We create our own forest ecosystems and protect them for the long term.
Sure, planting trees is nice. But what makes a forest a source of high quality carbon offsets? This is where Borealis’ deep professional experience and passion for forests makes a difference.
High quality carbon offsets are:
- Additional
- Permanent
- Create secondary environmental or social benefits
- Accurately measured and quantified
- Validated by an independent 3rd party
- Registered
Our offsets are clearly additional.
We only create new forests on privately owned, marginal agricultural or pasture land and establish strict legal protection for the forest and carbon stocks. There is no economic incentive to create new forests on private land in British Columbia. We do not work on public land or land where an obligation to reforest the land exists.
Our offsets have a very small development footprint. It doesn’t take significant energy or resources to plant and care for a tree, meaning very small amounts of leakage per tonne of carbon dioxide absorbed.
Borealis provides three kinds of protection for the permanence of our forest ecosystems and carbon stocks. First, we ensure that the forest is developed on private land and that legal protection of the forest and carbon stocks are in place through strict land covenants or direct ownership.
Second, we protect the forest against natural disturbance such as fire, insects or disease, in several ways. We use best practices in silviculture, including the use of mixed, native species, to limit the risk of natural disturbance and to protect against mortality. We also use a combination of surplus planting, a carbon buffer account and funds held in trust that can be used to re-establish the forest should a full or partial natural disturbance to the carbon stock occur.
Finally, we provide protection to the long term integrity of the forest and the carbon stock through planning for sustainable management practices that not only allow the forest to continue absorbing carbon, but that guarantee the long term health of the forest ecosystem.
Borealis’ offset projects provide a number of secondary social and environmental benefits, including:
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Restoration of native bio-diversity, including the creation, maintenance and protection of wildlife habitat & fish bearing streams.
- The creation of economic opportunity and diversification in northern communities outside traditional resource extraction industries.
- Aggressive replacement of beetle destroyed forest on crown land with new forests on private land to return the sub-boreal forest to a carbon sink.
- Respect for, and protection of, aboriginal cultural heritage.
- We make our forest stands available for ongoing and long term academic research on carbon sequestration.
We use the Canadian Forest Service Carbon Budget Model 3 to estimate carbon stocks because it is the most accurate model available for Canadian forests and because it provides transparency in use. CBM CFS3 is open, auditable and publicly available. To provide input data to the model, we use the advanced TASS (Tree and Stand Simulator) program. TASS is more comprehensive than the more widely used TIPSY (Table Interpolation Program for Stand Yields). We have access to one of only two non-government TASS applications.
Before site preparation we measure carbon content of soils as well as above ground carbon pools to inform our baseline carbon stocks and flows. We model carbon stocks three times. First, we use carbon modelling to inform our planting prescription. After planting, we use field measurements across site strata to develop an accurate, real reflection of what trees are growing where. This audit provides the input to a second carbon modelling step that is prepared before project validation. This measurement iteration is externally validated to ISO14064.
We also use carbon modelling to estimate changes in carbon stocks fifteen to twenty years after planting. Depending on whether our initial measurements were too high or too low, we either withdraw offsets from, or credit additional carbon to, carbon reserve accounts.
We develop our projects using the Greenhouse Gas Project Protocol and the Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry (LULUCF) Guidance for GHG Project Accounting produced by the World Resources Institute and World Business Council for Sustainable Development. Our project development protocol is also informed by the UN IPCC Good Practice Guidance for Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry. To be as strict as possible in assessment of additionality, we use the CDM Additionality Tool produced by the UNFCCC under the Kyoto Protocol.
Our project development is in accordance with ISO 14064-2. Validation of our projects is independently measured against ISO 14064-2 using ISO 14064-3 (guidance for project validation and verification).
BOREALIS’ offsets are validated by the Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute (NRESI) at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) in Prince George. NRESI will validate BOREALIS’ projects to ISO 14064 standards.
We have chosen NRESI as an independent, external third party based on their academic objectivity as well as their comprehensive knowledge of carbon fluxes and bio-diversity in the sub-boreal forest. We are also committed to building capacity in our northern communities when we can.
We maintain a registry that will issue unique identification numbers to each carbon offset tonne which has been independently validated to ISO 14064. Certificates and registry numbers will be issued to customers for each offset tonne purchased and sold. Operation of the registry will be supervised by a certified Chartered Accountant.
The registry will be audited by an independent third party auditor every two years. Audit reports will be made available to our clients. The registry is also open and transparent to our clients or auditors of their choosing.