable certificates. Evaluated market sizes and carbon abatement costs of Renewable Energy Certificates, Carbon Credits, and Energy Efficiency Credits. Presented findings in a webinar organized by the European Copper Institute.
• Assisted various utilities and industrial companies with trading of carbon credits. Gathered emissions data, evaluated carbon demand and legal scope, and developed carbon sourcing strategies. Located emission reduction projects with strategic fit. Represented clients towards authorities.