These spreadsheets were developed by NCASI to facilitate development of emission inventories consistent with the Canadian GHG program for reporting 2004 emissions, and are based upon the ICFPA/NCASI GHG Calculation Tools for Pulp and Paper Mills adopted by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as sector specific tools for the pulp and paper industry within the GHG Protocol Corporate Reporting Standard. Version 3.1 of the Calculation Tools contains emission factors, fuel property characteristics, and physical unit conversion factors drawn from the most recent Canadian Voluntary Challenge and Registry (VCR) guidance. Emission factors for biomass fuels are drawn from other sources (as specified in the data tables of the Excel spreadsheet) due to errors in the factors provided by VCR. Methane and Nitrous oxide emission factors for kraft mill lime kilns are also from other sources, as the VCR guidance does not provide factors specific to these combustion devices. These emission factors can be selected as defaults when using the tools. The user can, however, use facility-specific emission factors, rather than the default values, if this information is available (entered by the user as custom emission factors). This Canadian version of the Calculation Tools will produce the same results as earlier versions if the same emission factors are used; however, the results may be presented in a different format.

There have been minor changes to the requirements of the Canadian program for reporting 2005 GHG emissions. However, Version 3.1 of the NCASI GHG Calculation Tools remain appropriate for estimating and reporting 2005 emissions. Although the introduction pages of the spreadsheet indicate that the tools are designed for reporting emissions that occurred in 2004 only, NCASI recommends use of Version 3.1 of the Calculation Tools for reporting 2005 emissions to the Canadian program.