ICROA is a not-for-profit alliance of leading carbon reduction and offset companies.

FAQ

What is ICROA?

ICROA is a not-for-profit alliance of leading carbon reduction and offset organisations. It provides leadership and a unified voice advocating for rigorous industry standards. ICROA members support a reduce-and- offset approach to carbon management, and they all comply with the ICROA Code of Best Practice.

ICROA members currently serve thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of individuals.

What type of organisation is ICROA?

It is a membership-based organisation, governed by an executive committee made up of representatives from the member companies. The Climate Group is currently the secretariat. It is primarily funded by membership fees.

What are the requirements to join ICROA?

ICROA has established a Code of Best Practice for carbon management and offset companies. All ICROA members must adhere to the Code and pay membership fees.

What is ICROA's purpose?

ICROA will:

  • Support rigorous standards for the international voluntary carbon-management industry
  • Establish best practice, through the promotion of the ICROA Code of Best Practice and adherence to that Code among its members
  • Provide a credible industry voice on carbon reduction and offset policies, strategies, products, and services to governments, non-governmental organisations, policy-makers, businesses, and the media

What are the key elements of best practice to which ICROA members will adhere?

  • Measure carbon footprints according to accepted international standards
  • Set emissions reduction targets based on scientific assessments
  • Assess and implement both internal and external emissions reduction opportunities, the "reduce-and- offset" approach
  • Use credible offset projects, where offsetting is appropriate to meet emissions reduction targets
  • Be transparent in communicating emissions reduction strategies and practices
  • Use offsets that meet the following principles: Real, Measurable, Permanent, Additional, Independently verified, and Unique
  • ICROA supports offsets certified under the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation, the Gold Standard, and Voluntary Carbon Standard
  • Submit publicly available annual report demonstrating compliance with the Code

Note: For the full text of the "Code of Best Practice" go to www.icroa.org/policy

How is the ICROA Code different from the Defra Code?

The ICROA code was developed by an international industry alliance to set the best practice benchmark for carbon reduction and offset services and products. The Defra Code is a quality assurance scheme overseen by the UK government. The Defra Code appears as though it will limit the offsets it accepts to those covered by Kyoto protocols, whereas the ICROA code recognizes high quality offset standards developed by expert and respected independent organizations.

How is ICROA different from other organisations of offset providers?

ICROA is a code-compliant organisation. That means every member must adhere to the Code of Best

Practice and submit a publicly available annual compliance report. Other organizations are primarily focused on lobbying. ICROA also will engage in advocacy.

Carbon Management

What do you mean by "carbon management"?

As described by ICROA's Code of Best Practice, carbon management is a comprehensive approach to assessing and reducing an organisation's carbon footprint. Comprehensive carbon management requires:

  • Measuring carbon footprints according to accepted international standards
  • Setting emissions reduction targets based on scientific assessments
  • Reducing net CO2 emissions by
    • Achieving reductions within the organisation
    • Using real, permanent, and additional offsets

Credible Offsets

What does ICROA mean when it says "real" or "credible" offsets?

ICROA members will use only offsets that meet the following principles broadly recognised by policy leaders in carbon management:

What is the purpose of offsets?

Offsets fund effective global reductions in emissions that would otherwise not occur. They do so by channeling financial support to projects that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Consequently, offsets provide an economic way for individuals and businesses to support carbon reductions in addition to those that can be accomplished by achieving improved carbon efficiency in internal operations.

What kinds of projects provide the credible offsets that ICROA's members are selling?

ICROA supports offsets certified under the Clean Development Mechanism, Joint Implementation, the Gold Standard, and Voluntary Carbon Standard. These are widely recognised by experts and policy makers as the most rigorous standards for carbon offsets. Their criteria ensure that offsets developed under these standards are real, additional, permanent, and verified.

ICROA's members sell offsets from a variety of GHG-reducing activities, including:

  • The development of renewable energy projects
  • The capture and destruction of landfill and agricultural methane
  • Forestry projects
  • Energy-efficiency projects
  • Fuel switching: replacing fossil fuels or non-sustainable biomass with renewable energy

Where are the offset projects located?

ICROA members sell offsets from projects located around the globe. In many cases, the carbon offset project provides additional social benefits, like the reduction of indoor-air pollution or the preservation or expansion of important habitat.

How is the ICROA Code of Best Practice different from offset standards?

The ICROA Code provides guidance on the ways a carbon management company should go about its business. It sets the best practice benchmark for carbon reduction and offset services and products. The Code highlights four offset standards-certification schemes for carbon reductions bought as offsets- which ICROA consider to be high quality. These are CDM, JI, the Voluntary Carbon Standard, and the Gold Standard. The ICROA Code embraces these high quality standards by reference. The ICROA Code also requires alliance members to:

  • Measure carbon footprints according to accepted international standards
  • Set emissions reduction targets based on scientific assessments
  • Assess and implement both internal and external emissions reduction opportunities, the "reduce-and- offset" approach
  • Use credible offset projects, where offsetting is appropriate to meet emissions reduction targets
  • Be transparent in communicating emissions reduction strategies and practices
  • Use offsets that meet the following principles: Real, Measurable, Permanent, Additional, Independently verified, and Unique
  • Submit publicly available annual report demonstrating compliance with the Code

Explain how offsets fit into a company's strategy to reduce its GHG footprint.

After a company has measured its GHG footprint and determined its major sources of emission, it will determine where it can reduce emissions in its daily operations. Improving energy efficiency is a simple example. Cutting back on business travel and relying on video conferencing may be another. Such actions represent the "reduce" portion of the "reduce and offset" approach.

