Bruce Power’s second annual New Acre™ Nature Investments report foregrounds carbon sequestration outcomes and environmental benefits produced by agricultural nature-based projects delivered by ALUS farmers in Bruce and Grey Counties.
Bruce and Grey County / Toronto, ON, May 30, 2024 – ALUS released Bruce Power’s second annual New Acre Nature Investments (New Acre) report demonstrating the combined positive environmental and social benefits the energy company’s $1-million investment is delivering to communities in Bruce and Grey Counties. The three-year investment is led by Bruce Power’s Carbon Offset Coalition, which funds grassroots net-zero initiatives to offset and remove carbon emissions.
Bruce Power, a partnership between TC Energy, Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Systems (OMERS), the Power Workers’ Union and The Society of United Professionals, is Canada’s only private-sector nuclear generator. The Canadian-owned energy company has committed to achieving the ambitious goal of reaching net zero site operations by 2027. Investing in nature-based projects delivered by local ALUS farmers is one of the initiatives Bruce Power has undertaken to offset on-site emissions where reductions are not feasible.
“Bruce Power has worked hard to build strong roots in Ontario, particularly in Bruce and Grey Counties, the area surrounding Bruce Power within the Saugeen Ojibway Nation Territory,” says Danielle La Croix, Senior Director, Environment, Sustainability & Net Zero. “ALUS’ New Acre Nature Investments provides us with a solution for offsetting the remaining on-site emissions that can’t be reduced through other efforts, but with the additional and equally important benefit of building community climate resilience, improving local water quality, and supporting farmers in the communities in which we operate our business.”
ALUS is the only charitable organization operating in Canada and the United States that offers a turnkey, farmer-led, community-delivered agri-environmental program designed to provide shared value to farmers, communities and investors through its suite of Nature and Climate Solutions. Currently, ALUS supports more than 360 community leaders across 39 ALUS communities in helping over 1,700 farmers and ranchers build and actively manage more than 52,000 acres of nature-based projects on marginal farmland in Canada.
In 2023, 22 ALUS Grey-Bruce farmers delivered 200 acres of nature-based projects, like wetlands, grasslands and tree and shrub plantings, on marginal agricultural lands with support from Bruce Power’s New Acre investment. These year-two project acres are estimated to sequester 860 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) over five years. To date, 400 project acres have been delivered with support from Bruce Power, and ALUS is on track for meeting Bruce Power’s three-year target of 600 acres by the end of 2024.
Bruce Power and the Nuclear Innovation Institute (NII) have also been collaborating with ALUS in the development and delivery of a transparent and science-based carbon quantification workplan to estimate carbon stocks associated with ALUS’ nature-based projects. Part of this workplan involves using remote sensing, AI and machine-learning technologies to estimate the carbon sequestration potential of Bruce Power’s project acres. More information on these technologies and how they’re being deployed is detailed in Bruce Power’s latest New Acre Nature Investments report.
In early 2024, ALUS submitted its Environmental Benefit Quantification and CO2 Credit Issuance Methodology to Bruce Power and NII, among other experts in the field, for review. ALUS expects to release the methodology publicly and issue its first carbon credits generated by nature-based projects on marginal agricultural lands to Bruce Power by the end of 2024.
“Bruce Power’s expertise has proven invaluable to ALUS in its efforts to develop a carbon methodology that is designed to deliver reliable carbon credits associated with verifiable nature-based projects delivered by local farmers and ranchers,” says Katherine Balpataky, Senior Director of Corporate Partnerships at ALUS. “Bruce Power’s New Acre investment is not only advancing credible carbon offsetting practices but is also generating positive environmental and social benefits for people in Bruce and Grey Counties.”
ALUS Grey-Bruce operates within the traditional territories of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation and Chippewas of Saugeen First Nation).
