Public comment period open for draft Mexico Forest Protocol Version 1.0

Climate Action Offsetter: NW Natural customers get Smart (Energy)

written by The Climate Trust

“Use less. Offset the rest.” That’s the slogan for NW Natural’s Smart Energy voluntary offset program, now in its fifth year.

And the Smart Energy symbol? A cow (more on that later).

NW Natural delivers natural gas to customers in the most populous areas of Oregon and SW Washington.

Company leaders know their customers expect utility providers to be local leaders in environmental protection and energy efficiency. So NW Natural became the nation’s first stand-alone gas (that is, not affiliated with an electric company) to help customers offset greenhouse gas emissions associated with their natural gas use.

In 2007, the company launched Smart Energy. Residential customers can choose to pay a monthly flat fee of $6 or a per-therm option of just over a penny to purchase carbon offsets. Businesses can participate for as little as $10 a month.

Smart Energy works with The Climate Trust to ensure offsets retired on behalf of customers are high quality. Through The Climate Trust, Smart Energy is investing in biodigesters on Northwest dairy farms. Here’s the logic (and where the cows come in):

• A typical cow produces 120 pounds of waste each day.
• Decomposing manure creates methane – 21 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide.
• Biodigesters trap methane while creating an on-demand renewable energy source: biogas.

As of October 2011, 13,744 NW Natural customers were participating in Smart Energy. Their investments will keep more than 115,000 tons of emissions from reaching the atmosphere – the amount created by more than 1,300 auto trips from Portland to New York.

NW Natural still encourages their customers to conserve energy. But now they can go one step farther toward protecting the environment.

Use less. Offset the rest.

—————————

Would you like to be featured in the Reserve newsletter and earn a free reusable Reserve water bottle? Each monthly newsletter, the Reserve will showcase an individual or organization who has retired CRTs to offset their emissions. To submit an entry, please share a few paragraphs (up to 350 words) about you and your decision to offset. Photos are welcome! Featured submissions in the newsletter will earn water bottles, and all submitted entries will be posted on the Reserve web blog. Email your entries to: rhey@climateactionreserve.org.

This is an excellent opportunity to highlight your environmental stewardship and advancement of climate solutions. This is also an excellent opportunity to raise awareness of outstanding GHG reduction projects.

Errata and Clarifications released for the U.S. ODS Project Protocol Version 1.0

Errata and Clarifications released for U.S. Landfill V4.0, V3.0, V2.1, V2.0; U.S. Livestock V3.0, V2.2, V2.1; and Organic Waste Digestion V2.0

Revised Program Manual is now available

Got Carbon-Neutral Milk?

Milk sourced from cows is a popular and nutritious beverage enjoyed the world over. According to the National Dairy Council, milk is filled with nine essential nutrients that benefit our health, including calcium, protein, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin D, vitamin B12, vitamin A, riboflavin and niacin.

When making purchasing decisions for milk, we face a variety of choices: whole milk, reduced fat, low fat, skim, organic, raw, strawberry and even chocolate … and we could also opt for rice milk, soy milk or almond milk.

Another important consideration you may not have yet contemplated in the dairy aisle – but should – is the carbon footprint of the milk production process. Cows are a significant source of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas (GHG) 20 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Dairy farmers can reduce their carbon footprint through the installation of new technologies, specifically anaerobic (without oxygen) biodigesters.

Anaerobic dairy digesters are enclosed tanks that create an oxygen-less environment. The digester facilitates the breakdown of manure and converts it into renewable energy and a nutrient-rich fertilizer.

One example of a successful dairy emissions reduction project is the Farm Power Rexville Regional Digester in Mount Vernon, Washington. Two local dairy farms, Harmony Dairy and Beaver Marsh Farms, participate in the program with a combined 1500 Holstein cows. The dairies produce about 100 cubic meters/day of manure volume, 50 cubic meters/day of wastewater volume and 30 cubic meters/day of cow bedding and food processing waste.

The Rexville digester pumps cow waste from the two dairies into a one million gallon tank. The waste is heated to 100 degrees, causing bacteria to grow, which produces methane. The methane from the tank is sent to an internal combustion engine that creates 750 kW of power, which is enough to power 500 homes annually.

In addition to renewable energy, the digesters produce a nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer and pathogen free fiber straw that can be used for bedding. Not having to buy straw or sawdust for cow bedding has saved the Washington farms nearly $100,000. The project also earns carbon offsets from the Climate Action Reserve, which can be sold to help other organizations meet their sustainability goals.

This process reduces the amount of methane from cow manure that is released into the atmosphere, which benefits our global climate.

Milk does a body good. And biodigesters do the climate good.

