New Brunswick Landfill Executes GHG Reduction Credits
The Fredericton Region Solid Waste Commission (FRSWC) in New Brunswick, Canada, is seeing green. After voluntarily installing controls at its landfill and gaining recognition of its greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction credits, FRSWC has completed initial sales of its newly minted credits.
Earlier this year, with CantorCO2e’s assistance, FRSWC registered its emission credits with the BlueRegistry. This culminated a process that included a rigorous independent validation and verification of the reductions, based on the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) protocols. Achieving those goals allowed the commission to register VER+ offset credits on the BlueRegistry. The CDM-based VER+ certification standard allows climate change projects to carry out procedures of equivalent standard outside the Kyoto Protocol. The BlueRegistry serves as a contact point for registered project owners to sell verified emission credits.
Now the commission has begun the monetization process. “With CantorCO2e’s assistance, over 50,000 tonnes have been transacted and more are in the works,” said Josh Margolis, chief executive officer of CantorCO2e. “Judging from the response so far, there is an unmet demand for Canadian reductions that are real, measurable and verifiable,” Margolis concluded.
In 2006, the commission launched a landfill gas management system, which includes a 40-foot tall steel flare structure and a skid-mount blower, that cost $1.98 million. In the system, the blower applies a vacuum to a well field, bringing the landfill gas to the system's flare, which operates at approximately 930 degrees Celsius. The end result is methane and trace gases are burned off at a destruction rate greater than 99 percent. There is no visual flare or residue.
The landfill gas management system will eliminate approximately 60,000 tonnes a year of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere. The FRSWC regularly collects between 75,000 and 80,000 tones of garbage a year.
Gordon Wilson, the commission's general manager and chief executive officer, said: "This process indicates the almost $2-million the FRSWC spent will eventually pay for itself through the successful sale of emission credits. It is truly a Canadian success story from environmental and investment standpoints. We’re proud of the accomplishments of our senior staff, our commission and the region we serve.”
FRSWC has become Canada’s first GHG emission reduction project of any sort to qualify for a formal validation report against a CDM-based standard, such as VER+. The independent validation and verification were conducted by the U.N.-accredited auditors DNV.
All the technical work and management of the emission crediting process were performed by CantorCO2e, a leading global provider of financial services in energy and environmental markets worldwide.
A non-profit organization, the FRSWC operates on a tipping fee basis. The charge is based on weight determined by a weigh-in, weigh out process.