Q&A with Highwood Emission and Bridger Photonics

Inside the Bridger and Highwood Partnership

Join Joel Baller, COO of Bridger Photonics, as he sits down with Jessica Shumlich, COO of Highwood Emissions Management. Joel leads the discussion and asks the questions that get to the heart of the partnership. 

The methane landscape has shifted. Regulatory standards are becoming more demanding, investor scrutiny is real, and the bar for what counts as defensible emissions data keeps moving upward. In that environment, the gap between measuring emissions and being able to stand behind the numbers has never mattered more.

Highwood Emissions Management and Bridger Photonics recently formalized a strategic partnership connecting high-quality aerial measurement with the analytics, reconciliation, and reporting frameworks operators need to leverage data. Jessica and Joel sat down to talk through what this means, why now, and what it looks like to remain an independent technology partner in practice.

Q: Jessica, many of Highwood's customers were already using Bridger’s data. Given that our companies operated independently, what led us to form this partnership? 

Jessica: Honestly, the partnership was already happening. Our customers were using Bridger for aerial detection and coming to us for the reporting and analytics. We were already working through the same datasets, navigating the same technical challenges, serving the same people. When the leadership teams finally sat down together, both in Calgary and in Bozeman, it became obvious that we could better support our customers through strengthened collaboration. Through this partnership, we’ve formalized a collaboration that our customers already knew made sense. 

Q:  What gaps were you seeing that this partnership helps close? 

Jessica: The core problem we kept running into was that measurement and reporting were being treated as separate problems, handled by separate teams, with disconnected workflows and no one clearly owning the space between them. That creates risk. Data gets reconciled manually. Frameworks get applied inconsistently. And when it comes time for verification or regulatory scrutiny, the gaps are hard to explain and harder to defend.

Bridger brings exceptional aerial measurement and quantification. Highwood brings the analytics, reconciliation, and reporting frameworks. Having multiple groups involved without predictable coordination was slowing things down and increasing rework and complexity. This partnership closes that gap. We've automated the workflow of taking Bridger's measurement data and translating it into the reporting outputs our customers need. That's not a small thing. Together, we can offer a comprehensive solution.

Q:  Does anything change for a customer who is already working with both of us? 

Jessica: In the day-to-day, not much. Highwood remains an independent partner to our customers. What changes is the quality of the output and the efficiency of how Bridger and Highwood deliver when we work together. The path from measurement to reporting is more streamlined, with fewer points of friction and more cohesive insights.

For operators already using Bridger data who haven't yet engaged with Highwood, this partnership makes participating in frameworks like OGMP2.0 and MiQ significantly less painful. We've built the connective tissue. The process of using Bridger data within those frameworks is now structured, repeatable, automated, and credible. The bottom line for any customer: reduced risk. Both Bridger and Highwood have spent years building the infrastructure that makes emissions insights defensible, verification-ready, and decision-ready, without adding operational burden.

Q: Why does the timing matter?

Jessica: Because the stakes have changed. OGMP 2.0 Gold Standard reporting has become the credibility benchmark, not a nice-to-have. It’s what your trading partners and investors are looking at. The EU Methane Regulation is raising the bar for producers internationally. Enterprise-scale programs now need to produce outcomes that hold up under serious scrutiny.

In that environment, trying to stitch together multiple vendors and manually reconcile disconnected datasets is inefficient and it introduces risk to your reporting integrity. Operators need clarity and confidence in their emissions data. This partnership was built to meet that moment. We're not askig customers to manage a multitude of separate relationships and hope everything lines up. We've already done that work.

Q:  Where does this go from here? 

Jessica: We see this as a foundation, not a finish line. The methane space is evolving quickly and we intend to evolve with it: building on what's working, pushing into new areas where we can deliver stronger outcomes together. Bringing Highwood and Bridger together has already opened up possibilities that neither of us would have arrived at independently. Expanding that impact globally, particularly as EU regulations mature and more markets raise their expectations, is squarely on the horizon.

The methane market is noisy. There are a lot of vendors, a lot of frameworks, and a lot of noise about what good looks like. But clarity is rare. Operators don't need more fragmented solutions. They need a pathway they can stand behind when it matters. That's what we're building together.

 If you're navigating OGMP 2.0, EU Methane Regulation requirements, MiQ certification, or enterprise-scale methane programs, click here to learn more about our partnership

Jessica Shumlich  is the Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Highwood Emissions Management. She has a decade and a half experience working for energy companies, governments, technology developers and various startups. She is an Engineer by trade, with a Masters of Management and has been involved in work spanning from Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany.  

Joel Baller is a seasoned technology executive and the Chief Operating Officer of Bridger Photonics, bringing a broad and accomplished track record of building high-impact go-to-market and operational strategies for early-stage startups and rapidly scaling companies. Joel is passionate about cultivating high-integrity, high-performance, and high-scale cultures, aligning people, process, and strategy to accelerate growth and operational excellence.