Carbon Neutral Municipalities

The majority of BC’s local governments have signed the Climate Action Charter, making a strong commitment to take action on climate change by becoming carbon neutral by 2012. To date, 179 municipalities are taking steps to understand, reduce and offset their climate impact, with the support of the Green Communities Committee (GCC), a partnership between the Province and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.

How we can help

We can help your local government become carbon neutral by working with you to understand and implement one or more of the options available to balance and offset emissions, as outlined in the GCC’s “Carbon Neutral Framework”.

The first step is to understand the emissions associated with your municipal operations. Our experienced team can help you measure your carbon footprint using emission boundaries outlined by the Climate Action Charter.

Secondly, in order to balance or offset, municipalities can invest in community reductions projects, or can purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their climate impact. For either option, we can help. 

Project Development

As an experienced project developer, we can then help you implement your community emission reduction projects. For municipalities interested in developing reduction projects outside of the GCC’s pre-specified project outlines, we can help with project development, focusing on permanent reductions from energy efficiency and renewable energy projects with further social and environmental co-benefits. We will work with you to get your project off the ground, meet the GCC’s seven Project Eligibility Requirements, and become third-party verified.

Offset investment

Many municipalities will find that investing in offsets is the most cost-effective way of meeting their Climate Action Charter commitment. We can supply high quality offsets, certified to best-in-class standards from BC, Canada and around the world. As the largest initial supplier of offsets to the Pacific Carbon Trust, we have developed offset projects throughout BC that demonstrate real greenhouse gas reductions or removal. In the GCC’s Becoming Carbon Neutral guidebook, Offsetters is recommended as a trusted source for local governments looking to purchase high quality offsets developed to BC’s EOR standard. 

Whether you are beginning to understand your local government’s footprint, or looking at the feasibility of an emissions reduction project, contact us to learn more about how we can work together to help your municipality become carbon neutral.