No company is going to be able to eliminate its GHG emissions entirely. Many companies do, however, wish to support reductions beyond those they can achieve immediately through changes in the way the business operates. This is where offsets come into play. A company may wish to offset all of the emissions resulting from business travel. By purchasing offsets, the company can compensate for those emissions by purchasing emissions reductions achieved elsewhere through an offset project.

It is important to remember that offset projects fund reductions in GHG emissions that would not have happened with the carbon finance. The company buying the offsets can, in effect, compensate for a portion of its footprint using these "offsetting" reductions.

Common offset projects include:

  • The development of renewable energy projects
  • The capture and destruction of landfill and agricultural methane
  • Forestry projects
  • Energy-efficiency projects
  • Fuel switching: replacing fossil fuels or non-sustainable biomass with renewable energy

The Value of the Voluntary Carbon Market

What is the role of the voluntary carbon market, given the existence of formal GHG regulation in the EU and increasingly in the US and Australia?

There are a number of compelling reasons to encourage voluntary carbon reduction and offset markets.

  1. The carbon market uses market mechanisms to direct investment wherever in the world it can significantly reduce GHG emissions. The international carbon market, which transcends national boundaries, is a crucial tool to achieve global GHG reductions. This market has been an essential element in the international response to climate change. The voluntary market complements the compliance market for GHG, increasing the overall effectiveness of the market approach.
  2. Individuals and many businesses are not regulated (and will not be) under GHG protocols. The voluntary market provides a powerful vehicle for those who want to do something on their own.
  3. The voluntary market is fostering innovation in the development of standards and products. This market is more adaptable than the regulated, with products and services being designed to meet the needs of individuals or particular groups of customers.
  4. Even if mandated reductions are reached, they will result in only a modest reduction in emissions in regulated countries, while countries outside of the regulated systems are increasing their emissions substantially. This situation leaves a huge discrepancy between the reductions likely to be delivered by regulation and scientific estimates of the reductions required to protect our climate. The voluntary market is important in helping to make up for this shortfall and achieving reductions below those driven by regulation.
  5. For those who believe it is necessary to bring about greater reductions in GHG than are being achieved through regulation, the voluntary market provides an effective way to accomplish that objective.

How large is the voluntary carbon market?

According to the recent Forging a Frontier: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2008 (Ecosystems Market Place and New Carbon Finance), in 2007, 42.1 million tonnes of emissions were traded in the voluntary market, with a market value of US$58.5 million; 10.7 million tonnes were directly retired.

Issues

What is ICROA's position on RFI?

ICROA is committed to reaching a robust consensus on RFI (Radiative Forcing Index), a consensus that accurately reflects scientific opinion on this contentious issue. During the post-launch calendar year, i.e. until June 2009, ICROA members are permitted to use differing RFI factors; however, members must disclose the factors that they are using. ICROA members are bound by the Code of Best Practice to agree to and apply a standard RFI within one calendar year of launch, through an open, international, and collaborative process. RFI will become a major policy area for ICROA.

What is ICROA's position on additionality?

Additionality is a fundamental criterion for any offset project. ICROA members support the offset standards included in the Code (CDM/JI, VCS and Gold Standard) as the best available tools for assessing additionality. ICROA members are committed to interpreting and using these tools in good faith and require that all projects' successful implementation and operation are dependent on the availability of carbon finance. This is reflected in the ICROA Code of Best Practice.

What is ICROA's position on sustainability?

Offset projects can have positive effects and negative impacts on social, economic, and environmental factors. ICROA members are encouraged to consider sustainable development when developing offset projects and to avoid any negative impacts. ICROA members shall disclose how they have assessed sustainability on all projects. This is reflected in the ICROA Code of Best Practice.

Membership

Who are the members of ICROA?

Currently they are, in alphabetical order:

  • Carbon Clear
  • The CarbonNeutral Company
  • ClimateCare
  • Climate Friendly
  • co2balance
  • NativeEnergy
  • targetneutral
  • TerraPass

Are you accepting new members?

Yes

Who can join?

Any reduction and offset provider that fits the ICROA eligibility criteria, is willing to commit to ICROA's Code of Best Practice, and pays ICROA's membership fee.

How will you ensure that member companies comply with the Code of Best Practice?

In becoming an ICROA member, every organisation agrees to file an annual report demonstrating their compliance with the Code of Best Practice, which will be made publicly available on the ICROA website.

Why have you created ICROA?

Because of the urgency of climate change and the importance of making sure that proposed solutions are effective, ICROA has been established to:

  • Provide industry leadership in the expanding carbon management market
  • Promote the development of sound and significant carbon-reduction policies and strategies
  • Support the rigorous standards that have been set for offsets, to ensure that carbon reductions are real, unique, additional, permanent, and verifiable

Are all the members for-profit businesses?

No. Most are, but ICROA has one not-for-profit member (targetneutral) and The Climate Group, a non-profit organisation, is currently the secretariat.

Who started ICROA?

The founding members are:

  • Carbon Clear
  • The CarbonNeutral Company
  • ClimateCare
  • Climate Friendly
  • co2balance
  • Native Energy
  • targetneutral
  • TerraPass

How did it start?

These organisations identified a clear need to provide a credible and unified voice for scientifically rigorous, verifiable, and effective solutions to climate change.

Why just the eight?

The eight founding members were known to adhere to the high standards that ICROA is promoting. In the interest of a timely launch of the organisation, the initial group was limited to eight.

What countries do you cover?

ICROA is international and covers all regions.

How can new members join?

They should contact Josh Harris or Caroline Spencer at The Climate Group to get briefed on the ICROA Code of Best Practice and expectations and to provide background on their products and services.

How can I learn more about ICROA?

For more information, contact Caroline Spencer at cspencer@icroa.org