Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS)

Launched by the Climate Group in 2005, the VCS provides validation and verification for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Offsets under the VCS are used for carbon offsetting purposes. The voluntary market for carbon offsets has grown rapidly with the increasing desire of businesses and citizens to offset their carbon emissions. In addition to those within the NoCO2 program, other organisations with plans to become carbon neutral include Price Waterhouse Coopers, HSBC, News Corporation, Yahoo and Google. The leadership shown by such organisations has had significant effects down the supply chain, with many smaller companies and individuals pledging action to reduce their emissions.

The VCS accepts projects that have applied CDM methodologies to quantify their emissions savings, as well as those that have been double verified against their own ‘VCS Standard’.

The VCS is used by many CDM project developers to claim carbon offsets from projects that commenced prior to their official CDM registration date. As VCS units are much cheaper than CDM units, most projects only claim VCS units for the time up until their CDM registration.

The VCS is also used by smaller projects which do not generate the emissions savings to justify the financial outlay for CDM.

If you are interested in pursuing opportunities under the VCS, then please contact us.