Nature based solutions have rightly risen on the agenda for climate mitigation and resilience, biodiversity conservation, and other sustainable development benefits. As part of our 2025 Strategy, Gold Standard will dramatically expand our Land Use efforts to ensure the highest quality in nature based approaches to carbon removals, while enabling rapid scaling across emerging innovative activities like soil carbon and blue carbon.
This expansion starts today. We are delighted to announce the launch of our Soil Organic Carbon Framework Methodology for carbon credit issuance as well as a project-ready Improved Tillage Practices module, the first activity-specific module under its banner. Find out more in our webinar "Soil Organic Carbon: A new climate solution" or view the presentation on the Soil Organic Framework.
An Improved Grasslands Management Activity Module is also in development. The flexible structure features all relevant requirements and applicability conditions at the framework level, allowing project proponents to propose new Activity Modules for Gold Standard approval under an accelerated timeline.
The framework features the possibility for multiple credible approaches to be used to calculate sequestration using either primary data, relevant peer-reviewed academic research, or IPCC2 default factors that account for uncertainty. This flexibility allows for a broad range of project eligibility rather than disqualifying projects that would not have been able to get complete primary data.
Corporate Sustainability: Emission reporting for company value chains
This Soil Organic Carbon Framework Methodology currently focuses on projects for carbon credit issuance, but can be recalibrated for reporting purposes only for those companies wishing to sequester soil organic carbon within their value chains and credibly account for those in their Scope 3 inventories. In this way, it is complementary to our Scope 3 Soil Organic Carbon Guidance under the ValueChange programme and our collaboration with the Science Based Targets Initiative to define the role of carbon removals within carbon markets and beyond corporate boundaries. View Mars Soil-Smart Wheat Chain ValueChange case study here.
Climate + Development Finance: Accounting for NDCs
Countries can also use the Framework to accurately account for their soil organic carbon sequestration activities and report them toward their nationally determined commitments under the Paris Agreement.
Contact us
We invite project developers to bring forward their soil carbon projects to SustainCERT or Activity Modules for Gold Standard review.
General questions – or activity module approval
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Eligibility or clarification questions – or project certification
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