Page 21 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 3 - Summer 2023

GFC manages the registry, and the com- mittee, established by the director of the agency, was tasked with creating rules governing the registry and its indepen- dent auditors certifying GFC-registered carbon credits.
Committee Selection and Ramp-up
Committee makeup was required to represent specific expertise categories, including engineering and architecture, minimum standard codes, real estate/ builder, carbon offset protocol and whole-building life cycle assessment. Three at-large representatives were also required. On December 16, 2021, SBMTAC met for the first time at Jamestown’s Ponce City Market office.
Following self-introductions of commit- tee members and a welcome from James- town’s Director of Timberlands Troy Harris, GFC Director Tim Lowrimore established the importance of including sustain- able building materials on the registry.
“This is a huge opportunity to educate urban communities and other citizens
about the importance of working forests to our society and the carbon- sequestering abilities of wood products,” Lowrimore said. Dartnell presented background information supporting the sustainability of Southern forests and carbon credits, carbon markets, and the committee’s responsibilities as defined by the legislation.
“We were all getting to know each other and wrapping our heads around the task at hand,” said Dartnell. “We talked about the purpose of the amendment, which was to provide for the inclusion of building products that sequester carbon used in construction in Georgia onto the carbon registry. It would allow registry participants to voluntarily report the car- bon stored in their building materials as well as the reduction in carbon emissions resulting from using sustainable building materials such as wood beams and wood wall and floor panels. In turn, they would receive a proportionate number of carbon credits for doing so.”
Despite this simple overview of the committee’s mission, the job ahead was unfolding as intricate and massive. For- tunately, the group had 12 months to meet
its objectives. Issues raised and directives noted were numerous, including:
 RECOMMEND a system for the State of Georgia to issue carbon credits that is aligned and compatible with global carbon credit and offset markets to ensure creditability.
 ESTABLISH baseline categories for commercial buildings based on occupancy and type.
 ENSURE any recommendations are compliant with Georgia State minimum standard codes.
 UNDERSTAND capabilities of life-cycle-assessment tools such as Athena Impact Estimator and Talley, which give architects, engineers and analysts access to advanced life-cycle- inventory data without requiring advanced skills.
 DEVELOP an example building with calculations for investors to understand the number of carbon credits they can monetize in their planned Georgia build- ings by substituting sustainable building materials for conventional materials.
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