Carbon Neutral Government carbon offset portfolio

Last updated on November 20, 2023

Each year since 2010, B.C. has achieved net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the provincial public sector under the Carbon Neutral Government program.

The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy manages a portfolio of carbon offsets on behalf of all provincial public sector organizations in support of our legislated commitment to carbon neutrality.

The Carbon Neutral Government carbon offset portfolio has offset emissions of over 8.7 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) from the provincial public sector between 2010 and 2022.

In addition to reducing emissions, offsetting advances green technologies, supports clean job growth and stimulates the economy. For example, offset projects improve forest management and sequester carbon, which provide a new mechanism to protect biodiversity and contribute to a conservation economy in B.C. communities.


B.C.’s 2022 offset portfolio

B.C.’s offset portfolio spans nearly every region and sector of the province.

Below is a snapshot of the offset projects in the 2022 portfolio. Full project documentation is available on the BC Carbon Registry.

 

Forestry Industry

In the Forestry Industry, offset projects include fuel-switching initiatives:

  • In Mackenzie, Prince George, Fort St. John and Elko, Canfor transforms bark residuals from its sawmills into energy – reducing their reliance on natural gas while modelling how industry can lower emissions, support local clean technologies and create economic opportunities for B.C. communities.
 

Forestry

In Forestry, offset projects result from improved forest management practices:

  • The Great Bear (South Central Coast) project reduces timber harvest levels and protects extensive areas of forest that were previously slated for logging thereby increasing carbon stocks as the trees continue to grow.
  • The Great Bear (North and Central Mid-Coast) project reduces timber harvest levels in the world’s largest intact coastal temperate rainforest, thus increasing carbon stocks and protecting healthy ecosystems.
  • Great Bear Rainforest (Haida Gwaii) is reducing emissions caused by harvesting, road building and other forestry-related operations, while supporting important Haida cultural sites.
  • The Cheakamus Community Forest project is increasing the long-term storage of carbon in forests through extension of the rotation age, and the use of conservation areas.
 

Agriculture

In Agriculture, offset project work includes biomass fuel switching:

  • Sun Select Delta uses a biomass boiler and insulating curtains to help heat their greenhouses and significantly reduce their dependence on natural gas.
 

Oil and Gas Sector

In the Oil and Gas sector, offsets are developed through electrification and increased fuel efficiency:

  • The Noel Electrification Project replaced natural gas with grid electricity, solar and small thermal-electric back-up generators to power compressors and other equipment at the gas production facility.
  • The Septimus Electrification Project was part of a new build that brought grid electricity to the remote natural gas processing plant instead of using readily available natural gas, significantly reducing its environmental impact.
  • Blue Source worked with several gas plants in northeast B.C. to install REM Technology’s REMVue engine systems. This new technology increases fuel efficiency while capturing vented emissions to significantly reduce greenhouse gases when compressing natural gas from well-sites to the plants.
  • ARC Resources' award-winning project reduces emissions by replacing natural gas with electricity for compression applications and with pressurized air to operate the pneumatic control devices and instruments.
 

Transportation

In Transportation, an offset project focused on improving the fuel efficiency of buses:

  • TransLink has replaced conventional diesel buses with more fuel-efficient diesel hybrids, bringing significant emission reductions to an already environmentally sound mode of transportation.
 

Clean Tech

In Clean Tech, offset project work includes biomass gasification:

  • Kruger Products’ biomass gasification units generate steam to power its New Westminster mill by converting local wood waste into clean-burning syngas. This is the first of its kind in Canada’s pulp and paper industry, and has reduced the tissue mill’s carbon emissions by over 50 percent annually.
 

Waste Management

In Waste Management, offset project work focused on managing and collecting landfill gases:

  • The Columbia Shuswap Regional District captures methane produced by decomposing landfill waste, upgrades it and injects it into the FortisBC gas pipeline as renewable natural gas. Any untreated methane is destroyed through flaring.

 

Contact information

Learn more about selling offsets to the B.C. government: Carbon.Neutral.Investment@gov.bc.ca