“Outstanding” greenhouse reduction from SMRC's Perth waste facility

Perth’s Southern Metropolitan Regional Council (SMRC) has been rated as “outstanding” in Australia’s first independent ranking of carbon offset providers. Being one of only five organisations to make the top grade after 57 were invited to participate could double the value of SMRC’s carbon offsets, already worth some $1 million annually.

The ratings were compiled by Carbon Offset Watch, a collaborative effort between consumer advocacy group Choice, environmental NGO the Total Environment Centre, and the Institute for Sustainable Futures.

Of 57 organisations contacted, 20 responded with sufficient information and were included in the assessment. The majority (12) were rated “good,” while three were considered “adequate”. Unsurprisingly, none of the groups rated in the voluntary survey fell into the “not recommended” category.

The top rating for SMRC comes on top of last year’s Greenhouse Challenge Plus Award for outstanding achievement in greenhouse gas abatement by government and essential services, and according to business development manager Tim Youe, it could have a significant impact on the value of its credits.

“People definitely differentiate between projects…if there’s multiple environmental benefits, along with a genuine carbon reduction supported by an independent report [then people are prepared to pay more],” he says, although it’s “hard to say” exactly how much of a premium they will fork out.

“I think we can almost double our price compared to what a broker selling a generic product would get,” he says.

In the past two years, the SMRC’s Regional Resource Recovery Centre (RRRC), which turns organic waste into high-quality compost, has become WA’s biggest greenhouse gas abatement project, prevented 146,681 tonnes of carbon entering the atmosphere.

The fully-integrated waste processing facility diverts household rubbish away from landfill for more than 350,000 residents. The net difference in emissions between waste going to landfill and composting the material gives the SMRC carbon offsets than can be sold.

The SMRC is now developing a new website to begin making a retail offering of its carbon pollution reduction credits. But the big question for the group is how will the Federal Government’s white paper on emission trading – due before year’s end – will affect the state of play across the voluntary offset market.

SMRC has joined other providers in calling on Canberra to recognise the value “of retaining an active and viable voluntary carbon market that supports Australian project-based emission reductions” and for it to clarify what will happen to existing schemes – including the Greenhouse Friendly product certification program - beyond 2009.

While hopeful the voluntary market won’t be killed off by the changes, SMRC acknowledges there is not yet any real answer as to future Australian possibilities, and “we’re looking at if we can expand into the [global] voluntary carbon standard”.

What the government decides in December will have a massive impact on the group: “it could completely obliterate our Greenhouse Friendly project and in round terms that’s a million dollars a year gone,” says Youe.

What wouldn’t be obliterated, however, is the $100 million RRRC at Canning Vale, or the debt SMRC racked up to build it.

“We’ll still run the project, but it will mean an increase [cost] to our member councils and ultimately to the ratepayers of the region, and for no benefit in terms of any more [greenhouse] abatement.”

“We see that as a bit of a perverse outcome,” Youe says.