CSA ICT PROTOCOL

Abstract

<strong>INTRODUCTION</strong> <br>Recognizing the impact of ICT on the environment and the increasing attention being placed on sourcing ICT with a low environmental footprint, CANARIE funded a project to initiate a consortium of industrial and commercial enterprises, universities, and government agencies with the common goal of reducing GHG emissions associated with ICT services. Part of this project included the development of a Protocol involving the quantification of emission reductions achieved by reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with ICT services, either by moving to a lower carbon environment or by improving workload efficiency. The protocol was intended specifically to help in the potential creation of certified, and eventually verified, emission reductions resulting from the delivery of low or zero greenhouse gas emissions associated with ICT services. <br>Canadian Standards Association (CSA) was subsequently selected to help develop the protocol, in part to draw upon its expertise in the consensus-based process for standards development and also to help ensure that the protocol was compatible and consistent with the requirements of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14064-2, <em>Specification with guidance at the project level for quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emission reductions or removal enhancements.</em> ISO 14064-2 is one of three internationally recognized Standards developed to provide the basis for GHG estimation, reporting, and verification. As such, ISO 14064-1, 14064-2, and 14064-3 are central tools in the functioning of both regulated and voluntary carbon markets, because they help to establish the credibility of the emission reductions created and transacted. <br>Based on the ISO 14064-2 Standard, the application of principles is fundamental to ensure that GHG-related information as presented by a project proponent is a true and fair account. To that end ISO 14064-2 has established six principles that form the basis and are intended to guide the application of requirements in Part 2 of ISO 14064-2. These principles are <br>&#8226; Relevance <br>&#8226; Completeness <br>&#8226; Consistency <br>&#8226; Accuracy <br>&#8226; Transparency <br>&#8226; Conservativeness <br>CSA has applied these principles in the process of developing this document and users of this protocol are expected to follow these principles in its application. The definitions for these principles are in ISO 14064-2. It is expected that persons using this protocol would keep key fundamental documents, including a copy of ISO 14064-2, on hand as additional reference and guidance material. <br>This protocol can be used for a number of potential purposes, including <br>&#8226;&#160;the generation of carbon credits. Carbon credits may potentially be generated under this protocol based on the requirements of specific GHG programs <br>&#8226;&#160;corporate environmental and sustainability performance reporting <br>As noted in Section 3 of this protocol, an assessment of additionality is a requirement for project proponents wishing to generate verified emission reductions associated with their project. However, for users of this protocol who wish only to estimate and report the emission reductions associated with a low or zero carbon ICT initiative or process, an assessment of additionality is not required. Such would be the case for users wishing to use the protocol for generating environmental information used within a corporate sustainability report, or other similar purposes. <br>The intent is that this protocol be used as a good practice document, directly for quantifying the emission reduction impacts of projects or initiatives to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with ICT services, or adapted as required for specific climate change programs. However, applying this protocol does not ensure that the project output documents &#8212; the Project Document and the GHG Report &#8212; meet the requirements of the ISO 14064-2 Standard. ISO 14064-2 provides requirements to the development of the project document; the standard needs to be followed when using this protocol. It is the project document, and not the protocol, that will be assessed for conformance with ISO 14064-2 by the program authority and the verifier. As part of conforming with ISO 14064 the proponent shall follow the requirements of the ISO 14064-2 Standard as related to the usage of good practice as laid out in Section 5.1 (General requirements) of ISO 14064-2. <br>In a number of locations throughout this document, language and wording cite specific terms and definitions that are used from ISO 14064-2 standard. Persons who are using this document need to be aware that the ISO Standard may be updated and consequently the wording in this document would not reflect the latest version of the standard. For up to date terms and definitions as reflected in the ISO standards, please proceed to <u>https://cdb.iso.org/cdb/search.action</u>. Throughout this document, "shall" indicates a mandatory requirement, "should" indicates a recommendation or that which is advised but not mandatory, and "may" indicates an advisory or optional statement.