You are here: Our Carbon Offset Projects > Carbon Offset Standards

Carbon Offset Standards

The hallmarks of quality carbon offsets are third-party certification standards, verification, and auditing. All Carbonfund.org offset projects are verified by a third party to the highest certification standards. This sort of review, coupled with an annual third-party audit of our finances and portfolio, ensure that our donors are supporting only high-quality, transparent carbon offset projects.

1. How exactly does the process work?
Nonprofit organizations with special experience in a particular field, such as reforestation, develop a certification standard in that field, usually after an extensive discussion period to solicit input from other leading organizations. The standard then lays out in detail what criteria a project needs to meet to ensure real, measurable, permanent, additional greenhouse gas reductions. Once the standard is established, a project developer can choose to have its project verified according to the standard. To do this, it hires a third party verifier to investigate whether their project satisfies all the standard’s criteria. The verifier submits its report for review by the certification body. The certification body reviews the report, and, if it meets the criteria, issues its seal of approval. The project is now certified.

2. Is certification the same thing as verification?
No. Certification refers to the standard itself. Verification refers to the process of determining whether a project meets that standard.

3. Does the certification process ensure that my donation results in “additional” greenhouse gas reductions?
Yes. Additionality refers to whether your donation really helps reduce more carbon dioxide emissions, or whether those reductions would have happened anyway. Each certification standard includes an objective set of criteria to ensure additionality.

4. Why are there so many different certification standards?
There are different standards for different types of project. The experts who know how to ensure a high-quality reforestation project are quite different from those who know how to ensure a high-quality renewable energy project.

5. Is one certification standard better than another?
Experts from each of the certification standards never hesitate to say why their standard is the best. The truth is that the major certification standards out there agree on far more than they disagree. While some details may vary, there is broad-based agreement on what criteria need to be met to ensure a high-quality carbon offset project. We encourage you to read about the different standards below.

The following are common standards in the marketplace for your reference:

Green-e Energy

Green-e Energy is the largest certification standard for renewable energy certificates in the United States. Ecosystem Marketplace estimates that about 80% of the entire domestic renewable energy market in 2006 was certified by Green-e Energy. That’s roughly 10 billion kilowatt hours of renewable energy!

Carbonfund.org offers commercial supporters Green-e Energy certified RECs. Visit our Buy Green Power section for more information.

Green-e is administered by the Center for Resource Solutions, a nonprofit founded in 1997 to provide real-time solutions to climate change. The group spent nearly a year pulling together experts from the National Resources Defense Council, the World Resources Institute, the EPA, and other groups to develop the program.

The Center is also preparing to launch Green-e Climate, a new program aimed at including the quantified emissions reductions from renewable energy in the certification, along with more types of offsets, including sequestration and efficiency projects.

The Green-e Energy certification is designed to promote the development of new renewable energy sources while providing consumer protection services.

Eligible energy sources include solar, wind, geothermal, hydro (under select circumstances), biomass (under select circumstances), biodiesel, and fuel cells (provided the hydrogen was produced from renewable sources).
Only new sources, or those that began operation after January 1, 1997, are eligible.
Energy that is being used to meet state or federal mandates cannot be certified Green-e unless the facility is producing energy above and beyond the amount required by the mandate.
Eligible renewable energy can be sold as such once and only once.
Marketers and utilities offering Green-e certified power undergo a twice-annual marketing compliance review, as well as an annual verification process audit.

Green-e Energy’s complete set of standards can be downloaded here.

Environmental Resources Trust (ERT)

The Environmental Resources Trust, a program of Winrock International, is one of the most recognized renewable energy and reforestation certifications in the U.S. The organization, founded in 1996 with the help of Environmental Defense, is particularly focused on demonstrating the potential for market-based environmental solutions.

ERT also operates one of the largest greenhouse gas (GHG) registries in the U.S. In operation since 1997, the registry uses a serialized tracking system to ensure accurate emissions tracking for over 100 million tons of GHG emissions, including 21 million tons of emission reductions.

ERT employs standards similar to those used by the Voluntary Carbon Standard and others to verify carbon sequestration and renewable energy projects throughout the United States. Detailed information for each project listed on the ERT’s registry can be found here.

Climate, Community & Biodiversity (CCB) Standards

The Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards, the name for the certification developed by the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA), are exactly what they say: a comprehensive set of standards that take into account a land-based carbon reduction project’s impact on the climate, local community, and regional biodiversity.

Released in 2005 and updated in 2008, the standards were developed through a broad partnership between the nonprofit and private environmental communities. The partnership includes world-class organizations such as Conservation International, Rainforest Alliance, The Nature Conservancy and CARE.

The CCBS certification provides project managers with a practical tool to evaluate and develop land-based carbon reduction projects. The certification requires developers to go beyond what is required of the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) or another carbon accounting standard like the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) by generating positive community and biodiversity benefits. Projects from all over the world are eligible and all land-use activities are covered, including reforestation and agricultural carbon sequestration. More than 150 projects around the world are under development using the CCB Standards.

The full Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards can be viewed here.

Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS)

The Voluntary Carbon Standard is the result of more than two years of consultation headed by some of the most internationally respected groups in the field, including The Climate Group, the International Emissions Trading Association and the World Economic Forum. The standard is one of the newest and most comprehensive to date.

The most recent set of standards, known as VCS Program Guidelines 2007.1 was released in November 2008. In addition to providing its own set of rigorous standards, VCS is building international consensus by reviewing other existing standards and endorsing them as approved VCS programs. To date, approved VCS programs include the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the UNFCCC’s Joint Implementation (JI). The Californian Climate Action Registry is currently undergoing the approval process for becoming an approved program.

VCS-certified offsets must be real, additional, measurable, permanent, and independently verified. The certification is designed to standardize and bring transparency to the voluntary carbon offset market, as well as create a trusted and tradable offset credit, called a Voluntary Carbon Unit.

VCS’s complete methodologies can be viewed here.

The Gold Standard

The Gold Standard is widely used for projects aimed at satisfying the United Nations’ Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation programs, although it may also be used in the voluntary carbon offset market. Launched in 2003 by the World Wildlife Foundation, SouthSouthNorth, and Helio International, the standard also carries the endorsement of more than 49 non-governmental organizations worldwide.

The Gold Standard is heavily used in the European carbon markets. The standard focuses exclusively on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects under the belief that large-scale shifting demand to clean energy technologies is the most effective long-term solution to global climate change.

The Gold Standard, a nonprofit organization based in Switzerland, awards the certification based on an independent verification of its own rigorous standards of project design, greenhouse gas reduction, and additionality. Organizations performing the verifications are accredited by the United Nations.

The Gold Standard’s project developer manuals and design documents are available here.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The Environmental Protection Agency does not administer a certification program, but it does have a series of rigorous methodologies in place to administer its highly successful Green Power Partnership program. The program now boasts over 600 partners purchasing billions of kilowatt hours each year.

The top 25 purchasers alone, a group that includes companies like Pepsi Co., Wells Fargo, Johnson & Johnson, and Whole Foods, buy roughly 6.2 billion kilowatt hours of clean energy annually.

Buying green power under the EPA guidelines is similar to purchasing carbon offsets. The projects must be verified through a transparent process that ensures the greenhouse gas reductions are real, measurable, additional, and independently verified.

More information on the standards used in the program can be viewed at the EPA’s Green Power Partnership homepage here.