Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Offsetting

2009-10-01

When the Olympic Torch is extinguished in Vancouver in March, 2010, the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) is hoping to have made history by hosting the first-ever carbon-neutral Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

It’s a lofty goal, especially when one considers the complicated logistics of such an event: not only must VANOC shelter, feed and transport thousands of athletes throughout the Vancouver and Whistler areas, there are event venues to power, snow and ice to make, and thousands upon thousands of spectators to greet and help enjoy the games during the four-week period.

In 2007, the David Suzuki Foundation estimated that when the Games wrap up in late-March, they will have directly and indirectly produced 330,000 tonnes of carbon emissions.

While that number is preliminary – VANOC plans to release an updated emissions estimate later in 2009 – it gave the committee a place to start in trying to reduce the Games’ carbon footprint.

Throughout the planning of the Games, the committee has focused on developing plans for venues and transportation that use as little greenhouse gas– producing fossil fuels as possible, such as geothermal heating, the capture and reuse of heat waste, and the use of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles to transport athletes between venues.

However, VANOC’s members realize that its many sustainability-designed efforts are not going to be enough to erase the Games’ footprint altogether. So, through its carbon offset project, it’s aiming to balance out the emissions produced during the Games by investing in projects that help clear the air of such emissions.

Through the project, VANOC has partnered with Offsetters, a British Columbia-based carbon asset management company and supplier of carbon offsets. In return for being named the Official Supplier of carbon offsets for the 2010 Winter Games and the Canadian Olympic Teams for 2010 and 2012, Offsetters will put together a portfolio of offset projects being offered through new local clean-energy technologies.

The agreement with Offsetters makes the 2010 Winter Games the first in Olympic and Paralympic Games history to have a sponsor serve as the Official Supplier of carbon offsets, and VANOC hopes it will help compensate for 300,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our carbon plan is to know, reduce, offset and engage others,” says Linda Coady, Vice President of Sustainability for VANOC. “After understanding what our footprint is likely to be, our biggest focus was to reduce emissions at source wherever possible. Building green venues and the greening of our operations have been key to finding significant reductions in our carbon footprint. Even with this effort, we are going to be left with emissions we cannot eliminate, such as air travel related to the Games, so we are looking to offsets as a way to neutralize the carbon emissions we have created.”

Trading or offsetting greenhouse gas emissions is a growing trend among businesses, organizations and governments that are looking to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases presently going into the atmosphere.

Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia, as members of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), have announced plans to take part in a regional cap-and-trade program. When fully implemented in 2015, this comprehensive initiative will cover nearly 90 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions in WCI states and provinces.

Also, a Canadian offset market has been one of the planned components of the federal government’s Climate Change Plan since it was first announced in 2007, and Canada’s National Standards System is already playing an important role in cap and trade in North America.

CSA Standards (previously the Canadian Standards Association), accredited by the Standards Council of Canada, offers training and personnel certification programs for people planning to work in the field of greenhouse gas verification and validation.

“We’ve had more than 2,000 people take part in the training in both Canada and the United States,” says Michel Girard, CSA Standards’ Director of Climate Change Services. “It’s fairly popular, and that’s quite rewarding.”

He says interest in greenhouse gas quantification for the purpose of carbon trading is gaining popularity among governments, and – to a lesser degree – with private industries that want to lessen their carbon footprints on a voluntary basis.

“We’re seeing a large demand in the regulatory market in the U.S. and a lot of interest from the provinces in Canada,” he says. “The voluntary market is picking up, but not as fast as we had anticipated. It has slowed some with the recession.”

He says that as Canada moves forward with its plans for a national carbon market, he expects there will be more demand for training and certification services.

There will also likely be more demand for national accreditation of the verifiers and validators who back up quantification claims.

With this in mind, the Standards Council of Canada has developed an accreditation program for greenhouse gas validators and verifiers.

Stefan Janhager is the senior program officer for SCC’s Greenhouse Gas Accreditation Program (GHGAP). He says as carbon markets are established through national and provincial regulation, and as voluntary quantification becomes more popular, accreditation will ensure the numbers reported by governments and industries are accurate and adhere to international standards.

He says the SCC program ensures that verifiers in the offset system meet the requirements set out in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards on Greenhouse gases – Requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation or other forms of recognition (ISO/IEC 14065:2007), and the procedural document that outlines the conditions and procedures are used for accrediting greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies (CAN-P-1520).

Also, the international standard for accreditation of validation and verification bodies references the ISO 14064 series of standards, which lay out the specifications for the quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals; for the quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas reductions or removal enhancements; and for the validation and verification of greenhouse gas assertions.

The CSA Standards developed Canadian versions of these standards that are fully harmonized with the international standards; SCC has approved these Canadian versions as National Standards of Canada.

Janhager says that not only will companies that hire validators or verifiers who are accredited by SCC have the assurance that they are qualified to do the job, they can also be certain they meet requirements that are accepted throughout the world.

“Because the accreditation is based on ISO standards, it holds companies to international criteria,” he explains.

He says though Canada is still working out the details of its national carbon market, other jurisdictions, where markets are up and running, require accreditation to ensure the most accurate results possible. And by basing accreditation on the ISO standards, the markets are laying the groundwork for a possible international carbon market in the future.

“We’re doing what they’re doing, in terms of the criteria we demand,” Janhager says. “With many economies using a similar framework, it will greatly assist any plans to share these services, as they have the same applications.”

And it is unlikely emissions measuring tools will be any less important as countries and industries continue to consider how they can lessen their burdens on the environment, even when they can’t avoid producing greenhouse gas emissions.

“We have always recognized there will be emissions we will not be able to reduce at source,” Says VANOC’s Coady. “Offsets are the best option available to neutralize those emissions.” 
 

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This article first appeared in Volume 36 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 2009.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

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