GHG Protocol for Composting Industry Moving Forward

Thanks to support from All Treat Farms, the City of Edmonton, the City of Hamilton, the City of Calgary and the Regional Municipality of Niagara, the development of a greenhouse gas protocol for the Canadian composting industry is underway.

The protocol will be used to quantify the direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions attained through the implementation of an aerobic composting initiative relative to having the same organic residuals landfilled.

With the guidance of BlueSource Canada, an emissions offset/carbon marketing organization, a panel of composting facility representatives, sourced from Council membership, was set up to review operational practices, available science in addition to regional and international expertise and experience. From this start, our initiative has now become part of a broader Working Group focused on several waste diversion/landfill gas protocols.

Following internal completion and once the submission process is opened, the protocol will be submitted to Environment Canada for review and recognition.

The long-term intent of the Council is to be able to provide composting facilities with both documentation and computational tools to help quantify and document associated greenhouse gas emission reductions.