FAQ

Sustainable Carbon uses the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Gold Standard to quantify the amount of emissions that are reduced or neutralized as the result of a project`s activity. The actual amount of tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) that are projects reduce is based upon industrial production, not the amount of biomass burned. If X bricks are produced, then it took Y tons of biomass as fuel to be burned during the fabrication process (or YY tons of native wood/heavy oil at project baseline), so Z number of carbon credits are generated. 

We sell credits that have been generated and "future" credits as well. Being able to sell credits now helps some of our clients immediately neutralize their emissions, while futures contracts help organizations build carbon neutrality into their medium and long-term business model. 

As we are project co-developers, the credits we sell are not entirely ours. They belong to both Sustainable Carbon and our fellow co-developers. Once our partners receive their portion of the carbon credits revenue, they use the methodology outlined in the SOCIALCARBON® Standard to measure and continually invest in sustainable initiatives. 

We use the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) as our "carbon accounting" standard. This standard allows us to quantify the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that are prevented from entering the atmosphere as a result of a project's activity. The SOCIALCARBON® Standard, on the other hand, is what brings the extra social, environmental and economic benefits to a project and surrounding community. Without this "co-benefit" standard, our projects would just reduce GHG emissions and not make progress towards sustainable, meaningful development. 

A carbon credit is a certification that one metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) was prevented from entering the atmosphere as a result of a project's activities. These credits are quantified via carbon-accounting standards, like the Voluntary Carbon Standard. After the amount of CO2 reduction is quantified, a third-party validator, known as a Designated Operating Entity (DOE), validates and certifies the number of tons of CO2 that is being prevented from entering the atmosphere. At that point, these emission reductions become "carbon credits" that companies can buy to offset and neutralize their unavoidable emissions. 

The carbon market is an aggregated term for both the compliance and voluntary carbon markets. Companies who operate in political zones that have regulatory obligations, such as companies in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), can buy credits from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint-Implementation (JI) projects to satisfy their emissions targets. Sustainable Carbon operates primarily in the voluntary market. Due to the fact that implementing compliance-based projects requires a lot of time (and therefore money), small and medium industry was unintentionally excluded from participating in this market. As a result, the voluntary carbon market evolved to fix the compliance market's inefficiencies. Players in the voluntary market develop carbon emission reductions projects on their own initiative (hence the name "voluntary") and companies not in compliance regimes can buy the credits generated by these projects to complement their sustainability/climate change strategies. Take a look at this article that explains the basics of carbon credits and the carbon market.