Ecosystem Service Market Consortium and SustainCERT team to deliver certified Greenhouse Gas Impacts

SustainCERT and the Ecosystem Service Market Consortium (ESMC) announce their partnership to deliver streamlined, certified carbon assets that can be used by Consortium members to satisfy their voluntary greenhouse gas reduction commitments. The ESMC is building a national-scale ecosystem services market designed and conceived for the agricultural sector. With a full market launch in 2022, ESMC seeks to enroll 30 percent of available working lands in the top four crop regions and top four pasture regions to impact 250 million acres by 2030. With SustainCERT’s focus on providing streamlined certification for multiple claims and ESMC’s ability to deliver agricultural programs at scale, this partnership aims to meet companies’ needs for credible, verified impacts to achieve Science-based Targets and Net-Zero goals.

ESMC will submit their new Ecosystem Services Market Protocol for approval to Gold Standard, the benchmark standard for climate action, with guidance from SustainCERT. When approved, the protocol will be able to generate carbon credits and reporting claims under Gold Standard’s Value Change Program. In parallel, ESMC and SustainCERT will work to create a streamlined verification pathway to certify the impacts of its member programs for either carbon credits or value chain "Scope 3" carbon footprint reductions. The rigor of the accounting protocols combined with impact verification will enable companies to maximize the return on their climate investments, and to channel resources to high-impact climate action more effectively.