As more organizations actively work to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, they want to be recognized for their efforts. Now they can—by registering with the GHG CleanStart Registry.
Created by the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), the GHG CleanStart Registry was launched in October. It was designed to help CSA respond to its members’ demand for support in developing greener business practices.
“Our members have been asking us, ‘Where’s CSA regarding climate change? Are you part of the solution or are you part of the problem?’” says Michel Girard, director of climate change initiatives for CSA. “We need better standards and we need better systems to help organizations establish their greenhouse gas footprint and then get recognition for their efforts.”
CSA is seeking to do this through the GHG CleanStart Registry, which enables organizations to reduce their GHG footprint by first helping them establish a baseline of what their carbon footprint is today. Next, it lets organizations announce their plans for reducing their footprints, and then post information about the actions they have undertaken to reduce their GHG emissions.
GHG CleanStart Registry offers links to references, resources and tools organizations can use to establish their footprints and reduce GHG emissions. But CSA also can provide assistance to companies that need help, particularly with establishing their GHG footprints.
Girard believes the GHG CleanStart Registry is unique. Even though there are some initiatives that are focused on helping organizations showcase their GHG emissions inventories, there aren’t any programs that “recognize what organizations do to improve their footprint. We’re pretty unique when it comes to that. It’s not only a listing of inventories, but it’s also a process to provide either a letter of participation or a full-fledged certification where organizations demonstrate that they have improved their carbon performance.”
The GHG CleanStart Registry is not CSA’s only GHG registry. In 1997, the organization rolled out the Canadian GHG Challenge Registry, which at one point had approximately 1,300 organizations signed up. Over the next few months, CSA will be encouraging GHG Challenge Registry participants to move over to the newer registry.
So why did CSA launch a second registry if it already had one place?
“The Challenge Registry was based on methodologies that reflected what we knew in the 1990s. What we know now is a little bit more sophisticated. So what we’re asking people to do when they re-register on CleanStart is to use an ISO standard which was launched in 2006— the ISO 14064 standard—to standardize the way organizations report their inventories. So if you’re part of CleanStart, you need to follow the standard. And then if you want a certificate, you need to have your inventory verified by an independent third party, which makes it more stringent then the Challenge Registry,” Girard says.
While the GHG CleanStart Registry is designed to provide organizations with recognition for their emissions reduction efforts, it is not the only benefit offered by the service. For example, by providing suppliers with a standardized way to document their reduced carbon footprints, the registry could help them comply with green mandates being pushed down by larger organizations looking to create more environmentally friendly supply chains. Also, as the number of registrants grows, CSA hopes the GHG CleanStart Registry can provide benchmarking data that organizations can use to compare their carbon footprints to similar companies.
One thing CSA’s registries won’t be doing is providing services to help organizations purchase carbon offsets. “We’ve been very clear in all of our documentation that we are a bulletin board. So we are not an agent, we don’t know the price of carbon. When a buyer identifies a good project on our registries, we don’t know what the transaction is, and we don’t want to know, otherwise there would a conflict of interest. Our job here is to showcase the best projects and to provide recognition for those that are making a difference,” says Girard.
The original GHG CleanStart Registry was developed for Canadian companies, but an American version will soon be available. To learn more about the GHG CleanStart Registry, visit http://www.ghgregistries.ca/cleanstart.