Measuring the Impact of Resource Recovery: Bow Valley’s Class III GHG Calculator Tool
The Bow Valley Waste Management Commission (BVWMC) has developed a new greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions calculator to estimate the impact of its Class III resource recovery operations. Designed in partnership with Brightspot Climate, this tool provides valuable insight into how diversion from landfill contributes to emissions reductions—and may be adaptable for other facilities across Alberta.
Below, BVWMC Regional Coordinator Andrew Cotterell shares more details on the tool and what they’ve learned so far:
A GHG calculator for Class III resource recovery
By Andrew Cotterell, Regional Coordinator, Bow Valley Waste Management Commission
From November 2024 to March 2025, Bow Valley Waste Management Commission staff worked with consultants at Brightspot Climate to develop a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions calculator to estimate emissions reductions associated with the Francis Cooke facility’s various resource recovery operations. Emissions factors were considered for each recycling stream and incorporated fuel use for operations on site, transportation, and processing partner operations. This was compared to a baseline scenario where all material was landfilled.
GHG emissions reduction – equivalent to 245 cars
The findings suggest that resource recovery operations at the Francis Cooke facility reduce GHG emissions by over 1,000 tonnes of CO2e each year. This is the equivalent of taking about 245 cars off the road for a year or growing 17,500 seedlings for 10 years.
Focus on metal, wood, and drywall diversion for biggest impact
The findings were consistent with expectations, in that metal, wood and drywall are the most impactful materials to separate. We are tracking the use of a mini excavator at our main landfill face to separate these materials from mixed unsorted loads.
More GHG reduction opportunities
Currently, we mix drywall into the recycled wood product, but we will consider sending more of it to our processing partner for recycling as this has a sizeable GHG impact. We will continue to calculate the GHG emission reductions each year and include the results in our decision making for where and how to process materials.
Try the calculator for yourself
Whilst the tool was designed with BVWMC’s specific operations in mind, it is possible to input your own operations into it to find out your emissions reductions. Additionally, you could model different diversion scenarios to see if there is a potential emissions reduction benefit.
More information including downloading the tool and background documents can be found at:
https://bvwaste.ca/resource-recovery/#more or reach out to Andrew at acotterell@bvwaste.ca for advice on how you may be able to adapt this for your own operations.
| Total Estimated Emission Reduction (Tonnes of CO2e) | |||
| Year | Baseline Emissions | Project Emissions | Emission Reduction |
| 2024 | 1,748.77 | 731.88 | 1031.89 |
| 2023 | 1,573.19 | 546.94 | 1041.25 |
Project vs Baseline Emissions by Waste Stream in 2024
Proportion of Emission Reductions by Waste Stream in 2023
Emission Reduction Intensity by Waste Streams 2024
