Carbon Neutral Government program

Under B.C.’s Carbon Neutral Government (CNG) program – legislated under the Climate Change Accountability Act (CCAA) – all provincial public sector organizations (PSOs) must be carbon neutral.

Municipalities are not PSOs.

On this page

• Requirements and timeline
• In-scope sources and emissions
• Reference and resources

Requirements and timeline

PSOs follow a five-step process to achieve carbon neutrality:

1. Measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings, vehicles and paper use
2. Reduce emissions as much as possible by conserving electricity and fossil fuels
3. Offset remaining emissions by purchasing an equivalent amount of high-quality, made-in-B.C. carbon offsets
4. Report annually on progress through the PSO Climate Change Accountability Report (PSO CCAR)
5. Verify data and emissions

Detailed step-by-step information is available in Becoming Carbon Neutral (PDF, 1.5MB).

Timeline for the 2023 reporting year

January 2024: Receive reporting materials

• PSOs receive an email from the Climate Action Secretariat (CAS) containing:
  • A link to the PSO CCAR Instructions and Template 
  • A link to the Public Sector Climate Leadership Survey
  • Instructions on completing the Self-Certification Checklist in the Clean Government Reporting Tool (CGRT)

April 30, 2024: CGRT Data Entry and Self-Certification Checklist due

• Deadline for PSOs to populate 2023 building, fleet and paper data into the Clean Government Reporting Tool (CGRT)
• Deadline for PSOs to complete the Self-Certification Checklist in CGRT to attest to the accuracy and completeness of the populated data and the oversight of the quality assurance process

May 31, 2024: PSO CCAR and Public Sector Climate Leadership Survey due

• PSOs email their signed, completed PSO CCAR to Carbon.Neutral@gov.bc.ca (see PSO CCAR Instructions and Template for detailed instructions)
• PSOs complete and submit their Public Sector Climate Leadership Survey online
• PSOs receive an offset invoice by May 31, 2024 with the final emissions numbers and the number of offsets to be purchased for the 2023 reporting year

June 30, 2024: CAS posts reports and retire offsets.

• CAS posts all PSO CCARs on the CNG website
• PSOs must submit their offset invoice payments to CAS
• CAS retires sufficient offsets on behalf of PSOs to achieve carbon neutrality for 2023

Fall 2024: CNG Verification Review.

• CAS engages an accredited, independent third party to verify a sampling of PSO emissions reports

In-scope sources and emissions

Not all activities and emissions sources are in scope for the CNG program. Learn more about CNG scope.

References and resources

Guidance and templates

• Becoming Carbon Neutral (PDF, 1.5MB) provides an overview of the CNG program and the annual reporting cycle
• Every year your PSO will complete a CCAR. Follow the instructions for 2023 reporting in the PSO CCAR Instructions and Template (DOCX, 175KB)
• Refer to the 2023 B.C. Best Practices Methodology for Quantifying GHG Emissions (PDF, 1MB) to understand how emissions are calculated in CNG
• Scope Summary for PSO GHG Emissions (PDF, 1.1MB)
• B.C. PSO Emissions Reporting: Quality Control and Quality Assurance Guidance (PDF, 996KB)

Self-certification templates

• Self-certification Checklist – PSOs to complete in CGRT for 2023 reporting year (CGRT login/password required)
• Cascading Sign-Off Checklist (DOCX, 58KB)
• Error Log (DOCX, 43KB)
• Training Log (DOCX, 46KB)
• Roles and Responsibilities (DOCX, 49KB)
• Sample Organization Flowchart (DOCX, 60KB)

Links and tools

• Clean Government Reporting Tool (CGRT) - use this tool to measure and load data
• Supporting CGRT resources:
  • CGR Bulk Load Tool (March 2023) (XLSM, 315 KB)
  • CGR Generic Calendarizer Tool (V1.5) (XLSM, 56KB)
  • District Energy System (DES) Calculator (XLSX, 48KB)
  • Emission Factors Catalogue (XLSX, 458KB)
• ​Climate action legislation