Greenhouse Gases
BC Hydro is consistently one of the lowest greenhouse gas emitters in the North American electricity industry. We are committed to finding innovative ways to manage our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and have developed a multi-faceted strategy focusing on demand-side management, operational efficiencies and clean energy.
BC Hydro is proud of the measures it has put in place to produce multiple benefits, which mean success across all three bottom lines:
- reduced emissions in the near term,
- a more robust generation system,
- lower costs, and
- reduced liability under future GHG regulations.
We believe this approach is a model of sustainability thinking.
Power Smart is a triple bottom line approach to curtailing demand for electricity. Demand-side management avoids significant GHG emissions, other environmental impacts and future liabilities, and helps to improve the competitiveness of our customers.
Resource Smart makes the most of the large hydro and thermal generating resources we have today, with little to no incremental impact to the environment and often with social, as well as financial, benefit.
Purchasing B.C. Clean Electricity from Independent Power Producers encourages sustainable economic development while lowering GHG emissions.
Offsets allow BC Hydro to use flexible market mechanisms that deliver the same environmental and societal benefit as an on-site reduction at less cost, leading to higher performance across all three bottom lines.
Integrated Energy Planning will incorporate GHG emissions considerations into BC Hydro's long-term energy supply decision-making process.
BC Hydro's triple bottom line approach to meeting B.C.'s electricity needs ensures that the company is well positioned to enter an era of constraints on GHG emissions with manageable risk to our cost of energy and income.
Greenhouse Gas Reporting
Until 2005, BC Hydro submitted reports to the Voluntary Challenge and Registry and reported greenhouse gas emissions in the Canadian Electricity Associations' Environmental Commitment and Responsibility report. Starting in 2005, BC Hydro integrated greenhouse gas reporting with our Annual Report, and detailed information on annual greenhouse gas emissions is available in our GRI index.
- 2004 Greenhouse Gas Report [PDF, 274 Kb]
- 2003 Greenhouse Gas Report [PDF, 253 Kb]
- 2002 Greenhouse Gas Report [PDF, 135 Kb]
- 2001 Greenhouse Gas Report [PDF, 672 Kb]
