Over 600
offset project verifications completed!
We specialize in a variety of project types and work across sectors with many different clients. Examples of our work experience and a few of our successfully completed projects are highlighted below.
- Landfill Gas
- ODS
- Livestock
- Biomass
- Forestry
- Nitric Acid
- Aviation
- Renewable
- Oil & Gas
- Mine Methane
- Others
Airlines
Airlines
RCE expanded our GHG verification services to the airline industry in 2013 when our team completed verifications for United Airlines to the CDP standard and Virgin America for the TCR reporting program. More recently, RCE has verified Delta Airlines’ GHG emissions for the TCR reporting program. In late 2019, RCE received its CORSIA accreditation by ANAB (U.S & Canada) and EMA (Mexico) – and is performing verifications for the CORSIA pilot phase of the program across North America.
Airports
Airports
RCE was one of the first verification bodies in the U.S. to engage in the Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA) program and in early 2015 completed our first verifications for the Port of Portland airports. Our team has since completed verifications at other large airports such as DFW, PHX, SFO, SLC, EWR, LGA and JFK. In total, RCE has now completed over 20 ACA verifications for airports across all levels (I, II, III, III+).
Biogas
Biogas
Landfill: Landfill gas capture projects are one of the most prolific carbon offset project types found in U.S. As a result, RCE has successfully performed over 200 landfill gas project verifications mostly with Climate Action Reserve protocols. Because of this experience, we possess a complete understanding of landfill gas emission models, gas collection systems and end utilization options such as flaring, electricity generation, or pipeline injection as a renewable fuel.
Livestock: Livestock manure methane capture projects have proliferated around the U.S. as part of California’s Carbon Offset Program. Our team has performed over 100 verifications of livestock projects and is well versed in all manner of manure management technologies. RCE also provides validation/verification services for livestock projects that are part of California’s LCFS program.
Wastewater: RCE has performed several GHG verifications at large municipal wastewater facilities under GHG reporting programs such as The Climate Registry and California Air Resources Board. In addition, our team has completed project verifications for methane recovery and use at industrial wastewater facilities with the Verified Carbon Standard program.
Biomass
Biomass
RCE has almost a decade of experience with biomass-to-energy projects and our expertise ranges from pulp mills and sawmills in British Columbia to sugar cane ethanol plants in Colombia. RCE has validated and verified carbon offset projects that use biomass residues to generate heat and electricity and generate emission reduction credits through displacing fossil fuel use. Under Mexico’s RENE program, RCE recently verified facility emissions reports for several sugar mills that use bagasse for their energy needs.
Coal Mine Methane
Coal Mine Methane
Since our formation in 2005, RCE has been very active in the coal mine methane (CMM) industry working as a subcontractor for the U.S. EPA’s Coalbed Methane Outreach Program. RCE has completed international CMM project feasibility studies, coal mine emissions inventories, energy market analyses, technology evaluations, and regulatory reviews – working in China, India, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. In addition, RCE has performed CMM reserves and project opportunity studies for numerous U.S. coal mining companies. RCE has authored or co-authored most CMM offset project methodologies used by international carbon markets today including active and abandoned underground mines and surface mines.
Forestry
Forestry
RCE expanded our services to the forestry sector in 2014 and since that time we have worked in multiple programs including: Climate Action Reserve, American Carbon Registry and the California Air Resources Board. In addition, in conjunction with our regional office in Mexico City we are now offering forestry verification services in Mexico and other Latin America countries. RCE has partnered with Forest Resource Solutions and Technologies (FRST) for our forestry services. FRST Corp specializes in timberland management, forest inventory, forest carbon project verification, regulatory compliance, and geographic information science. The company’s staff includes CA Registered Professional Foresters and other specialists with a range of forestry skills and expertise. More details and contact information can be found here.
Industrial Gases
Industrial Gases
Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS): RCE has verified over 100 ODS projects including the destruction of virgin ODS material as well as recovered ODS material from refrigerators or air conditioning units. RCE works with all North American ODS project developers to verify their carbon offset projects under the California Air Resources Board compliance offset program and is very familiar with different ODS destruction technologies.
Nitrous Oxides (N2O): RCE has worked with ClimeCo, a market leader in N2O emissions abatement projects, to verify multiple projects located at nitric acid plants to the Climate Action Reserve’s Protocol. RCE has also served as a GHG advisor to nitrogen fertilizer producers for compiling their GHG inventories, facility benchmarking, and carbon footprinting of nitrogen-based products.
Land Use
Land Use
Croplands: Over the past five years RCE has expanded its services into the Agriculture, Forestry, and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sectors as new GHG emissions reductions methodologies and protocols have been developed. RCE has worked with no/low tillage aggregation projects under the Alberta offset program and more recently became accredited to verify Nitrogen Management projects with the Climate Action Reserve. Nitrogen Management projects seek to reduce GHG emissions from improving nitrogen use efficiency in crop production.
Grasslands: RCE verified its first Grassland projects with the Climate Action Reserve in 2018 and since that time has conducted five Grassland project verifications. The Grassland protocol seeks to reduce GHG emissions by avoiding the conversion of grassland to cropland.
