Research and Development Project: The Calibration of Bilan Carbone^® for Ontario

Objective

The object of this project was to modify and adapt the French tool Bilan Carbone^® ( developed by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency) for the Canadian environment. Because of the successful use of Bilan Carbone^® in France by Internat Energy Solutions (IES) it was decided to bring the tool to Canada by Internat Energy Solutions Canada (IESC). The calibration of Bilan Carbone^® required an evaluation of the emission factors as reported in the Guide Méthodologique and revising them to be appropriate for the Canadian environment. Emission factors for Ontario have been completed and work will be commencing for other provinces.

Methodology

One of the advantages of Bilan Carbone^® as a GHG emissions accounting tool is that it is extremely comprehensive and contains emission factors for a range of processes, services and products some of these areas include:

• Electricity
• Propane
• Diesel
• Gasoline
• Natural Gas
• Air conditioning
• Waste (landfill and recycling)
• Paper use
• Transportation (automobile, public transit, air)
• External services (banking, consultants, post, internet etc.)
• Office supplies
• Assets (vehicles, furniture, IT assets)

The modification of Bilan Carbone^® for the Ontario environment required extensive research and document analysis. Also, contact was made with a number of organizations to gather information not reported on websites or in documents. A life cycle approach was taken which required an analysis of both upstream and downstream energy usage.