ESMC Issues Verified Impact Units for Corporate Agricultural Supply Chain Buyers
ESMC’s Eco-Harvest agricultural Scope 3 project Impact Units, verified by SustainCERT, provide corporates certainty to claim soil carbon removals and greenhouse gas reductions
January 25, 2024: Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC)’s Eco-Harvest is one of only two agricultural carbon programs to achieve 3rd party SustainCERT validation and verification for project Impact Units. SustainCERT conducted a rigorous audit of Eco-Harvest project outcomes for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and removals to be used for corporate partner agricultural supply chain reporting. Eco-Harvest Impact Units, and supporting programmatic documentation, are listed on SustainCERT’s VIVID platform.
These Impact Units are measured and verified outcomes from Eco-Harvest agricultural supply chain carbon projects. SustainCERT’s third-party validation and verification demonstrates that Eco-Harvest outcomes from on-farm regenerative agriculture projects are credible, verified, and aligned with corporate Scope 3 GHG reporting standards and guidance. Corporate buyers of Eco-Harvest outcomes, including ESMC members, can invest in GHG reduction and removal projects with the assurance that their investments have real impacts.
ESMC’s Eco-Harvest market program was designed to collectively engage shared corporate approaches to reduce agriculture’s GHG and environmental footprint while delivering claimable outcomes to corporations investing in regenerative agriculture. This is the latest milestone for the Eco-Harvest program, which received program validation and verification according to the Value Change Initiative Guidance in 2022 by SustainCERT.
Marion Verles, CEO of SustainCERT said: “We are delighted to collaborate with ESMC as they lead the way for the industry to take credible climate action and bring them one step closer to decarbonizing agricultural supply chains. Our role as a verifier is crucial to ensure that intervention impact reporting is accurate, credible, and representative of their on-the-ground impact. We are confident that ESMC’s achievement will further incentivize agricultural GHG emission reductions in the sector, and we look forward to the role Impact Units play in this.”
Debbie Reed, ESMC Executive Director said, “Eco-Harvest generates credible, verified Scope 3 claims from regenerative agriculture that corporate members, partners, and stakeholders in the agricultural supply chain can purchase to represent improvements in agricultural supply chain GHG emissions. SustainCERT program validation and Impact Unit verification ensures our Eco-Harvest program Impact Units adhere to the highest standard for decarbonization solutions in the agricultural supply chain. Our co-investment model allows multiple partners to make valid claims for soil carbon removals and GHG reductions achieved in Eco-Harvest projects.”
Corporates seeking to participate in ESMC projects or purchase Eco-Harvest Impact Units can contact ESMC at info@ecosystemservicesmarket.org.
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Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC)/Ecosystem Services Market Research Consortium (ESMRC) is a non-profit agricultural supply chain market program. Our innovative public-private partnership is transforming decarbonization along the agricultural supply chain through collective action and shared investments. Our 60+ member organizations spanning the agricultural supply and value chains have collaboratively invested, tested, and launched a harmonized, standardized ecosystem services market for agricultural supply chains. Eco-Harvest, ESMC’s voluntary market program, is an accredited end-to-end digitized solution to decarbonize agriculture and to meet additional natural resource needs of corporates who are making significant investments and operational changes to achieve standards-based, reportable outcomes documenting their progress annually. The program incentivizes, quantifies, and verifies (through independent third-party experts) carbon, greenhouse gas and water outcomes annually, paying farmers from the sale of Scope 3 outcomes (impact units) to corporates. www.ecosystemservicesmarket.org.