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
General: RCE has worked in a broad range of manufacturing industries in several GHG emissions reporting programs across North America. Experience includes facilities producing semi-conductors, golf balls, candy, Kevlar vests, headstones, and a wide array of other products. More recently in Mexico, RCE verified facilities manufacturing auto parts, cans, plastic bottles, soaps, metals, and tuna fish.
Glass: RCE verified several commercial glass manufacturing facilities in Mexico in 2019 and understands glass sector GHG emissions sources including combustion emissions for furnaces and process emissions related to carbonates contained in the raw materials.
Pulp and Paper: Since 2011, RCE has completed numerous verifications in the pulp and paper sector under the British Columbia Reporting Regulation for both chemical and mechanical pulp mills. The facilities typically operate large boilers and cogeneration units to power the energy needs of the plant and sometimes export electricity to the grid. In addition, mills often use biomass feedstocks such as black liquor, red liquor, and hog fuel (wood chips) for their energy needs.
Mining & Minerals
Mining & Minerals
RCE has completed numerous GHG emission inventory verifications for large-scale mining operations in the U.S. and Mexico. RCE began work in this sector in 2009 with Kennecott Utah Copper’s Bingham Canyon operations near Salt Lake City, Utah. Over the past decade, RCE has verified emissions reports from gold, silver, copper, iron, and coal mining operations. In addition to large-scale mining activities, facilities often include power plants, prep plants, concentrators, smelters, and refineries.
Oil & Gas
Oil & Gas
RCE specializes in methane GHG emissions, including the oil and gas (O&G) sector. RCE’s experience in the O&G sector includes:
- Working with companies to identify methane emission reduction opportunities, particularly in the upstream (exploration and production) sector. RCE finds that fugitive methane emissions can often contribute as much as 50% of an O&G exploration company’s GHG footprint.
- Since 2011, validating and verifying O&G offset projects in northern British Columbia for engine fuel management, high-bleed to low-bleed conversion, and instrument gas to air conversions
- Validating and verifying O&G projects in Colombia for associated gas capture at oil wells, and waste energy recovery from flared gas
Public Sector
Public Sector
State and Federal: RCE has a long history of working with government agencies providing GHG technical consulting services. As a subcontractor, RCE provides technical services to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Division for the coal mine methane and biogas sectors. In 2016, RCE authored a GHG neutrality assessment report and a coal mine methane market research report for the Colorado Energy Office.
Local Governments: RCE has completed verifications for several cities and counties using The Climate Registry’s (TCR’s) Local Government Organization Protocol. In 2017, RCE verified Mexico City’s GHG emissions under Mexico’s national emissions reporting program. As a result, we are skilled at checking GHG emissions calculations typical of local governments such as buildings, wastewater treatment facilities, landfills, large vehicle fleets, and complicated electricity usage infrastructure.
Universities: RCE has completed GHG verifications for dozens of large universities across the U.S. using the TCR reporting protocol or state-based mandatory GHG reporting programs (in California and Massachusetts). GHG emissions sources can include hospitals, offices, laboratories, academic buildings, vehicle fleets, and often a power plant with a cogeneration unit.
Renewable Energy
Renewable Energy
Through both verifications and consulting, RCE has been involved with renewable energy projects that seek carbon offset credits rather than traditional renewable energy credits (RECs). We have witnessed the world energy markets transitioning to renewables firsthand – through inspecting small and large-scale wind farms in the U.S. and Brazil, large-scale solar projects in Colombia and Argentina, and run-of-river hydroelectric projects in Colombia.
Transportation
Transportation
RCE’s wide ranging GHG experience with transportation sector emissions inventories and projects extends across the United States, Mexico, and Colombia. We have validated and verified several project types associated with Class 8 trucks for long-haul trucking operations. Projects include intermodal use (truck-train and truck-barge) and anti-idle alternatives. In addition, RCE has verified GHG inventories for large city transit districts with multiple modes/fleets of mobile source emissions, large corporate vehicle fleets (trucks or buses), and international airlines.
Utilities
Utilities
Power Generation: RCE possesses an abundance of experience providing GHG assurance services to power producers, utilities, and on-site power generators. We have verified GHG emissions from all plant sizes, fuel types and a variety of technologies including coal-fired and gas-fired steam boilers, combined-cycle gas turbines, biomass boilers, run-of-river hydroelectric, wind turbines, photovoltaic and concentrated solar.
Electric Power Transactions: RCE received its ANAB scope extension for electric power transactions in 2014. Since that time, RCE has completed multiple verifications for utilities with electricity imports, power generation metrics, and power delivery metrics (emission factors) under The Climate Registry rules and California Air Resources Board regulations.
Water utilities: Much of RCE’s verification work in the electricity sector has been for large water utilities in California and Colorado. As a result, RCE understands the emissions sources and power generation needs of irrigation districts and water utilities. In addition, RCE was one of the first verification bodies to provide services for TCR’s Water-Energy Nexus (WEN) Registry which allows participants in California to measure, track, and mitigate the GHG emissions associated with California’s water system.