Greenhouse Gas Advisory Services

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BDO GHG Service
April 9, 2008

BDO Dunwoody launches Greenhouse Gas Service practice

Toronto, April 9: In a new initiative, BDO Dunwoody LLP (“BDO”) announces that it intends to become “carbon neutral” in its operations within five years. BDO is the first national accounting firm to declare its goal on this sensitive environmental issue. The firm has already started the process of quantifying its carbon inventory, often referred to as a carbon “footprint”. The results of the inventory covering all of BDO's 95 offices will be made public as soon as the work is complete.

It is widely accepted that the production of greenhouse gases – particularly carbon dioxide – directly impacts the environment and causes climate change.

“I want BDO to be known as the most environmentally-aware professional consultancy firm in Canada,” says Keith Farlinger, the firm's new CEO-elect. “I am determined that this firm will lead by example. We are investing the services of our newly-launched Greenhouse Gas Advisory Services (GAS) practice to do this work. Given their central role in Canadian business, I believe professional services firms such as BDO should take a leadership role when it comes to the environment. By applying the talents of our GAS team to ourselves, we are demonstrating that we firmly believe in the need to manage greenhouse gases.”

BDO's GAS practice leverages existing established strengths in combination with enhanced engineering resources to help Canadian companies manage the emerging business issues associated with greenhouse gas emissions.

“You can't manage what you don't measure,” says Engineer Emil Breza, BDO's Director of the GAS practice. “It is impossible to manage the risk associated with changing regulations if you don't know what your starting point is. A comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory can uncover assets or liabilities that don't currently show up on corporate balance sheets.”

BDO's Greenhouse Gas Advisory Practice can provide the following support to businesses including:

1. Organizational carbon inventories (establishing a footprint of carbon output) and annual updates
2. Assistance with carbon reduction projects and securing of carbon credits (This may also involve Scientific Research and Experimental Development (“SR&ED”) credits)
3. Providing third party assurance for organizational inventories and sale of carbon credits. This assurance is mandatory under Alberta's Specified Gas Emitters Regulation (“SGER”)
4. Management and brokering of the carbon credits on voluntary, compulsory, B2B or consumer based exchanges

The cost to implement a greenhouse gas strategy varies greatly from company to company and region to region, depending on factors such as industry sector, how detailed or in-depth the firm wants their strategy to be and the size of the company, explains Breza. “Each business has to be dealt with on an individual basis.”

“In launching the GAS practice, we are facilitating a legal requirement for some companies while allowing others to develop a strategy to cope with the ever changing regulations” adds Farlinger. “We know that this issue is first and foremost in the minds of many of Canada's business leaders, and now we are glad to be actively doing something about it.”

Media Contacts:
Gordon G. Lee
National Marketing Director
BDO Dunwoody LLP
T: (416) 369-3050
E: glee@bdo.ca

About BDO:

BDO Dunwoody LLP is Canada's sixth largest accounting services and advisory firm. Our team serves a highly diverse clientele, which includes owner-managed businesses, large enterprises, mid-market public companies, community organizations, not-for-profit agencies, and professional firms. From agriculture to real estate, technology to union pensions, and aboriginal communities to municipalities, the professionals of BDO Dunwoody have the expertise to handle any business sector.

BDO Dunwoody LLP is a Member Firm of BDO International. BDO International is a global network of public accounting firms, called BDO Member Firms, serving international clients. The network is comprised of 95 Member Firms in 107 countries, with over 30,000 professionals on staff in over 600 offices worldwide to take on a multitude of services.