Carbon Neutral Government program requirements
Under B.C.’s Carbon Neutral Government program – legislated under the Climate Change Accountability Act (CCAA) – all provincial public sector organizations (PSOs) follow a five-step process to achieve carbon neutrality:
Five-step process
- Measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings, vehicles and paper use
- Reduce emissions as much as possible by conserving electricity and fossil fuels
- Offset remaining emissions by purchasing an equivalent amount of high-quality, made-in-B.C. carbon offsets
- Report annually on progress through the PSO Climate Change Accountability Report (PSO CCAR), formerly the Carbon Neutral Action Report (CNAR)
- Verify data and emissions
Detailed step-by-step information is available in Becoming Carbon Neutral (PDF, 388 KB).
Timeline for the 2021 reporting year
January/February 2022: Receive reporting materials
- PSOs receive an email from the Climate Action Secretariat (CAS) containing:
- A link to the PSO CCAR Instructions and Template
- A link to the Public Sector Climate Leadership Survey
- Instructions on completing the Self-Certification Checklist in the Clean Government Reporting Tool (CGRT)
April 30, 2022: CGRT Data Entry and Self-Certification Checklist due
- Deadline for PSOs to populate 2021 building, fleet and paper data into the Clean Government Reporting Tool (CGRT)
- Deadline for PSOs to complete the Self-Certification Checklist in CGRT to attest to the accuracy and completeness of the populated data and the oversight of the quality assurance process
May 31, 2022: PSO CCAR and Public Sector Climate Leadership Survey due
- PSOs email their signed, completed PSO CCAR to Carbon.Neutral@gov.bc.ca (see PSO CCAR Instructions and Template for detailed instructions)
- PSOs complete and submit their Public Sector Climate Leadership Survey online
- PSOs receive an offset invoice by May 31, 2022 with the final emissions numbers and the amount of offsets to be purchased for the 2021 reporting year
June 30, 2022: CAS posts reports and retire offsets.
- CAS posts all PSO CCARs on the CNG website
- PSOs must submit their offset invoice payments to CAS
- CAS retires sufficient offsets to achieve carbon neutrality for 2021
Fall 2022: CNG Verification Review.
- CAS engages an accredited, independent third party to verify a sampling of PSO emissions reports
Self-certification templates
- Self-certification Checklist – PSOs to complete in CGRT for 2021 reporting year (CGRT login/password required)
- Cascading Sign-Off Checklist (DOC, 58 KB)
- Error Log (DOC, 43 KB)
- Training Log (DOC, 46 KB)
- Roles and Responsibilities (DOC, 49 KB)
- Sample Organization Flowchart (DOC, 60 KB)
Archived guidance documents
- 2020 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 2MB)
- 2018 BC Methodological Guidance for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 2 MB)
- 2017 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 1 MB)
- 2016 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 0.9 MB)
- 2014 and 2015 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 956 KB)
- 2013 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 1.1 MB)
- 2012 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 993 KB)
- 2011 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 537 KB)
- 2010 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 509 KB)
- 2009 BC Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 734 KB)