ESMC First User of SustainCERT’s Innovative Value Chain Decarbonization Platform
5 June 2023
Providing agriculture supply chains with access to scalable solutions to accurately verify and track the decarbonization impact of Scope 3 projects
SustainCERT, a global leader in climate impact verification, and Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) are pleased to announce ESMC as the first user of SustainCERT’s market-first value chain decarbonization impact solution.
ESMC has been collaborating with SustainCERT since December 2020 to accelerate value chain decarbonization throughout North American agricultural systems. This is the latest milestone for ESMC’s Eco-Harvest market program, which was validated and verified according to the Value Change Initiative Guidance in 2022 by SustainCERT. Validation and verification provide assurance that the greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts from ESMC’s interventions are aligned with annual Scope 3 GHG inventory reporting – which in turn allows Eco-Harvest to undergo more streamlined annual verification.
A world first, SustainCERT’s platform of software and services combines climate and environmental accounting expertise with industry leading technology to accurately verify, track and co-claim emission reductions and removals from a value chain project (also known as an ‘intervention’). It provides companies with the ability to account and claim GHG impact from interventions and enables the transfer of GHG impacts – verified by SustainCERT’s auditors – between supply chain partners and other eligible entities. This allows ‘co-claiming’ of shared Scope 3 intervention outcomes, which when verified, can show progress towards reporting a company’s Scope 3 targets. This concept means companies can co-invest in GHG reductions and removals in their supply chains, share costs of decarbonization, and scale action faster.
Agriculture needs to close an 11-gigaton GHG emissions gap to hold global warming below 2 degrees while feeding 3 billion more people by 2050. ESMC’s Eco-Harvest market program was designed to cost-effectively and sustainably address how to scale solutions to reduce agriculture’s GHG and environmental footprint while also increasing agricultural resilience and regenerative agricultural system outcomes. ESMC’s unique supply chain and public-private partnership business model allows for member co-investment and cooperation at scale, while recognizing and rewarding producers for the public benefits resulting from environmental stewardship on private lands. By collaborating with SustainCERT on this digital solution for corporate carbon reporting, Eco-Harvest impact units will have 3rd party verification to underscore their validity.
Marion Verles, CEO of SustainCERT said:
“We are delighted to have achieved this significant milestone with ESMC to be able to provide agriculture value chains with a solution to unlock scalability and credibility in climate action.
“This enables corporates in a value chain to invest in the same decarbonization program, while ensuring their reporting is accurate, credible, and representative of on-the-ground impact. Meanwhile, the solution also makes sure that everyone is recognized for their efforts. This creates real incentives for co-investment and the scaling of Scope 3 action.”
Debbie Reed, ESMC Executive Director said:
“ESMC’s market program incentivizes agricultural GHG emissions reductions and increased soil carbon, and our MRV quantifies outcomes. SustainCERT’s verification platform ensures our Scope 3 agricultural supply chain outcomes are scientifically rigorous. Working with SustainCERT to develop and deploy this platform creates a capstone for our market program solution for corporations in the food and beverage sector.”
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About SustainCERT
SustainCERT is a climate impact verifier, bringing credibility to climate action. Our offer combines established independent climate expertise with innovative, cutting-edge digital verification solutions.
We provide impact validation and verification services for carbon markets and value chains. Founded as an independent standalone organization in 2018 by Gold Standard, SustainCERT’s approach aligns with and contributes to leading international sustainability frameworks – including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Gold Standard and Science Based Targets Initiative.
In 2023 SustainCERT is launching the world’s first software platform for digital verification and management of climate claims across carbon markets and value chains. Verifying against globally recognized standards, the digitization of this process will accelerate the speed, accuracy and quality of data measurement used for carbon credits and GHG impacts.
SustainCERT is also the co-founder of the Value Change Initiative, a multi-stakeholder forum bringing together some of the world’s largest companies, leading civil society actors and internationally recognized frameworks to collectively focus on defining best practice for Scope 3 emission reductions at scale.
About Ecosystem Services Market Consortium
ESMC/ESMRC is a non-profit public private partnership that is transforming decarbonization along the agricultural supply chain through collective action. Our 70+ 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 (credits) to corporates. www.ecosystemservicesmarket.org
