Standards

co2balance’s projects are of the highest standard in the world.  No-one else offers offsets in a range of projects controlled by themselves.  Most act merely as brokers buying in carbon from third party projects and selling it on.  Our standard on additionality far outstrips anything implemented elsewhere.  However, we understand that some clients will want the added confidence of an independent, third party standard.  There are a number of fledgling standards in existence.  While none of them require quality on a par with the CarbonZero Standard.  We recognise, however, the value of a third party accreditation and have therefore decided to sell only those projects that are registered under the Gold Standard or the Voluntary Carbon Standard.  This will be launched later in 2007.  We are very confident that all of our projects will easily meet the standard.

ICROA is a not-for-profit alliance of leading carbon reduction and offset organisations founded by co2balance and 7 others. It provides leadership and a unified voice advocating for rigorous industry standards. ICROA members support a reduce-andoffset approach to carbon management, and they all comply with the ICROA Code of Best Practice.

ICROA will:

• Support rigorous standards for the international voluntary carbon-management industry
• Establish best practice, through the promotion of the ICROA Code of Best Practice and adherence to that Code among its members
• Provide a credible industry voice on carbon reduction and offset policies, strategies, products, and services to governments, non-governmental organisations, policy-makers, businesses, and the media

co2balance is a founder member of the CarbonTracker Network, which seeks to encourage increased transparency in the voluntary carbon market and enable its users to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts to reduce or store carbon emissions.

                        

We use a number of other international standards in our work such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol set up by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and World Resources Institute.  We also use ISO 14064-2:2006: Greenhouse gases which gives specification and guidance at the project level for quantification, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emission reductions or removal enhancements.