Presented by:
CCEMC & Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions
Registration
To participate in this workshop, you must be registered in the 2015 BCN / AI Bio Conference Bioindustrial Innovations: Unlocking Value and Tackling Climate Change.
What is the workshop about?
Measuring and tracking carbon flows is essential for understanding how changes in practice impact GHG emissions. Accounting for GHG emissions is also requirement in many industrial sectors, and forms the basis of Alberta’s carbon offset program.
The Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) Biological GHG Management Program, which is offered in partnership with AI Bio is pleased to offer a workshop, “Accounting for GHGs”, which will help attendees understand both the basics and the complexities of tracking carbon from biological and industrial processes. The workshop will address key issues, techniques for calculating emissions and reductions and will work through some practical examples for clarity.
Who should attend?
Have you ever wondered how we know when we are making progress on emission reductions?
Do you need to do some calculations in your workplace? Or prove that your proposed change will have impact? Are you writing a project application?
Are you wondering if there is an “offset protocol for that?
Don’t be shy! This is a great place to learn and ask questions – all are welcome.
Agenda (Wednesday, November 25, 2015)
9:00 am – 9:10 am Introductions and statement of objectives for the morning (Susan Wood-Bohm)
9:10 am – 9:30 am The Basics – what is GHG accounting and why do we track carbon? The key definitions (GWP, degradation factors, leakage and permanence, deltas, offsets, protocols, LCAs) (Susan Wood-Bohm)
9:30 am – 10:30 am Global overview, ISO regulations and updates, accounting systems and approaches (mass balance, GOA, CCEMC), challenges of biological systems (Christine Schuh, le-ef Consulting)
10:30 am – 10:45 am
Bio break
10:45 am – 11:15 am A worked example, accounting for changes in carbon emissions in an engineered system (Jamie Stephen, TorchLight Bioresources)
11:15 am – 11:45 am
Introduction of a new simple GHG calculator (Liz Brennan, Viresco Solutions Inc)
11:45 am – 12:00 pm
Questions and general discussion
About the presenters
Susan Wood-Bohm
Dr. Susan Wood-Bohm is the Executive Director of the Biological GHG Management Program, which is funded by the Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation and delivered in partnership with Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions. The mandate of the program is to discover, develop and deploy technologies that will reduce GHG emissions.
Susan holds a BSc (Agr) from the University of Guelph, a Master’s from Queen’s University and an industrial PhD in molecular genetics earned in collaboration with Performance Plants Inc. Before joining Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions, Susan held a faculty position in the Department of Biology and served as the Director of the Office of Research Services at Queen’s University. Additionally, she served as the Associate Research Director for BIOCAP Canada Foundation, a not-for-profit research foundation that provided seminal leadership in the areas of climate change and the bioeconomy. Susan serves on a number of Boards, including Bioindustrial Innovation Canada.
Christine Schuh
Dr. Christine Schuh led the Canadian climate change practice for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for a decade. During that period she was responsible for developing the greenhouse gas assurance (verification) services, including training, infrastructure development and delivery. She developed and tested the verification methodology in Canada and assisted in extending the structured verification approach for multiple climate change systems (including ETS, WCI, Australian and Alberta) using an accounting based framework for PwC US and Global. She developed one of the first greenhouse gas verification standards for the Aluminum industry in early 2003. She was the co-facilitator for ISO 14064-3 on greenhouse gas assurance and authored the bulk of that standard. She currently sits at the international level as a technical expert redrafting that standard. She was one of three experts that assisted in crafting the accounting standard on GHG assurance (ISAE 3410). She currently sits on the ISO international working group developing a standard on carbon capture and storage. She assisted in the verification content for the WRI/WBCSD greenhouse gas standards on corporate and project accounting. She has worked with several governments (including Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia) in establishing greenhouse gas quantification methodologies that are consistent with science and general accounting principles and assisted with the design of policy elements. Recently, she has extended her knowledge of carbon trading systems to other applications and assisted Alberta Environment and Sustainable Development in developing a trading system for wetlands.
Dr. Schuh also has extensive experience in the area of performance indicators and metrics. Her original position within PwC was to assist companies and governments on developing metric systems based on her extensive research conducted during her doctorate on performance indicators. The City of Calgary, Suncor, CCEMC, and Toronto Hydro have all developed appropriate metrics to measure both qualitative and quantitative aspects of their organizations and have metrics appropriate for management and reporting based on this work.
Now at le-ef.com, she currently advises the Climate Change Emissions Management Corporation (CCEMC) on the integrity of offset projects (carbon credits). She has recently authored the Greenhouse Gas Verification Guidance at Reasonable Level of Assurance for Alberta Environment and Sustainable Development. Her unique blend of engineering and assurance theory, knowledge, and experience position her as one of the leading experts in the world on greenhouse gas verification.
Jamie Stephen
Dr. Jamie Stephen is the Founder and Managing Director of TorchLight Bioresources, a bioenergy and bioproducts consulting and project management company. He is also a Fellow at the Queen’s University Institute for Energy and Environmental Policy. His work in the field of bioenergy and bioproducts ranges from enterprise strategy and policy analysis to feedstock and conversion technology assessment. Jamie has managed bioenergy and bioproduct projects for a broad variety of public and private sector clients including technology developers, investment funds, national and provincial governments, First Nations, start-ups, and Fortune 100 companies. Projects have focused on industrial growth strategies, facility feasibility, technology deployment hurdles, and investment prioritization. Jamie holds a Masters in Chemical and Biological Engineering and a PhD in Forestry from the University of British Columbia. He has published numerous reports and papers on bioproduct technology investment, operating risk, and industry advancement, and has travelled extensively in North America, Europe, and Asia investigating existing and emerging technologies and bioeconomy development strategies. Jamie is currently assisting the Alberta Innovates Bio Solutions Biological Greenhouse Gas Management Program with technology assessment and project development.
Liz Brennan
Liz Brennan holds a Master of Science degree in Sustainable Energy Development from the University of Calgary, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science (Biology concentration) from the University of Calgary. Liz has had the opportunity to contribute to analysis of agricultural sustainability in the areas of egg production, crop nutrient management, bioenergy production, and vegetable greenhouse development. Prior to joining Viresco Solutions, Liz was a Project Analyst at The Prasino Group in Calgary, supporting both the Technical and Business Development groups. In this role, she contributed to the development of organizational sustainability strategies; carbon offset project development, data management, and verification; development, stakeholder review, and validation of offset protocols and methodologies under the Alberta Offset System and Verified Carbon Standard; as well as technical report writing in the areas of upstream oil and gas emissions reductions, and enhanced oil recovery for geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide. Liz’s Master’s degree work involved pre-feasibility studies of community-scale renewable energy (electricity) systems for a rural Canadian community, coupled with an engagement process to gauge the social acceptance of various renewable energy systems.
Additional information
For information on this workshop, please contact Laurie Vaughan-Evans at Laurie.Vaughan-Evans@gov.ab.ca.
For information on the 2015 BCN / AI Bio Conference Bioindustrial Innovations: Unlocking Value and Tackling Climate Change, please contact Victor Cheng at vcheng@ualberta.ca.