International Carbon Reduction & Offset Alliance (ICROA)
LONDON and ARLINGTON, Va., July 21, 2011 – The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) announces today its recognition of American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, as an approved ICROA carbon offsetting standard.
The International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance (ICROA) has become synonymous with best practice in the voluntary carbon market and all members only use offsets verified under the most widely respected compliance and voluntary standards. ICROA companies follow a code of best practice that provides confidence that resulting offsets are real, verified, permanent, additional and unique and that sets guidelines for how such offsets are sold.
ICROA’s selection of approved offset standards includes the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation, the Gold Standard, the Verified Carbon Standard, the Climate Action Reserve and the American Carbon Registry.
“ICROA has approved ACR as a standard because the offset methodologies and practices for verification meet our strict criteria,” said ICROA Co-Chair Edward Hanrahan. “ACR’s innovative methodologies in sectors such as agriculture and forestry will diversify offset sourcing options for ICROA clients while continuing to provide essential confidence in offset quality.”
“As the first voluntary carbon registry in the world, ACR has a 15-year history of working with carbon market pioneers such as ICROA member companies” says Mary Grady, ACR director of business development. “The ACR team is proud to be recognized by ICROA for the environmental integrity of our standard and the quality of ACR-registered offset projects. We look forward to working with ICROA to expand carbon market activity in the U.S. and internationally through innovative, large-scale emissions reduction offset projects as well as increased developing country market access and participation.”
ICROA’s support of robust standards for the voluntary offset market is critical: Member firms currently provide carbon offset and management services to thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of individuals. This scope of influence is expected to broaden considerably after last month’s announcement of ICROA’s integration into the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). The move will widen the number of businesses operating to best practice in the voluntary space as demonstrated by complying with the ICROA code.
