Carbon Accounting
An Integrated Carbon Budget of Weyerhaeuser's Woodlands and Manufacturing Operations
Weyerhaeuser
ESSA was engaged by Weyerhaeuser to develop and implement a carbon budget accounting model for its woodlands and manufacturing operations in North America. In this project, ESSA developed an analytical carbon accounting framework consisting of two separate modelling tools.
The first tool assesses changes in carbon pools and fluxes in forest ecosystems in North America that are managed or owned by Weyerhaeuser. The model uses corporate forest inventories and harvest scheduling information to estimate aboveground, belowground and dead organic matter (soil, coarse woody debris, and litter) carbon pools and their changes from 1990 into the future.
The second tool assesses the contribution of Weyerhaeuser's manufacturing operations to the greenhouse gas budget. Based on information provided by the company, the integrated database and modelling system determine carbon fluxes in the forest product manufacturing sector.
Together, the ecosystem and manufacturing sector tools assess carbon pools and fluxes following the guidelines of several alternative reporting protocols, thus allowing for an evaluation of the methodological differences and their quantitative implications on reported carbon fluxes.
ESSA's work with Weyerhaeuser is an important part of our extensive experience in the area of carbon budget modelling. Since 1990, ESSA has been involved in a wide range of projects in which we have developed carbon budgets for Canadian forests at national and provincial scales. Additionally, our Forestry Team has released numerous publications on the topic.