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About Me

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Edie brings over twenty years of experience and connections developing sustainable forestry strategies and policies at the state, regional, national and international level.  She has a Ph.D. in forestry from the University of Washington, where she specialized in forest carbon accounting and life cycle assessment, and a B.S. in biology from Yale University.  As founder and principal of Three Trees Consulting, she works across all parts of the forest sector, from nonprofits working with small landowners to large companies and associations to government, in the US and internationally.  Examples of projects include: Carbon advisor to many state and national associations; Work for individual companies/non profits on climate risk assessment, ecosystem service assessment, fiber sourcing and certification, carbon footprint; Carbon protocol development and assessments; GHG Reporting; Reports and Research.


She grew up in the Northeast, worked as a wood quality researcher for International Paper in southern Georgia, and then moved to the Pacific Northwest for a career at Weyerhaeuser, so she understands the differences across regions in forest ecosystems/markets/policy.  In addition to a professional and academic career in forestry, she is a family tree farmer, growing trees in South Carolina.  She lives in Seattle with her husband, three children, dog, and chickens.

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Edie Sonne Hall, PhD

140 Lakeside AVE, Ste A #146, Seattle, WA  98122 | 425 830-3772 | edieshall@outlook.com

Over 20 years in forestry, with expertise in carbon accounting, ecosystem services, life cycle assessment, certification, and environmental and sustainability policy across local, federal and international domains, working with the largest landowners in the world through to family farm forest organizations.

Experience

Founder and Principal | three trees consulting | 2018-present

Hand-picked for the most challenging and important carbon and environmental forestry issues that require bridging the gaps between science, policy, and management. Provide expertise in areas of forest carbon accounting, ecosystem services, green buildings, life cycle assessment, and sustainable forest certification. Have completed projects that scale from one month to multiple years, including:

  • Advising state and national forestry associations on potential climate legislations/policies

  • Chairing the North American Wood Product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Coordination Group, which brings together wood LCA experts, wood building advocates, associations, and academics to better coordinate and efficiently produce and communicate wood product LCAs.

  • Serving as science consultant and GHG Protocol Land Sector Technical Working Group member for the American Forest Foundation, working on the Family Forest Carbon Program, https://forestfoundation.org/carbon, a project aimed to incent carbon-positive practices on small family forests by reducing measuring and monitoring costs through programmatic sampling.

  • Conducting climate impact and carbon footprint assessments for individual forest management companies.

  • Authoring several reports, including:

Manager, Environmental Affairs | Weyerhaeuser | 2005-2017

  • Oversaw policy related to Weyerhaeuser timberlands and manufacturing in climate change, biomass sustainability, life cycle assessment and carbon footprint, ecosystem services, and overall corporate sustainability while working closely with Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOS), industry, and government agencies.

  • Played key role on influential external taskforces, including:

    • World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Forest Solutions Group. Active leader in “Forests and Forest Products as Carbon Sinks” workgroup for WBCSD Low Carbon Technology Partnership Initiative (LCTPI), which aimed to bring near- and mid-term business solutions for climate mitigation to UNFCCC’s COP21 in Paris.

    • Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, Goal 4 (Climate Friendly Practices) member, 2013- 2017.

    • Forest Climate Working Group founding member, 2008-2017

    • National Alliance of Forest Landowners, Climate and Energy Committee, chair, 2009-2010.

    • National Council on Air and Stream Improvement, Sustainable Manufacturing Committee, 2015-2017

    • Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) “All Lands Conservation Value Sounding Board” Member, 2016-2017.

    • Forterra Mass Timber Leadership Coalition, 2015-2017.

    • ANSI Forest Carbon Standards Committee, head of permanence/leakage subgroup, 2009-2010

    • Peer Reviewer for VCS “Standardized Methods for Baselines and Additionality”, 2011.

    • Washington State Forest Carbon Stakeholder Group member, 2007, 2008, 2010.

  • Created and led the development of Weyerhaeuser’s Product Environmental Profiles (PEPs), a way to summarize key environmental attributes of its products,

  • Led internal Weyerhaeuser team to define metrics and implement annual reporting system to demonstrate maintenance or enhancement of ecosystem services on Weyerhaeuser Timberlands, 2011-2012.  Oversaw the compilation and reporting of annual data.

  • Led company reporting on KPIs for WBCSD Forest Solutions Group.

  • Scoped potential carbon offset projects, including successful validation and verification of a VCS (voluntary offset) afforestation project in Uruguay.

  • Led Weyerhaeuser response on numerous regulatory and standards development, including to EPA, CARB, WRI/WBCSD (GHG Protocol), PEFC, SCS, Natural Capital Protocol.

  • Author and reviewer of numerous articles and reports related to forest climate mitigation and adaptation, life cycle assessment, and green building.

Wood Quality Lab Coordinator | International Paper | 1997-1999

  • Managed the wood quality lab at International Paper’s Southlands Experiment Forest. Work included field work (maintaining test sites and collecting core samples), lab work (x-ray densitometers, pulping digesters), statistics, and lab reports.


      Education

Ph.D. Forest Resources | 2005 | University of Washington

  • Dissertation: Life Cycle Assessment of Pacific Northwest Forestry Operations from Seedling Production to Harvesting- Implications for Forest Management. Specialty in forest carbon accounting.

  • Graduate Certificate: Interdisciplinary and Policy Dimensions of Earth Science

M.S. Forest resources| 2001 | University of Washington

B.S. Biology | 1997 | Yale University

  • Captain, Varsity Squash team; 1997 All-American and All-Ivy


Awards, Honors, Certifications

  • Future Leaders Program, World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD): Participated in 8-month sustainability training program with 20 other colleagues from global member companies, 2012.

  • President’s Award, Weyerhaeuser: For developing Weyerhaeuser’s first wetland mitigation banks, 2007.

  • President, Board of Directors, Parent Trust for Washington State Children, 2011-2014.

  • 2017 and 2018 Hagenstein Emerging Leader Fellow.

  • American Tree Farm System Certified Inspector, 2018-present.

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