SPOTLIGHT

Happy Anniversary ACR: 30 Years of Climate Impact

For 30 years, ACR has helped shape the evolution of carbon markets. From establishing the world’s first private greenhouse gas crediting program and issuing the world’s first serialized carbon credits, to helping pioneer the next generation of carbon crediting, ACR has worked to build the standards, infrastructure, and trust needed to scale climate action.

In recognition of our anniversary, we created an animated video highlighting 30 years of climate impact.

Watch the video

SPOTLIGHT

2026 ACR Climate Impact Awards Celebrate Action

Late last month, ACR recognized trailblazing individuals and organizations for their commitments to climate action at its 2026 ACR Climate Impact Awards, which has been held annually for nearly 20 years. The 2026 ACR Climate Leadership Award was presented to Susan Biniaz, a lawyer and U.S. climate negotiator who is widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of international climate policy, including the Paris Climate Agreement. ACR also recognized 1PointFive and REI Co-Op with awards.

“These award winners demonstrate that action is an antidote, especially in challenging times,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “From international climate policy to corporate climate achievement and project-level actions, these leaders show the vast array of opportunities to take practical steps forward to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We thank each of the award winners for their tireless dedication.”

Read about the award winners and view event photos

ACR UPDATES

Framework for Remotely Sensed Quantification of Forest Carbon

Late last month, ACR published the Framework for Remotely Sensed Quantification of Forest Carbon, which prescribes quantification standards, validation guidelines and steps for employing Predictive Models based on Remote Sensing of carbon pools in ACR forest carbon projects.

Learn more and download the Framework

Improved Forest Management v2.0 Earns CCP Approval

ACR’s Improved Forest Management (IFM) on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands methodology version 2.0 earned Core Carbon Principles (CCP) approval from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) in February 2026.

Learn more

Exploring Co-Benefits Certification on Tribal Lands

The National Indian Carbon Coalition and ACR have formed a cooperative relationship to explore, design and implement a framework for certification of co-benefits associated with carbon projects on Indigenous lands in the U.S. and Canada.

Learn more

Photo credit: Stephen Taglieri

Increasing Landfill Gas Capture

LoCI Controls approached the Cumberland County, NJ landfill with an innovative idea. At first it sounded too good to be true; LoCI would install its cutting-edge, real-time data and automated control system, which would increase gas collection efficiency at no cost to the landfill. To make it possible, the landfill would become a carbon project, and the sale of credits would cover the costs.

Read the case study

Q&A with Margaret Williams, ACR Director of Co-Benefits Certification

Earlier this year, Margaret Williams, PhD, rejoined the ACR team as our inaugural Director of Co-Benefits Certification. Tasked with building a new program to verify the environmental and social benefits achieved though the development of carbon projects registered with ACR, Margaret brings experience developing carbon projects, buying carbon credits and managing standards and methodologies to her work. Notably, she served as ACR’s Technical Director and Director of Industrial Programs from 2015-2022. She holds a PhD in Atmospheric Chemistry and completed postdoctoral research at the NASA Ames Research Center and the University of California, Irvine. We sat down with her recently to ask a few questions.

Read the interview

MARKET NEWS

Branching Out – Issue 03, Winter 2025/26, in Microsoft Signal Magazine

Tradewater Announces New CEO – and New Ownership Structure – as it Accelerates Mission to Eliminate Super Pollutants – January 29, 2026, in PR Newswire

NativState Announces Verification and Release of High-Quality Carbon Credits under ACR IFM 2.1 from Two New Projects– February 10, 2026, in PR Newswire

Balance in the Olympic Rainforest: A New Model for Carbon Removal – March 12, 2026, by Patrick Nease in Sustainability at Meta

The Climate Trust Partners with Nova Scotia Working Woodlands Trust on its First Canadian IFM Project– March 18, 2026, in PR Newswire

Finite Carbon Taps Upgraded ACR Methodology For Maine Forest Carbon Project– April 3, 2026, by Theodora Stankova in Carbon Herald

Anew Climate and Aurora Sustainable Lands Issue Dynamic Baseline Credits to JPMorganChase – April 9, 2026, in Newswire

For 30 years, ACR has helped shape the evolution of carbon markets.

From establishing the world’s first private greenhouse gas crediting program and issuing the world’s first serialized carbon credits, to helping pioneer the next generation of carbon crediting, ACR has worked to build the standards, infrastructure, and trust needed to scale climate action.

Over three decades, that work has spanned science-based crediting for activities that deliver results at scale, including forest conservation and restoration, geologic carbon storage, and super pollutant mitigation. This period also saw the launch of the Architecture for REDD+ Transaction (ART) – ACR’s sister program – creating a pathway for tropical forest countries to participate in global carbon markets for protecting and restoring forests at scale.

Today, ACR has issued credits totaling nearly 375 million tons of CO2, but the need for ambitious climate action remains as urgent as ever. We are proud of what this milestone represents, and even more focused on the work ahead. Watch our 30th anniversary video.

Susan Biniaz, 1PointFive, and REI Co-op celebrated at annual awards event

SAN DIEGO – ACR recognized trailblazing individuals and organizations for their commitments to climate action at its 2026 ACR Climate Impact Awards, which has been held annually for nearly 20 years. The 2026 ACR Climate Leadership Award was presented to Susan Biniaz, a lawyer and U.S. climate negotiator who is widely regarded as one of the most influential architects of international climate policy, including the Paris Climate Agreement. ACR also recognized 1PointFive and REI Co-Op with awards.

