Scope 3 Standard

Investors and regulators, environmental and business risks, and voluntary target-setting initiatives (e.g., Science Based Targets initiative, SBTi) are urging companies to abate their Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.

Scope 3 emissions, also known as a company’s indirect or value chain emissions, often represent the majority of a company’s emissions and are therefore critical to reduce. These emissions arise from upstream and downstream activities in a company’s value chain (e.g., from the upstream production and transportation of materials used in its production processes or the downstream use of its productsgoods or services).

While efforts to abate Scope 3 emissions, as well as initiatives to regulate them, are growing rapidly, stakeholders are seeking greater assurance, transparency, and standardization in the accounting and reporting of value chain projects, as well as the supporting infrastructure for tracking the corresponding units that represent the impact of these projects.

Verra will be launching the Scope 3 Standard (S3S) Program to address these challenges and gaps, and to provide the rigorous certification of value chain projects that can help unlock immediate and large-scale investment in value chain climate action. 

The S3S Program is being rolled out in stages:

• Version 1.0 of the S3S Program includes an innovative suite of harmonized requirements and guidance for the accounting and reporting of projects that reduce value chain emissions. It enables projects to pipeline-list S3S projects on the Verra Registry, using one of two available methodologies (S3S-VM0042 Improved Agricultural Land Management and S3S-VM0043 CO₂ Utilization in Concrete Production).
• Version 1.1 will address the auditing component of the program with requirements and guidance for validation/verification bodies (VVBs) to conduct third-party validations and verifications. It will also enable project proponents to register their S3S projects and be issued S3Us into their registry accounts.
• Version 2.0 will enable a company to demonstrate that it has a verified value chain connection to a good or service affected by a S3S project. Once established, a right-to-report enables a reporting company to be issued reportable S3Us (based on a verified allocation method) for use in the company’s Scope 3 emissions reporting.

Verra’s Scope 3 Standard Program enables companies to take impactful and credible value-chain climate action. By offering a consistent approach to addressing value chain emissions, the program fills a critical market gap, helping companies scale up efforts to mitigate their carbon footprint.

Verra invites sponsors to support the operation and further development of this program.

If you are interested in being a trailblazer and supporting the S3S Program, email the S3S Program Team.

Verra’s Scope 3 Standard (S3S) Program establishes the infrastructure for registering Scope 3 projects and certifying their climate impact by providing the following:

The Scope 3 Standard lays out the robust requirements and guidance for the implementation of value chain projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

S3S projects are subject to rigorous assurance of GHG emission reductions and carbon dioxide removals via an accessible and rigorous third-party auditing and certification system.

Standardized and sector-specific GHG quantification methodologies lay out consistent and transparent accounting and measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) procedures Registry System.

The Verra Registry facilitates the transparent issuance and tracking of S3Us to project proponents and reportable units to companies that demonstrate a value chain association to a good or service affected by a project.