Greenhouse Gas Accreditation Program

The Standards Council of Canada (SCC)’s Greenhouse Gas accreditation program assesses the competency of organizations conducting validation or verification activities for both greenhouse gas emission reduction projects and greenhouse gas inventories.

Before accrediting an organization, SCC evaluates its practices to ensure they meet requirements set out in the ISO standard (ISO/IEC 14065) for greenhouse gas (GHG) validation and verification bodies, which was adopted by Canada as the Canadian procedural document CAN-P-20.

Under this standard, validation and verification bodies must demonstrate that they meet the specifications set out for validating and verifying greenhouse gas assertions, and are familiar with  measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions, and their reduction or removal, under ISO’s greenhouse gas standards collection (ISO/IEC 14064: parts 1-3).

The overall aim of GHG validation or verification activities is to provide confidence that GHG assertions are accurate. The validation and/or verification body is responsible for completing an objective assessment and providing an evidence-based validation or verification statement concerning the GHG assertion.

SCC’s accreditation program supports the Government of Canada’s sustainability agenda, which includes initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The program was developed through a partnership between SCC, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Environment Canada, and Environmental Careers Organization (ECO Canada).

SCC is the only Canadian organization offering internationally recognized accreditation for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) validation and verification bodies.

Accreditation requirements

GHG validation and/or verification bodies seeking to offer validation or verification services for industry- and/or government -specific programs should first become accredited as a validation and/or verification body under the Greenhouse Gas accreditation program.  The validation or verification body will also be assessed against any additional industry/government specific program requirements, as applicable.

SCC is currently affiliated with a number of cross-border, multi-sector regional GHG initiatives, including:

• The Climate Change Registry 
• Western Climate Initiative 
• Pacific Carbon Trust 

To access information on provincial requirements for
• British Columbia: see their Ministry of the Environment’s Reporting Regulation under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction (Cap and Trade) Act