You are here: You are here: Our Carbon Offset Projects > Project Selection > Project Selection - more

Project Standards (more)

Additionality:

Additionality has generally meant the carbon emission reductions are above and beyond business as usual. Reductions are additional if they would not have occurred in the absence of the project. Importantly, additionality should be determined by an independent third-party, which is required by all internationally accepted standards. Additionality should not be self-determined and should not be self-defined, as each internationally accepted standard defines it. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for example, defines additionality as greenhouse gas reductions that must be surplus to regulation and beyond what would have happened in the absence of the project or in a business-as-usual scenario based on a performance standard methodology.

Permanence:

Permanence is commonly referred to as the useful life of a project in reducing carbon emissions. Third-party standards such as the Climate Action Reserve (CAR); Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS); Climate, Community and Biodiversity (CCB) Standards; American Carbon Registry; and UN all address and account for permanence. These and other third-party standards also address permanence for forest-based carbon offset projects such as reforestation and avoided deforestation. A project should be independently certified to a standard so that you know permanence and other criteria for real carbon reductions are met.