The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), a San Francisco–based nonprofit that verifies carbon offsets, launched a certification program for carbon offsets marketed toward consumers in late February. According to CRS, the Green-e Climate label will assure buyers of retail carbon offset products such as Bonneville Environmental Foundation's Clean Energy Offsets that they are getting what marketers promise.

Green-e Climate certification applies to the projects as well as the products sold to consumers, according to Jan Hamrin, president of CRS. Developers of projects that sell carbon offsets must meet a strict set of standards. Chief among them is “additionality”—the idea that a project would not be financially viable without selling its environmental attributes. That means the new standard isn’t likely to make much of a difference to large-scale project developers, which generally bundle renewable energy credits (RECs) with the actual megawatts they produce, says Collin Whitehead, associate developer with enXco.

The market for carbon offsets is growing, however. By 2012, global demand for offsets will range between 130 and 380 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, according to a report from consulting firm ICF International. The report also notes that the majority of those offsets will be purchased in the United States.

Whitehead says any effort to assure consumers about the offsets they are buying is good for the entire industry; an offset market based on certifications trusted by consumers will make funding more affordable, he notes. But not everyone is as optimistic about the new certification’s impacts. Large developers are dependent on the federal production tax credit and the price of natural gas to make project financing more attractive, rather than revenue from RECs.

For community-based and small-scale projects, though, the certification could be an important step towards accountability. CRS says its certification is the strictest available. According to Hamrin, product marketers verified by Green-e Climate must purchase environmental attributes from projects that meet the Gold Standard, the Voluntary Carbon Standard, the Clean Development Mechanism and the Green-e Climate Protocol for Renewable Energy. Even offsets verified by the Chicago Climate Exchange do not necessarily meet CRS’s standard, according to Hamrin.

Offset marketers also must show enough REC purchases to meet end-market sales, and prove the kinds of reductions made are the same as what they advertise. Products verified under the scheme will carry a label detailing the types and locations of projects providing the offsets.

Marketers such as Portland-based Bonneville Environmental Foundation say they’re happy with the new certification because it helps increase customers’ trust of the carbon offset market. A spokesman for the nonprofit likened the label to the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. “The value that it provides is the transparency into the process,” he said. “You have some confidence that it came from a particular project.”