Verra seeks a qualified consultant to develop two greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting methodologies for sustainable food systems: one to be used in Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, and the other to be used in Verra’s nascent Scope 3 Standard Program. Verra’s food systems work is the first of its kind globally, and these two methodologies will be innovative, pioneering frameworks.
Globally, the food system is responsible for around 26 percent of anthropogenic GHG emissions and 90 percent of deforestation, in addition to being the primary driver of biodiversity loss. Shifts in food demand downstream can lessen the impact of food production upstream, leading to reduced ecosystem conversion, lower GHG emissions, and freed-up land for reforestation and ecosystem restoration. Food system interventions, such as reducing food loss and waste (FLW) and shifting to planetary healthy diets (i.e., increased consumption of plant-rich foods and decreased consumption of animal sources), are important GHG mitigation solutions with co-benefits for nutrition, health, biodiversity, and more.
The selected consultant will first develop a sustainable food systems methodology to be used in Verra’s VCS Program. This comprehensive methodology will quantify upstream emission reductions (i.e., emissions associated with food production) from food systems interventions. The methodology will incorporate the procedures from the recently released VM00046 Methodology for Reducing Food Loss and Waste, which quantifies downstream emission reductions from reducing FLW, to create a single modular framework that can quantify impact across the entire food supply chain.
The consultant will then adapt the VCS Program methodology to develop a second sustainable food systems methodology for use in Verra’s Scope 3 Standard Program, in close collaboration with Verra’s Scope 3 Standard Program Team.
Please see the Request for Proposals (PDF) for further details, including the scope of work, deliverables, timeline, and required skills and qualifications to apply.
Proposals are due by December 1, 2023, to Karina Bautista, Senior Program Officer for Nature-Based Innovation (kbautista@verra.org).