Project Types

Forestry

These projects focus on maximizing land use as natural carbon sinks to remove and trap carbon from the atmosphere, in the form of forests and soil. These are referred to as Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) projects.

LULUCF projects include:

Avoided deforestation - Preventing deforestation of existing forests.
Reforestation - Restoring forests in areas that have been previously deforested.
Afforestation - Creating forests in areas that have not previously contained forests in the recent history.
Soil management - Projects that aim to increase the amount of carbon that can be contained in the soil of a particular area.

Wind & Solar

Wind power or wind energy is the use of wind to provide the mechanical power through wind turbines to turn electric generators and traditionally to do other work, like milling or pumping. Wind power is a sustainable and renewable energy, and has a much smaller impact on the environment compared to burning fossil fuels. Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV), indirectly using concentrated solar power, or a combination. Concentrated solar power systems use lenses or mirrors and solar tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic effect.

Livestock Methane

The methodology quantifies emission reductions associated with the introduction of anaerobic digestion technologies at a dairy farm. Biogas created through the digestion process can either be flared or beneficially reused to, for instance, produce electricity. Centralized digesters whereby manure is conveyed from a group of farms to a digester facility are eligible.

The methodology is applicable under the following conditions:

Manure or the waste streams obtained after treatment are not discharged into natural water resources (e.g. river or estuaries);
The annual average temperature at the project site is greater than 41°F;
In the baseline scenario, the retention time of manure waste in the anaerobic treatment system is greater than one month, and if anaerobic lagoons are used in the baseline, their depths are at least 1 meter;
No methane recovery and destruction by flaring or combustion for beneficial use takes place in the baseline scenario.

Finally, the methodology employs a performance standard for additionality whereby a project is deemed additional so long as there is no regulation impacting the project that requires the collection and destruction of methane from livestock manure.

Industrial Gas

Many industries use gasses that can cause significant amounts of greenhouse gas emission during the manufacturing process. Examples include Chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) used in refridgeration and cooling systems, aerosol sprays and other systems as well as gasses used during the production of the foam used in a variety of products.

These types of projects focus on modifying the manufacturing process to prevent the release of the gases with a high impact on climate change. This can include everything from introducing systems to capture and monitor for the release of these gasses to switching to alternative gasses with significantly lower impacts on the environment.

Landfill Gas Capture

The collection and combustion of landfill gas (LFG) is an effective method for reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that would have otherwise been vented to the atmosphere. The ACR methodology provides the quantification and accounting frameworks, including eligibility and monitoring requirements for the creation of carbon offset credits from the reductions in GHG emissions resulting from the destruction or utilization of landfill gas at eligible U.S. landfills.