Renewable Choice is committed to delivering products that provide real, quantifiable, transparent offsets. As a result, Renewable Choice has been a leader in developing and implementing verification and certification standards in the renewable energy credit and carbon offset industries. We are proud to work with the leading U.S. third-party organizations working to maintain high standards for carbon offsets and renewable energy credits in the U.S. and provide confidence to consumers.

Green-e^® Energy

Renewable Choice’s renewable energy credit (REC) products, including American Wind and Clean Source, are certified by Green-e^® Energy, the industry standard certification in RECs. Green-e Energy audits and verifies Renewable Choice, as well as our wind farm partners, guaranteeing that all renewable energy credits meet stringent regulatory and environmental additionality tests and ensures there is no double counting of credits. All of our REC products are Green-e® Energy certified (view the product content label).

The Green-e Energy program was established by the non-profit Center for Resource Solutions to provide information and an objective standard for consumers to compare renewable energy options, and to verify that consumers get what they pay for. For more information on Green-e Energy certification requirements, call 1-888-63-GREEN or log on to www.green-e.org.

American Carbon Registry Standard

The American Carbon Registry^® is a leading non-profit U.S. carbon market registry and carbon technical services provider. In 1996, market-oriented environmental experts at the Environmental Defense Fund founded the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT) and 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, and carbon market experts. As the first private voluntary greenhouse gas (GHG) registry in the U.S., the American Carbon Registry boasts time-tested integrity in high quality carbon offset registration and carbon technical services.

ERT developed the first on-line GHG emissions registry in the U.S. in the late 1990s, which is now used by the American Carbon Registry. In 1998, the Registry facilitated the world's first international emissions trade between Niagara Mohawk and Suncor Energy. Since then, they have registered over 25 million verified emissions reductions (VERs), also known as carbon offsets, facilitated trading of millions of carbon offsets and established retirement accounts for over one million offsets.

Learn more about the American Carbon Registry Standard.

Verified Carbon Standard

The Verified Carbon Standard program (VCS) provides a comprehensive, global standard for the approval of voluntary verified emission reductions (VERs), also known as carbon offsets. The VCS is the largest growing voluntary standard in the world, and follows the Kyoto Protocol and the United Nations Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This standard is recognized as credible due to its stringent quialifcation requirements and worldwide support from both industry and NGOs.

In order to qualify under VCS standards, offsets must meet the following criteria: They must have already been put in place, occur beyond simply business-as-usual practices, and be measurable, permanent, independently verified, and unique. VCS carbon offsets are issued, held and cancelled in VCS registries. VCS has approved four registries: APX, Bank of New York Mellon, Caisse des Depots and TZ1.

Climate Action Reserve

The Climate Action Reserve is a national offsets program working to ensure integrity, transparency and financial value in the U.S. carbon market. It does this by establishing regulatory-quality standards for the development, quantification and verification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction projects in North America; issuing carbon offset credits known as Climate Reserve Tonnes (CRT) generated from such projects; and tracking the transaction of credits over time in a transparent, publicly-accessible system.

Adherence to the Reserve’s high standards ensures that emissions reductions associated with projects are real, permanent and additional, thereby instilling confidence in the environmental benefit, credibility and efficiency of the U.S. carbon market.