Climate Change

Bell Aliant Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) Inventory
Over the fall and winter of 2007 Jacques Whitford developed Bell Aliant’s GHG carbon footprint for its owned and leased buildings, infrastructure (computer networking, lighting), business air travel and corporate vehicle fleet. The project included advice on setting footprint boundaries, survey logistics, and documenting core direct/indirect emissions. The data collected was used to update Bell Aliant’s sustainability profile including absolute GHG emissions and operational intensities. Jacques Whitford compared the current emission profile to available information for other telecom companies and documented a plan for continued data collection/inventory improvement and advice on future steps for continued emission reductions.

Carbon Footprint Assessment for Proposed Transfer and Storage Facility
In early 2008, Newfoundland LNG Ltd. retained Jacques Whitford to quantify and create an inventory of their baseline greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to provide recommendations with respect to a climate policy for the company, including advice on GHG emissions reporting transparency.

The GHG emissions inventory includes all direct and indirect GHG emissions resulting from shipment, natural gas transfer and electricity requirements for storage. This allowed for the identification of major GHG sources, sinks and reservoirs and provided the baseline for the development of a GHG management plan.

This Carbon Footprint study forms the baseline for developing strategies to manage risks associated with the climate change issue generally, and specifically including approaches to managing public and regulatory risk, customer risk, supplier risk and competitor risk. This commitment to a Climate Change Policy and a GHG Management Plan, including options to reduce the company’s Carbon Footprint, will be incorporated into Newfoundland LNG Ltd. policy for operations of potential projects.

Baseline GHG Emission Inventory for the Town of St Andrews, New Brunswick
In 2008, Jacques Whitford completed energy audits and a GHG emissions inventory for the Town of St Andrews as part of their commitment to the Partners for Climate Protection (PCP) program. The inventory and audits include all Town-owned buildings, infrastructure (water, wastewater and lighting) and vehicle fleet. The energy demand and associated GHG emissions were calculated for 1990 (base year of study) and 2004 (date of Town’s initial resolution). Moving forward, Jacques Whitford assisted the Town to obtain funding to complete more detailed energy efficiency audits, update their GHG emissions inventory, develop their GHG emissions reduction targets, and to begin their local Climate Change Action Plan.

Community Energy and Emissions Inventory System Needs Analysis/Gap Analysis
In the winter of 2008, Jacques Whitford was retained by the British Columbia Ministry of the Environment (BC MOE) to provide guidance on the development of a community energy and GHG emissions inventory system. The purpose of the Community Energy and Emissions Inventory System (CEEIS) is to provide a provincial solution for tracking and reporting energy and GHG emissions indicators at a community level. The system is designed to allow for input from various data providers on a regular basis, respecting confidentiality and copyright needs. In addition, it was designed to use appropriate methods and calculations based on agreed-to national and international standards and protocols for GHG emissions guidance including World Resources Institute, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and ISO 14064 Standards.

The system will allow for the generation of community-level reports (or extractable data) on baselines, inventories and forecasts to support informed decision making by local governments and generate province-wide summary reports to inform the provincial government on progress towards emissions reduction targets.

Regulatory Verification of GHG Baseline Intensity
Jacques Whitford verified the GHG Baseline Emission Intensity assertion as part of Alliance Pipeline’s Application to Alberta Environment (AENV) for its Natural Gas Distribution Pipeline. In addition to the Baseline Emission Intensity, the following supporting assertions were reviewed:

• Data quality and integrity;
• Appropriateness of selected emission boundaries;
• Completeness of greenhouse gas inventory;
• Significance of data gaps;
• Materiality of Direct GHG Emission sources and sinks;
• Completeness of potential GHG significant sources and sinks; and,
• Validity of applied estimation and recalculation methods.

The verification process included a site visit, development of facility-specific Verification/Sampling Plans, Third-Party Reviewer Reports, and an official Statement of Verification following ISO 14064: part 3 as well as Alberta Environment technical guidance. Jacques Whitford also verified their Compliance Report for 2007.