GHGProof is an

open-source model Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

designed to evaluate the impacts of land-use decisions on greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption at the community scale. It has been developed by Sustainability Solutions Group, a Canadian workers co-operative, and has been widely used in British Columbia since 2008, with regular revisions and updates fro
SSG's GHGProof pages
Reviews of GHGProof and comparison to other modelling platforms may be found in references.

History

GHGProof was first conceived in a project designed to evaluate the impact of a land-use plan on

Salt Spring Island Salt Spring Island or Saltspring Island is one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia between mainland British Columbia, Canada, and Vancouver Island. The island was initially inhabited by various Salishan peoples before being settle ...

in BC, commissioned by th
Islands Trust
Following this project, SSG was awarded a research grant from CMHC and worked with the

Fraser Valley Regional District The Fraser Valley Regional District (FVRD) is a regional district in British Columbia, Canada. Its headquarters are in the city of Chilliwack. The FVRD covers an area of 13,361.74 km² (5,159 sq mi). It was created in 1995 by ...

to develop an open source model for wide distribution. GHGProof was piloted with the

City of Abbotsford Abbotsford is a city located in British Columbia, adjacent to the Canada–United States border, Greater Vancouver and the Fraser River. With an estimated population of 153,524 people it is the largest municipality in the province outside metrop ...

and the Town of Hope, and baseline GHG inventories were created for a workshop with all the FVRD municipalities in which they could develop scenarios. The Government of BC requires that all municipalities include GHG targets in their official community plans, creating an incentive for this type of modelling. An article in Municipal World describes the use of the model in the FVRD.

Architecture

GHGProof consists of two components. The first component is a series of analysis in GIS that analyse travel behaviour, building distribution and forest and agricultural areas for a community. The second component is an excel spreadsheet that takes inputs from the GIS analysis and uses a series of calculations to generate GHG emissions, energy use and energy costs for a community. For a detailed summary on the structure of the model see th
GHGProof Guidebook
Interactive skins have been placed over the model to facilitate community engagement.

Scope

GHGProof includes GHG emissions and reductions from public and private transportation, mode shifting to walking and cycling, commercial transportation, private dwellings, commercial buildings,

embodied carbon One way of attributing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is to measure the embedded emissions of goods that are being consumed (also referred to as "embodied emissions", "embodied carbon emissions", or "embodied carbon"). This is different from the ...

from road construction, district energy, agricultural practices, liquid and solid waste, food miles (transportation of food), forest area and forest practices. New parameters are added periodically. Outputs of the model include total GHG emissions, per capita GHG emissions, reductions by type, energy use by type, vehicle kilometres travelled, mode share, $ savings from energy, $ of investment, jobs created and marginal abatement cost.

Uses

GHGProof has been used by communities to evaluate land-use planning decisions including to develop an achievable GHG target, develop a realistic strategy to achieve a target, evaluate a large-scale development proposal and evaluate a land-use plan.

Licence

GHGProof is licensed under a Creative Common
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Municipalities where GHGProof has been used

* Abbotsford *

View Royal View Royal is a town in Greater Victoria and a member municipality of the Capital Regional District of British Columbia, Canada. View Royal has a population of 10,858 residents. With over of parkland, View Royal includes Thetis, McKenzie, Pike ...

Capital Regional District The Capital Regional District (CRD) is a local government administrative district encompassing the southern tip of Vancouver Island and the southern Gulf Islands in the Canadian province of British Columbia. The CRD is one of several regional di ...

North Cowichan North Cowichan (Canada 2021 Census population 31,990) is a district municipality established in 1873 on Vancouver Island, in British Columbia, Canada. The municipality is part of the Cowichan Valley Regional District. North Cowichan is noted for ...

Kent, British Columbia The District of Kent is a district municipality located east of Vancouver, British Columbia. Part of the Fraser Valley Regional District, Kent consists of several communities, the largest and most well-known being Agassiz—the only town in the ...

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

Port Clements Port Clements is an incorporated village situated at the east end of Masset Inlet in Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands) off the coast of the Province of British Columbia in Canada. Known as Gamadiis in HlG̱aagilda X̱aayda kil ...

* Village of Queen Charlotte *

Masset Masset , formerly ''Massett'', is a village in Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on Masset Sound on the northern coast of Graham Island, the largest island in the archipelago, and is approximately west of mainland British Co ...

Chilliwack Chilliwack ( )( hur, Ts'elxwéyeqw) is a city in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Chilliwack is surrounded by mountains and home to recreational areas such as Cultus Lake and Chilliwack Lake Provincial Parks. There are numerous outdoor ...

Lasqueti Island Lasqueti Island ( ) is an island off the east coast of Vancouver Island in the Strait of Georgia, qathet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada and has a population of 498. A passenger-only ferry connects the island to the community of ...

North Saanich The District of North Saanich is located on the Saanich Peninsula of British Columbia, approximately north of Victoria on southern Vancouver Island. It is one of the 13 Greater Victoria municipalities. The District is surrounded on three sides ...

* Comox, BC *

Hope, British Columbia Hope is a district municipality at the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla rivers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Hope is at the eastern end of both the Fraser Valley and the Lower Mainland region, and is at the southern en ...

Sunshine Coast Regional District The Sunshine Coast Regional District is a regional district in British Columbia, Canada. It is located on the southern mainland coast, across Georgia Strait (part of the Salish Sea) from Vancouver Island. It borders on the qathet Regional Dis ...

References

{{Reflist

Official page

GHGProof from Sustainability Solutions Group
Environment of Canada Greenhouse gas emissions