Technical Assistance

Our expert technical assistance helps manufacturing, commercial, government and nonprofit organizations analyze and implement pollution prevention, energy efficiency, and carbon-trading opportunities.

Investment Grade Audits

Our investment-grade audits examine opportunities to conserve energy and water, curtail production of wastewater and solid waste, and reduce chemical inputs. We look for measures that promise sufficient improvements in efficiency—and hard-dollar savings—to warrant financing. A qualified contractor with expertise in your facility’s processes performs the audit and provides a report for your review. The report calculates baseline energy and pollution management costs, implementation costs and payback periods for various improvement options, and the capacity of your facility to implement them.

Technical Underwriting

Technical underwriting determines which options identified in the investment-grade audit make the most sense for your facility to implement. We base our analysis on several factors, including realistic assessments of efficiency improvements, ease of implementation, costs and predicted payback, and environmental and economic impacts. Our technical underwriting produces a short list of top-priority measures for your facility to implement. If you need help connecting to financing, we provide it.

Baseline Analysis of Carbon Emissions

The Delta P2E2 Center helps companies evaluate their carbon footprint. We work with direct emitters, such as manufacturers, and indirect emitters, such as office-based service companies, to develop carbon emissions footprints in accordance with Chicago Climate Exchange requirements. For details, check out our Carbon Trading Program.

Financing

The Delta P2E2 Center connects facilities to a number of options for financing technical assistance and the costs of implementing pollution prevention and energy efficiency measures.

P2E2 Loans

The Delta P2E2 Center provides conventional pollution prevention and energy efficiency loans at a competitive interest rate.

Partner Loans

The P2E2 Center can connect a facility to pollution prevention and energy efficiency loans from our financial partner, LaSalle Bank. The facility negotiates terms and conditions directly with LaSalle Bank.

Combination Loans

In some cases, the Delta P2E2 Center and LaSalle Bank team up to finance a project. For example, LaSalle Bank may provide a loan for equipment costs, and the P2E2 Center may provide a loan for technical assistance costs associated with a pollution prevention or energy efficiency project.

Carbon Trading Program

Controlling greenhouse gas emissions is fast becoming a management priority. Analysts predict that even for companies not directly subject to greenhouse gas regulation, significant emissions will eventually increase costs or reduce sales.

In North America, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®) is a member-based market for trading carbon credits obtained by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Delta P2E2 Center helps companies, farmers, and landowners get involved in carbon trading on the CCX® by providing the following services.

Carbon Baseline Analysis

Our experts work with direct emitters, such as manufacturers, and indirect emitters, such as office-based service companies, to fulfill Chicago Climate Exchange requirements.

Develop a Carbon Emissions Footprint

A carbon emissions profile takes into account all activities that generate greenhouse gases, such as manufacturing and facility operations, corporate travel, and energy use. To develop the profile, we assess corporate data on carbon emissions, identify gaps, and fill them. This information is used to calculate a carbon emissions baseline and establish protocols for tracking changes in a company’s footprint moving forward.

Create Carbon Credits

The Delta P2E2 Center works with companies to design pollution prevention and energy efficiency strategies for reducing their carbon footprint—in some cases by a sufficient amount to generate carbon credits. Financing to implement these strategies is available through the Delta P2E2 Center.

Carbon Offset Aggregation

Both carbon dioxide and methane are greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. The Chicago Climate Exchange specifies a range of eligible conservation practices for reducing these greenhouse gases and allows benefits from these practices to be quantified, credited, and sold. Credits are aggregated, or pooled, from many different producers and landowners for sale to CCX® members—large companies, municipalities, and institutions that have made voluntary commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These organizations agree either to reduce their own emissions or to offset their emissions by purchasing credits generated by other organizations or by farmers and landowners.

Quantify Credits from Eligible Conservation Practices

Experts from the Delta P2E2 Center can help farmers and landowners identify, quantify and aggregate credits resulting from eligible conservation practices.

Conservation Practices

No-till and strip-till farming are eligible practices for generating carbon credits. Producers or landowners must make at least a five-year contractual commitment to employ these practices. Carbon benefits are credited at 0.2 to 0.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per acre per year, depending on location.

Grass Plantings

Producers or landowners must make a five-year contractual commitment to maintain grass plantings. Grass plantings implemented after January 1, 1999, can be credited at 0.4 or 1.0 metric tons of CO₂ per acre per year, depending on location.

Methane Digesters

Eligible methane digesters are those that were in operation any time after 1999 and have installed biogas flow monitoring and/or electrical metering equipment. Methane is credited at 21 metric tons of CO₂ per ton of methane, per year.

Tree Planting

Eligible projects include afforestation (allowing forests to regenerate naturally), reforestation via plantings, forest enrichment, and passive reforestation. Projects can be enrolled if plantings were initiated on or after January 1, 1990, on land that was not forested or on forest land that was degraded on December 31, 1989. Tree plantings can be credited up to 8.3 metric tons of CO₂ per acre, per year.

Aggregate and Trade Credits

The Delta P2E2 Center serves as aggregator to sell carbon credits on behalf of producers or landowners. All credits are traded on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX®). The market price per metric ton of carbon varies. For current market prices see www.chicagoclimatex.com. Sale proceeds are returned to the producer/landowner minus a per-ton trading fee from CCX®, and an aggregation fee.

Enroll in the Carbon Trading Program

Contact the Delta P2E2 Center for an application form and standard contract, then complete and sign the forms. CCX® requires that these be verified by an independent party. The Delta P2E2 Center, as aggregator, will arrange for verification. Once verification reports are sent to CCX®, trading can occur.