The BC CleanRoads Innovation Program (BCCIP) is a groundbreaking program, designed to reduce the carbon footprint of road building and maintenance activities in British Columbia and beyond. It is a first of its kind program worldwide, where industry is taking a leadership role in implementing a sector-wide carbon credit program. The program will offer the industry the opportunity to have their voluntary efforts quantified and recognized in the form of verified emission reductions through an industry specific Programme.
Characteristic of the program:
- Pro-active climate action leadership
- Program intended to benefit all members
- Scoped around road development and maintenance
- Initial focus on processes within industry
- Program developed in collaboration with GHG Accounting
Benefits of an Industry Wide Program
- Transaction costs, investment risks and uncertainties for individual BCRB members are reduced.
- Access to carbon financing is extended to smaller projects which would not be viable as stand-alone projects.
- Direct engagement of individual project developers in the process is not required.
The primary goal of this Programme is to support significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions in the industry to contribute to a transformative change in the industry by 2030. For this, the program offers industry’s stakeholders with the opportunity of implementing eligible project activities that significantly reduce GHG emissions and obtain recognition for such activities in the form of carbon financing.
How it works
Eligible project participants are:
- Companies that have implemented or are planning to implement, eligible GHG reduction activities
- Have not/will not register the project activity in with another Carbon Credit programme.
- Eligible project partners are those that are in possession of the environmental benefits generated from project activities.
- Enroll and commit to provide all required data to enable the project participation under the Programme during its duration (maximum 10 years).
Eligible Project Activities
To achieve the purpose of the programme, project activities with a great potential for reducing GHG emissions have been identified and included. Project activities were identified within the typical industry processes. The project activities cover relevant stages throughout the road life cycle from production of materials used in roads to road maintenance and operation. The following activities are included under the Programme at this initial stage:
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Vehicle electrification:
This project activity relates to the replacement of fossil fuel vehicles and mobile equipment with their electric vehicles (EV) counterparts. It involves the installation of EV charging systems to charge such EVs, thus resulting in GHG reductions by displacing fossil fuel use.
Eligible project activities include switch from fossil fuel vehicles and mobile equipment used at any stage of the road value chain. For example, switching to electric vehicles at the quarry, or during road maintenance or rehabilitation.
Project data will be required to include the project in the programme as well as to quantify emission reductions for verification and credit issuance. The following sections provides details related to the information required.
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Equipment Electrification:
This project activity relates to fuel switch from fossil fuel to electricity in heat generation equipment (e.g. furnaces, dryers) that are used in manufacturing products related to road construction or maintenance.
The baseline emissions are related to the historic fossil fuel consumption in each element process that is affected by the project activity. An element process is one which involves one fuel input to create one product output. For example, heat from natural gas is used to output dry aggregates. The baseline fossil fuel consumption, production output, and/or production input must be available for the prior three years to the start date of the project.
The following activities may be introduced to the program at a later date:
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Electrification of upstream infrastructure:
This project activity relates to fuel switch from fossil fuel to electricity in stationary equipment found in quarries.
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Materials replacement in asphalt manufacturing:
This project activity relates to the replacement of conventional materials used in asphalt production with alternative materials that have low GHG impact.