Harmonizing corporate Scope 3 accounting through the Verra-SustainCERT partnership

SustainCERT and Verra announced a new Scope 3 partnership at Climate Week NYC in September 2024. The partnership aims to accelerate corporate climate action through collaboration on developing credible Scope 3 accounting. It will leverage SustainCERT's auditing capabilities and leading work since 2018 and combine them with the concepts, processes, and infrastructure of the Scope 3 Standard (S3S) Program Verra is currently developing to enable companies to credibly report, track, and co-claim impact of interventions to significantly scale Scope 3 action.

The partnership between SustainCERT and Verra signifies a milestone for harmonizing the Scope 3 landscape, bringing together leading actors in the space to offer companies consistent guidance on Scope 3 accounting. The partnership recognizes SustainCERT’s leading work in developing Scope 3 concepts and auditable requirements for companies to report on their progress on Scope 3 emissions. Meanwhile, Verra will leverage its knowledge and experience from managing the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program to develop new third-party auditable requirements for its S3S Program, as well as standardized science-based methodologies, processes, and infrastructure to ensure interoperability between the VCS and S3S Programs.

As part of this partnership, SustainCERT and Verra will collaborate on standardizing terminology, joint communications, and technological developments. SustainCERT will participate in Verra’s S3S Program Development Group, contributing inputs based on our value chain interventions work with companies. In parallel, SustainCERT will continue to develop our value chain offering so that it aligns with Verra’s S3S Program, as well as offer our clients future-proof solutions for collaborating on Scope 3 emissions. We will develop an interface to connect SustainCERT’s value chain verification platform with a Scope 3 section on the Verra Registry to unlock credible Scope 3 impact allocation and claims. Furthermore, SustainCERT and Verra will collaborate to produce transition guidelines for SustainCERT’s clients who wish to use Verra’s Scope 3 Standard Program. Learn more about the partnership below.

Addressing Scope 3 emissions is crucial to reach global climate targets, as they often represent the majority of companies’ emissions. Companies are increasingly measuring, disclosing, and acting to reduce their Scope 3 emissions, but Scope 3 action remains a significant challenge and requires collaboration across multiple actors in the value chain.

Lack of consistent guidance has been a key barrier for companies to have the confidence to invest in value chain solutions, in addition to Scope 3 accounting and reporting challenges. Stakeholders are seeking greater assurance, transparency, and standardization for Scope 3 accounting and reporting of interventions, as well as the supporting infrastructure for tracking the corresponding units that represent the impact of these interventions. Being able to quantify and unitize credible Scope 3 impact is a key priority to enable companies to share costs, collaborate with partners, and report the generated impact, helping scale Scope 3 investment faster.

Through this partnership, each party brings their respective expertise to drive ambitious Scope 3 action, supporting companies to meet their science-based targets and scale investment in value chain interventions.

Verra has a long-standing position as manager of the leading greenhouse gas crediting program in the voluntary carbon market. Since 2022, the mission-driven non-profit has been researching and developing their S3S Program to bring their expertise and methodologies into the Scope 3 space. The S3S Program aims to address the existing challenges and gaps in Scope 3 accounting, and to provide the level of rigorous accounting and reporting of Scope 3 interventions that can help unlock immediate and large-scale investment in value chain climate action.

When launched, the S3S Program will certify value chain interventions and issue units for use in companies’ emissions reporting. It will include a S3S Program Standard, science-based and standardized quantification methodologies, a robust third-party auditing and certification system, and a Scope 3 section on the Verra Registry.

Meanwhile, SustainCERT has worked with companies by verifying emission reduction projects in the Food & Agriculture and Apparel & Footwear sectors since 2018. SustainCERT’s Verification Requirements for Value Chain Interventions describe guiding principles and requirements for the verification of interventions aimed at creating reportable Scope 3 GHG reductions and removals. Through our research and development work coupled with close engagement with leading companies, civil society organizations, and corporate reporting standards, we have developed a unique understanding of challenges faced by companies which we bring to the development process of Verra’s S3S Program.

Furthermore, SustainCERT hosts the Value Change Initiative (VCI), which co-creates guidance with its members based on practical solutions on the ground. Since 2017, VCI has developed several guidance documents to assist companies to quantify, claim, allocate, and account for Scope 3 action. VCI is currently hosting multiple working groups and labs where Verra participates as an observer.

The partnership consists of three distinct workstreams, each of which will support harmonizing and scaling Scope 3 action.

Workstream 1: Standardization of terminology

While harmonization is starting to emerge, the Scope 3 accounting landscape remains a complex space with many new terms and concepts. Under this workstream, SustainCERT and Verra will collaborate to enhance standardization of terminology and definitions of key concepts, as well as best practices in the field of Scope 3 emissions accounting.

The rules of Scope 3 reporting are being defined by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and GHG Protocol in their updates to the Corporate Net Zero Standard and Scope 3 Standard, respectively. Our work will reference these developments to increase consistency across the Scope 3 landscape. The GHG Protocol offers the basis of inventory accounting rules, but does not yet provide sufficient guidance on how to integrate mitigation outcomes from interventions into existing Scope 3 inventories.

Verra is currently working on writing a Scope 3 Standard and adapting some of its Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program methodologies to tailor them for the purpose of Scope 3 intervention accounting. Collectively, the Standard and methodologies will enable interoperability with Verra’s VCS Program. This will create flexibility for companies wishing to make claims under frameworks such as the SBTi (Scope 3 targets and Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM)), the GHG Protocol, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Initiative (VCMI) (e.g., Scope 3 Flexibility Claim), and ISO (e.g., Net Zero, Carbon Neutrality).

SustainCERT will develop its value chain services in alignment with Verra’s S3S Program developments. Furthermore, SustainCERT will continue to contribute in Verra’s S3S Program Development Group comprised of diverse industry experts and corporations that are sustainability leaders in their respective sectors, while Verra will continue to participate in the VCI working groups and labs as an observer. In the future, SustainCERT will provide guidance on how our clients may transition to the Verra S3S Program, if they meet Verra’s S3S Program requirements and wish to do so.  Future joint publications may also introduce the arising consensus on definitions.

Workstream 2: Joint communication activities

Companies are increasingly measuring and reporting their Scope 3 emissions, impacted by upcoming regulations, consumer and investor demand, and voluntary target frameworks such as the SBTi. To grow this momentum and build trust and credibility in the market, SustainCERT and Verra will engage in joint communication activities for the duration of the partnership. This may include joint publications, engagement at industry events, and press releases as required by the ongoing projects.

Workstream 3: Collaboration on technological developments

Under the partnership, SustainCERT and Verra will collaborate on technological developments to maximize synergies and drive innovation in the Scope 3 space. This may include interfaces between respective platforms and registries, with the aim of creating cohesive systems that streamline the achievement of Scope 3 targets, interventions, verification and certification. Companies that wish to certify their Scope 3 projects according to Verra’s S3S Program will be able to use SustainCERT’s value chain verification platform to unlock Scope 3 inventory claims.

Verra anticipates publishing the first version of the S3S Program in 2025. At that time, we aim to provide transition guidelines and a digital interface between SustainCERT and Verra’s respective platforms. In the meanwhile, SustainCERT will continue to contribute our expertise to the development of the S3S Program through the Program Development Group, and offer validation and verification services to enable credible Scope 3 action. SustainCERT and Verra will work together closely to align on arising definitions and jointly publish the outcomes.

Scope 3 action is crucial for companies to meaningfully reduce their emissions by 2030 and reach Net Zero by 2050. Learn more about our Scope 3 work: