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• Regulatory Assistance

Regulatory Assistance

Carbon Planet can assist businesses with all of their current regulatory obligations, including:

• NGER - National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act (2007)
• NABERS - National Built Environment Energy Rating System
• NCOS - National Carbon Offset Standard (due in July 2010)

National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting System (NGER)

The Australian National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2007 came into effect on 29 September 2007. The NGER Act establishes a national system for reporting greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and production by corporations from 1 July 2008.

The NGER act precedes the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) and forms the basis of the monitoring, reporting and auditing required for the CPRS.

Key features of the NGER Act are:

• Compliance reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and production by large corporations
• Public disclosure of company level greenhouse gas emissions and energy information.

NGER and Your Business

Does my business need to report?

Businesses are responsible for assessing their liability under NGER, i.e. you will not be notified that you will need to report, however, if you do need to report, and don't, your business can receive significant financial penalties for failure to report.

Under the NGER Act it is your business responsibility to:

• find out about the reporting thresholds
• determine the activities and associated greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption and production for which your organization is responsible
• assess whether you have met a reporting threshold.

When must I register and report?

The deadline for registration for the 2008-2009 reporting (financial) year is 31 August 2009. The first reports were due on 31 October 2009.

Carbon Planet & NGER

Carbon Planet provides organisations with a full spectrum of NGER services:

• Assessing liability
• Registration
• Scoping (determining which emissions activities your business is responsible for under the act)
• Greenhouse Gas and Energy Accounting
• Reporting
• Verification.

Let Carbon Planet manage your businesses NGER requirements.

Carbon Planet's NGER Experience

The inception of the NGER reporting framework and the looming CPRS model has allowed Carbon Planet to help many of our clients in relation to both sets of legislation. This work includes:

• NGER Greenhouse Gas Audits in the Transport, Energy, Beverage Manufacturing, Education, and Retail Sectors
• NGER Greenhouse Gas Verification Assessments in the Mining, Transport and Cement Manufacturing Sectors
• Several of the audits in the Beverage Manufacturing sector specifically included Wastewater treatment.

Why choose Carbon Planet for your NGER needs

Carbon Planet has built a broad and comprehensive capability in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) and Energy Management since it began working with the business sector in 2005.

We have undertaken over 500 GHG Assessments across a diverse range of industry sectors including Mining, Construction, Food & Beverage Manufacturing, IT, Transport, Finance and the Public Sector.

We have experience working within these industries with organisations of various size, efficiency and capability.

Carbon Planet has the skills, experience and knowledge to help manage any organisation's reporting and compliance requirements.

Talk to us about your reporting and compliance needs.

National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS)

The Australian National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) was released on 20 January 2010 and is due to come into effect from 1 July 2010. The NCOS aims to guide consumers and businesses regarding the integrity of voluntary carbon offsetting and provides a standard for becoming carbon neutral.

Why do businesses need a National Carbon Offset Standard?

Under the Kyoto Protocol, Australia will soon report on nationwide emission reductions to meet targets. Due to the possibility of double counting, the Australian Government has put in place guidelines to help separate emission reductions that are made by Australia under Kyoto and those made by businesses and individuals that represent reductions over and above the formal commitments.

What types of offsets are eligible under the NCOS?

Eligible

• Australian Emissions Units (AEUs)
• Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
• Voluntary Emissions Reductions (VERs) issued by the Gold Standard
• Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs) issued by the Voluntary Carbon Standard including credits issued for agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) and reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) projects*
• Australian generated offsets, which are not counted toward the Kyoto Protocol target.**

Ineligible

In general, these include offsets that would have been covered by the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS):

• GreenPower*** and other renewable energy purchases (such as Renewable Energy Certificates)
• The Greenhouse Friendly scheme
• NSW GGAS scheme from which NGACs originate.

Becoming Carbon Neutral

Best practice in achieving carbon neutrality (as stated by the NCOS) is to:

1. Measure emissions through the calculation of a carbon footprint
2. Reduce all emissions where possible
3. Offset total residual emissions.

However, an organisation, or product, can be certified as carbon neutral by calculating its carbon footprint, undertaking an independent audit and then purchasing (and retiring), sufficient eligible carbon credits to offset its emissions.

The carbon footprint calculation would need to be based on the existing National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) methodology, with the extra inclusion of selected Scope 3 (indirect) emissions. For products, the NCOS will require a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). The NCOS also requires the preparation of an emissions management plan.

Entities that complete an audited carbon footprint calculation (see G3MS) and develop an emissions management plan can apply to use the NCOS carbon neutral logo. Organisations wanting to use the logo must make information publicly available about their carbon footprint, their emissions reduction activities, and the offsets they have bought.

For more information on the NCOS, please contact Carbon Planet.