Carbon Abatement & Emissions Reduction

Carbon credits are a practical way to turn emissions reduction into measurable impact

At LMS, we generate more than 2 million Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) each year at around 70 landfill gas projects – the largest portfolio of its kind in Australia. These projects capture and reduce methane emissions, delivering real, verified outcomes under the Federal Government’s ACCU Scheme.

Each ACCU represents one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) avoided or stored. ACCUs issued to LMS projects can be purchased by entities in both the voluntary and compliance sectors to offset emissions as part of their decarbonisation journeys. In many hard to abate industries, where the technology needed to decarbonise may not yet exist, these ACCUs help offset emissions while providing funding to scale up carbon abatement projects in Australia.

The ACCU Scheme plays an important role in helping Australia meet its emissions reduction targets and supports the transition to a lower-carbon future.

Immediate
When organic waste decomposes in a landfill, it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 28 times that of carbon dioxide over a 100-year period. Over a shorter timeframe, this increases to up to 200 times. If the gas is left uncaptured, methane will escape from the landfill and enter the atmosphere, causing irreversible damage to the environment. LMS projects capture this methane at the rate of its production and combust it immediately through bioenergy and flaring facilities.
Measurable and verifiable
The abatement achieved is both measurable and verifiable. The amount of gas that a project combusts is measured by high tech, and highly accurate gas flow meters. There is no estimation involved in this process (which can occur under other ACCU methods). Abatement is then calculated in accordance with the landfill gas methods regulated by the Clean Energy Regulator and is subject to ongoing and vigorous independent audits.
Permanent
Once methane is combusted, it cannot be reversed, making it not only an immediate solution but a permanent solution. Unlike other ACCU methods, where there is a risk that the abatement achieved by a project will be reversed if the trees are cut down or if there is a fire, there is no risk of reversal of the abatement achieved by a landfill gas capture and combustion project.
Additional
LMS projects are not issued ACCUs for 100% of the abatement they achieve. ACCUs are only issued for abatement achieved above established baselines, which represent the regulatory proportion of gas that landfill sites are required to capture. This ensures ACCUs reflect only the additional abatement delivered. The ACCU scheme incentivises LMS to go above and beyond this regulatory requirement. By investing millions of dollars into its projects, LMS is able to maximise gas capture and achieve stronger environmental outcomes.
Dual environmental benefit
Not only do LMS projects abate nearly 5 million tonnes of CO2-e each year, the methane is used as a fuel for our bioenergy facilities to generate renewable electricity, resulting in a dual environmental benefit for the environment. Across the portfolio, LMS' bioenergy facilities generate more than 600,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of reliable and clean baseload renewable electricity every year – enough to power 115,000 homes.

Our ACCUs

The ACCUs issued to LMS projects under the Scheme’s landfill gas methods are of the highest integrity and provide many benefits, including greenhouse gas abatement.