The department hired two firms, Cascadia Consulting and SCS Engineers, to provide independent, third party reviews of its GHG accounting approaches. The results of the reviews improved King County’s estimates and also will be used to guide future improvements to DNRP’s GHG accounting.

• Cascadia Consulting - SCS Engineers - DNRP GHG Methodology Review - 2.4 MB PDF
• SCS Engineers - Cedar Hills Regional Landfill 2015 GHG Emissions - 60 KB PDF

DNRP's conservative accounting approach for GHG removals

Cascadia's review outlined best practices for GHG emissions accounting for DNRP's emissions sources and removals, which DNRP is committed to following moving forward. Cascadia also concluded that all GHG removals must use a verifiable offset methodology or project-based protocol to be counted toward DNRP's carbon neutrality goal. DNRP appreciates the intent of this recommendation but is publishing its current best estimate of GHG emissions and removals based on the following considerations:

• The GHG accounting methods that DNRP uses for estimating GHG removals are conservative in approaches and consistent with other best practices.
• The financial costs of achieving formal GHG offset accreditation for the three major removals DNRP is accounting for would be significant, and DNRP is not intending create formal, tradeable offsets or to sell them to other entities looking to offset their emissions.
• DNRP's Beyond Carbon Neutral Initiative is a voluntary, internal goal meant to spur further action to reduce emissions and to educate and demonstrate DNRP's commitment to reducing its GHG emissions and environmental footprint.