Who we are
Who trusts us
What we offer
How we create environmental assets
How we add value
Our qualifications and experience

Who We Are

The American Carbon Registry® (ACR) is a leading non-profit U.S. carbon market registry As the first private voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) registry in the U.S., ACR boasts over a decade of operational experience in development of high quality carbon offset standards and protocols, carbon offset issuance and serialization and transparent on-line transaction reporting. ACR has issued over 30 million carbon offsets and in 2008 was the most widely used voluntary carbon market registry in the world.

In 1996, market-oriented environmental experts at the Environmental Defense Fund founded the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), which launched the GHG Registry, now known as the American Carbon Registry. The American Carbon Registry and Environmental Resources Trust joined Winrock International in 2007, expanding the Winrock team of climate change, forestry, clean energy, agriculture, biofuels and carbon market experts.

Who Trusts Us

Today, the American Carbon Registry is one of the largest and most respected online registries in the U.S. voluntary and pre-compliance carbon markets. A host of Fortune 500 companies as well as non-profit organizations and mission-driven institutions trust us with their carbon accounting and registry needs.

We work with major U.S. companies in key emitting sectors as well as with companies with corporate social responsibility objectives, providing a transparent platform to record over-the-counter (OTC) offset transactions and retirements and register corporate GHG inventories.

For information on members and membership please go to our membership page.

What We Offer

Members can also report their verified corporate GHG inventories (“carbon footprint”) and corporate emissions reductions on the Registry. 

The American Carbon Registry’s services include:  

Asset / "ERT" Creation

• Project eligibility screening
• Project registration
• Offset issuance, serialization and tracking

Registry & Market Services

• Development of carbon offset standards, methodologies and tools
• Review of carbon offset methodologies and tools developed by third parties
• Approval of methodologies via scientific peer review
• Over-the-counter (OTC) transaction facilitation
• Transparent retirement
• Corporate inventory reporting accounts

For more information on membership and registry services pricing, please go to our membership page.

How We Create Environmental Assets

A carbon offset becomes an Emissions Reduction Ton (“ERT”) when ACR has confirmed the project meets its standards and that a reduction or removal is real, additional, permanent, that ownership is incontestable, and that no leakage takes place elsewhere in the environment. An “ERT” becomes a tradable environmental asset once the ACR assigns each offset a unique serial number, and posts the “ERT” in the Member’s account. On paper the asset exists as a certificate with the serial numbers, total tonnage, verifier name and signature, and information on project location, owner name and address, and vintage year.

In order to ensure the high quality of offsets, the American Carbon Registry accepts only projects that meet our ACR published standards and are independently verified by an approved verifier. ACR allows the flexibility of using other approved methodologies and tools for GHG measurement from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). 

The American Carbon Registry promotes innovation to bring new offset types to market. If we have not published a methodology for a project type or if one does not yet exist, the project developer may submit the proposed methodology to the Registry for approval via scientific peer review. Upon approval, the American Carbon Registry may publish the methodology for future use.

How We Add Value

Transparency, clear ownership and environmental integrity drive today’s U.S. voluntary and pre-compliance carbon markets. The American Carbon Registry offers trusted solutions to the carbon market, promising to register only the highest quality offsets. Our published standards exceed industry standards on environmental quality while providing commercial flexibility. 

The American Carbon Registry provides the transparency often lacking in today’s market with regard to publically accessible carbon offset registration information, including reporting the standards used to quantify and qualify the offsets, as well as corporate inventory and carbon transactions reporting. Our double entry accounting framework and online transaction log guard against double counting and double selling of offsets in the marketplace.

The Registry brand is the imprimatur of low risk and high quality. We add value by helping Members to position themselves in the voluntary market and to earn early-action credit towards future federal and international GHG regulatory programs. 

Our Qualifications & Experience

Members of Winrock staff who oversee the Registry include a co-Nobel Peace Prize recipient for her contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Team members are leaders in clean energy, methane capture, agriculture practices, land use change, afforestation, reforestation, forest management and avoided deforestation as well as scientists, ecologists, economists, policy analysts and business professionals. They have co-authored carbon project protocols for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 1605(b) program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the California Energy Commission (CEC), the World Bank, the International Tropical Timber Organization, United Nations organizations and the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) among others.    

In 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency commissioned ERT to develop the U.S. federal government’s guidelines on corporate GHG accounting, Corporate GHG Verification Guideline (2005). 

The American Carbon Registry is also a leader in supporting emissions trading in the U.S. voluntary carbon market. In 1998, the Registry facilitated the world’s first international emissions trade between Niagara Mohawk and Suncor Energy. Since then we have registered over 30 million project-based carbon offsets and facilitated trading and retirement of over eight (8) million tons. Please see our Carbon Registry page for the most up-to-date information.