American Carbon Registry Accepted by the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance
LONDON and ARLINGTON, Va., July 21, 2011 – The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) announces today its recognition of American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, as an approved ICROA carbon offsetting standard.
The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) has become synonymous with best practice in the voluntary carbon market and all members only use offsets verified under the most widely respected compliance and voluntary standards. ICROA companies follow a code of best practice that provides confidence that resulting offsets are real, verified, permanent, additional and unique and that sets guidelines for how such offsets are sold.
ICROA’s selection of approved offset standards includes the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation, Carbon Fix, the Climate Action Reserve, the Gold Standard, the Verified Carbon Standard, and now the American Carbon Registry.
“ICROA has approved ACR as a standard because the offset methodologies and practices for verification meet our strict criteria,” said ICROA Co-Chair Edward Hanrahan. “ACR’s innovative methodologies in sectors such as agriculture and forestry will diversify offset sourcing options for ICROA clients while continuing to provide essential confidence in offset quality.”
“As the first voluntary carbon registry in the world, ACR has a 15-year history of working with carbon market pioneers such as ICROA member companies” says Mary Grady, ACR director of business development. “The ACR team is proud to be recognized by ICROA for the environmental integrity of our standard and the quality of ACR-registered offset projects. We look forward to working with ICROA to expand carbon market activity in the U.S. and internationally through innovative, large-scale emissions reduction offset projects as well as increased developing country market access and participation.”
ICROA’s support of robust standards for the voluntary offset market is critical: Member firms currently provide carbon offset and management services to thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of individuals. This scope of influence is expected to broaden considerably after last month’s announcement of ICROA’s integration into the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). The move will widen the number of businesses operating to best practice in the voluntary space as demonstrated by complying with the ICROA code.
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Press Contact Details:
ICROA Spokesperson: Edward Hanrahan, ClimateCare
Tel: +44 (0) 7900 566 210
edward.hanrahan@jpmorganclimatecare.com
ICROA Programme Manager Sophy Greenhalgh
Tel: +44 (0) 7967 428 247
sgreenhalgh@icroa.org
ACR Spokesperson: Mary Grady
Tel: +1 805 884 1961 mgrady@winrock.org
Notes to Editors:
About ICROA
The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) is a not-for-profit alliance of leading carbon reduction and offset providers that provides leadership and a unified voice advocating for rigorous industry standards for the voluntary carbon market. ICROA members support a reduce-and-offset approach to carbon management, and they all comply with the ICROA Code of Best Practice. The Code gives consumers confidence that companies are operating to robust procedures and that implemented carbon strategies are credible and emissions reductions are real, measureable, permanent, and independently verified – a step to the goal of reducing global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. ICROA members include Carbon Clear, ClimateCare, ClimaCount, Climate Friendly, Climate Neutral Group, co2balance, EcoAct, First Climate, targetneutral and The CarbonNeutral Company.
About IETA
The International Emission Trading Association (IETA) has been the leading voice of the business community on the subject of carbon markets since 2000. IETA’s 160 member companies include some of the world’s leading corporations, including global leaders in oil, electricity, cement, aluminum, chemical, paper, and other industrial sectors; as well as leading firms in the data verification and certification, brokering and trading, legal, finance, and consulting industries.
About the American Carbon Registry
The nonprofit American Carbon Registry (ACR), an enterprise of Winrock International, is a leading carbon offset program recognized for its strong standards for environmental integrity. Founded in 1996 as the GHG Registry by Environmental Resources Trust, ACR has 15 years of experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent online transaction and retirement reporting. As the first private voluntary GHG registry in the world, ACR has worked to set the bar for offset quality and operational transparency and continues to lead voluntary carbon market innovation.