This blog post supports Blog Action Day 2011, an international effort to focus bloggers around the world on one important global topic on the same day. This year, Blog Action Day coincides with World Food Day and so the theme is FOOD. #BAD11

Public comment period open for draft Rice Cultivation Project Protocol Version 1.0 – public workshop on October 24

Nitric Acid Production Project Protocol Version 2.0 was adopted by the Reserve Board on September 28, 2011

Climate Action Offsetter: Rocking a Smaller Carbon Footprint at Austin City Limits and Lollapalooza

written by Green Mountain Energy

Music festivals may not be the first place you think about reducing your carbon footprint, but C3 Presents and Green Mountain Energy Company are working together to change that. The Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits music festivals, both produced by C3 Presents, bring together hordes of music lovers with substantial carbon footprints from traveling to the three-day festivals. Green Mountain helps balance out that environmental impact by offering the Green Mountain Energy® Fan Tag, a quick and easy way for attendees to ‘green up’ their festival travel by purchasing Climate Action Reserve certified carbon offsets.

This year, Green Mountain Energy Fan Tag sales supported landfill methane capture projects located in the same region as each festival. Austin City Limits Fan Tag sales went toward the SouthTex Greenwood Farms project in Taylor, Texas, while Lollapalooza Fan Tag sales supported the Central Sanitary project in Pierson, Michigan. Both projects are certified by the Climate Action Reserve, helping assure fans that their Fan Tag purchase is backed up by high quality emissions reductions. More than 2,300 Fan Tags were sold in 2011, helping offset over 500,000 pounds of CO2 emissions. Over the five year partnership between C3 Presents and Green Mountain, nearly 17,000 Fan Tags have been sold, resulting in over 16.7 million pounds of CO2 emissions balanced out by fans!

The Green Mountain Energy Fan Tag program has been an integral part of greening up the festival experience for attendees, but C3 Presents has gone even further by committing to offset 100% of the carbon footprint of each festival, along with its own Austin, TX, office operations. For the first time ever, this impressive commitment was expanded in 2011 to include offsetting artist travel to and from the festivals. Green Mountain provided carbon footprint calculation services, procured high quality renewable energy certificates and CAR certified carbon offsets, offered marketing guidelines for C3’s environmental purchases and helped promote and sell the Fan Tags.

Together, C3 Presents and Green Mountain have helped spread awareness among fans about their carbon footprint, while making the festivals a little bit greener.

—————————-

Mexico INE President Dr. Francisco Barnes joins Climate Action Reserve Board of Directors

Election of Dr. Barnes re-emphasizes organizational focus on activities in Mexico

SACRAMENTO, CA – The Climate Action Reserve, North America’s largest and fastest growing carbon offset registry, announced that Dr. Francisco Barnes Regueiro, President of the National Institute of Ecology (INE) for the Government of Mexico, has been elected to its Board of Directors. Dr. Barnes is successor to Dr. Adrián Fernández Bremauntz as INE President and assumes the seat previously held by Dr. Fernández on the Reserve Board. Dr. Barnes’ active involvement with the Reserve will help guide the organization’s ongoing activities in Mexico, including continued protocol development.

“Dr. Barnes’ participation on the Reserve Board of Directors is a true asset to the growth and development of the organization, and I am extremely honored to welcome him. We continue focusing on helping create market opportunities in Mexico. Dr. Barnes can provide insightful advice and a unique perspective to our ongoing activities in the country, as well as offering input on other cross-border initiatives,” said Linda Adams, Chair of the Climate Action Reserve Board of Directors and former Secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Prior to his appointment as President of INE, Dr. Barnes was a partner at McKinsey & Company, where he specialized in developing strategies for low-carbon growth, adaptation to climate change, energy and other sustainable development issues, such as water pollution and solid waste. He served as part of the company’s global leadership in sustainability and energy practices and advised governments, NGOs and private and public sector companies throughout Latin America in the areas of energy, climate change, water, oil and other key issues. Dr. Barnes also served as a visiting professor at Boston University, has received numerous awards for his academic work and is a published author.

“The work the Climate Action Reserve has already done in Mexico is remarkable, and I am looking forward to becoming involved with such an innovative, open, and action-oriented organization. Its protocols provide means and incentive for reducing GHG emissions in a way that uses the power of the market to achieve our environmental goals. I am also excited to be involved in pioneering new ways that we can use the Reserve’s work to achieve greater environmental benefit through work between our two countries, both at a federal and particularly at a subnational level, including the upcoming California cap-and-trade program,” said Dr. Barnes.

Please visit the Climate Action Reserve website to learn more about the organization and its Board of Directors.