INTRODUCTION

The American Carbon Registry® (ACR) is a leading GHG emission reduction and removal crediting program with over two and a half decades of unparalleled carbon market experience in the development of rigorous, science-based carbon credit standards and methodologies as well as operational experience in the oversight of project verification, registration, and carbon credit issuance and retirement reporting on ACR’s transparent registry system. ACR is a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International. Winrock works with people in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. Key to this mission is building capacity for climate change mitigation and adaptation and leveraging the power of environmental markets.

ACR was founded in 1996 as the GHG Registry by the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT) and joined Winrock in 2007. As the first private GHG registry in the world, ACR has set the bar for carbon credit quality that is the market standard today and continues to lead carbon market innovation.

In 2012, ACR was approved by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to serve as an Offset Project Registry (OPR) and Early Action Offset Program for the California cap-and-trade program. ACR’s work as a California OPR is governed by the California cap-and-trade regulation and CARB-approved compliance offset protocols.1 In 2020, ACR was approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to supply units to the Carbon Offsetting Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA)2 In 2022, ACR was approved to issue greenhouse has (GHG) reduction credits from recovered methane projects3 for use for compliance with the State of Colorado’s Clean Heat targets. In 2023, ACR was approved by Washington State’s Department of Ecology to Serve as an OPR for the Washington’s Cap and Invest Program4 The ACR Standard governs only the registration of projects under ACR-approved methodologies

Acr Governance

The ACR program is built on principles of accountability, transparency, responsiveness, and participatory processes. ACR is governed by Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), a wholly-

1 The California cap-and-trade regulation (Subchapter 10 Climate Change, Article 5, Sections 95801 to 96022, Title 17, California Code of Regulations) and currently approved compliance offset protocols are available at http://www.arb.ca.gov/cc/capandtrade/capandtrade.htm

2 ICAO Eligible Emissions Units: https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/CORSIA/Pages/CORSIAEmissions-Units.aspx https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/CORSIA/Documents/TAB/CORSIA%20Eligible%20Emissions%20Units_March2023.pdf

3 Capturing and Destroying Methane from Coal and Trona Mines in North America v1.1 and Landfill Gas Destruction and Beneficial Use Projects v2.0

4 https://ecology.wa.gov/Air-Climate/Climate-Commitment-Act/Cap-and-invest/Offsets owned nonprofit subsidiary of Winrock International The ERT Board of Managers assumes fiduciary responsibility for the organization and ensures activities contribute to its mission of harnessing the power of markets to improve the environment

The Acr Standard

The ACR Standard details ACR’s requirements and specifications for the quantification, monitoring, and reporting of project based GHG emission reductions and removals, independent third-party verification by accredited entities, project registration, and issuance of serialized carbon credits on a transparent registry platform. The Standard establishes the quality level that every project must meet in order for ACR to register its GHG emission reductions and removals as tradable environmental assets.

ACR aims to maximize flexibility and usability for Project Proponents while maintaining the environmental integrity and scientific rigor necessary to ensure that projects developed against its standards and methodologies are recognized as being of the highest quality, whether used for voluntary compliance purposes.

Adherence to the ACR Standard and associated methodologies will ensure that project-based carbon credits represent emission reductions and removals that are real, measurable, permanent, in excess of regulatory requirements and common practice, additional to business-asusual, net of leakage, verified by a competent independent third party, and used only once.

Applicability

Project Proponents wishing to develop a project for registration on ACR shall follow this Standard and must apply an ACR-approved methodology (as defined below).

The ACR Standard v8.0 supersedes the ACR Standard v7.0 (December 2020). Any project listed subsequent to July 1, 2023, must follow all requirements of and be validated against the ACR Standard v8 0 New projects listed prior to July 1, 2023, may be validated according to a previous version of the ACR Standard, as applicable at the time of listing

Project eligibility is subject to the conditions of the ACR Standard version under which the project was listed and confirmed upon validation5 . A Project’s eligibility criteria, as established by the ACR Standard version under which it is validated6 along with the relevant methodology-specific eligibility criteria, are considered static until the project undergoes a subsequent validation as applicable.

5 Should the Standard be updated to a newer version between Project listing and validation, it is encouraged that the Project be validated under the updated version of the ACR Standard.

6 Tables 2 and 4 of this document