“These award winners demonstrate that action is an antidote, especially in challenging times,” said Mary Grady, Executive Director of ACR. “From international climate policy to corporate climate achievement and project-level actions, these leaders show the vast array of opportunities to take practical steps forward to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We thank each of the award winners for their tireless dedication.”

U.S. Climate Negotiator Susan Biniaz received the 2026 Climate Leadership Award for her indefatigable dedication over more than three decades as one of the most influential architects of modern international climate policy, from the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol to Copenhagen/Cancun, the Paris Agreement, and ICAO’s CORSIA. As a lead climate attorney and highly respected negotiator for the U.S. Government, most recently as Deputy Special Envoy for Climate, Biniaz was trusted by every COP Presidency to understand diverse and often divergent government positions and to brilliantly engineer and draft solutions to achieve consensus outcomes. Through her extensive diplomatic tours, she fostered relationships with other governments and fine-tuned political compromises – including in the run up to the high-pressure negotiations of the Paris Agreement, which she is often credited with saving. Standing at the door of the Oval Office, President Obama expressed his gratitude for her efforts saying “Sue, Sue, Sue; You saved the world.”

“Thanks very much to ACR for this award and for your leadership. We negotiators may design the agreements, but organizations like ACR help bring them to life,” Biniaz said. 

1PointFive, a carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) company, received the 2026 Innovation Award for its STRATOS Direct Air Capture facility in Texas, which is designed to capture up to 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually once fully operational. The plant is currently progressing through commissioning and start-up activities. Offering a practical solution to help a variety of sectors address CO2 emissions, 1PointFive has signed carbon removal agreements with Microsoft, Amazon, JPMorganChase, All Nippon Airways and others.

“Direct Air Capture is a vital technology that will help the world address carbon dioxide emissions and provide a way to produce domestic low-carbon energy resources,” said Anthony Cottone, President and General Manager of 1PointFive. “We’re grateful to receive this honor which represents our team’s enthusiasm and dedication to delivering carbon removal at industrial scale.”

REI Co-op received the 2026 Corporate Excellence Award for longstanding climate leadership. As the nation’s largest specialty outdoor retailer and consumer cooperative, REI Co-op has long focused on reducing its carbon emissions and contributing to climate solutions. In pursuit of its Science Based Target, REI continues to achieve year over year reductions in its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions. REI has earned certification to The Climate Label, which requires brands to create and deploy a climate transition budget towards qualifying emission reductions projects within their own value chains and beyond. As part of their ongoing commitment to maintaining climate neutrality, REI also retires carbon credits each year from a variety of high-quality projects to compensate for its operational emissions.

“We’re thrilled to receive this leadership award from ACR. Protecting the future of a healthy outdoors means we have a responsibility to invest in climate action and take accountability for our ongoing emissions. The Climate Label and the voluntary carbon market remain power pathways for doing so,” said Andrew Dempsey, Director of Sustainability, REI Co-op.

Past ACR Climate Leadership awardees include Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC; John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate; Paul Hawken, environmentalist, entrepreneur and author; Mary Nichols, Chair of the California Air Resources Board; Frances Seymour, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and author; and last year, world renowned Brazilian climate scientist Carlos Nobre.

SPOTLIGHT
A Record Year for ACR

Last year, ACR issued more than 53 million emission reduction and removal credits, an increase of nearly 20% from 2024 and an annual record since we issued the world’s first greenhouse gas credits in 2002. 43% of the credits were from forestry projects and 57% were from industrial projects. The issued credits are approved for use by entities in regulated markets, such as California, Washington and ICAO’s CORSIA, as well as by corporates towards voluntary climate commitments. In 2026, we will continue to build on this momentum.

Late last year, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) approved ACR, along with sister organization ART, as one of the first four independent crediting programs to supply carbon credits for the Second Phase of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), covering the period 2027–2029. All of ACR’s active methodologies are approved for CORSIA’s Second Phase, demonstrating that ACR continues to meet the high bar for quality in the global aviation carbon market.

Throughout 2025, ACR engaged deeply with the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), earning its Core Carbon Principles (CCP) label for our Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands and Improved Forest Management on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands (IFM v2.1) methodologies. Following these accomplishments, GreenTrees (ACR114) had the first nature-based CCP-Approved credits in the world, and The Conservation Fund’s Hodag Forest Project (ACR709) was issued the first CCP-Approved IFM credits in the world. While these approvals are important steps forward, ACR will continue to engage with ICVCM throughout its assessment process with the intent of securing CCP-Approved labels across our portfolio of active methodologies.

Looking ahead, 2026 is a big year for ACR. We are celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the founding of Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), our organizational home. We will transition to a next-generation registry platform, publish version 2.0 of our Carbon Capture and Storage methodology, and build a co-benefits certification program. Each of these advances is designed to increase our collective impact and drive additional value from actions that reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions.

All of this is a testament to the exceptional work of the ACR team, the community of partners who are developing and investing in high-quality emission reduction and removals projects, as well as those ensuring robust market infrastructure and implementing policy frameworks to scale climate action globally. Across North America and around the world, carbon markets are financing climate action beyond “Business as Usual” and supporting enhanced ambition towards Paris Agreement goals.

Despite continued headwinds, I remain optimistic about the year ahead. Mostly I am grateful for the community of partners and team of experts ACR has assembled, all working to implement meaningful climate actions. In challenging times, action is an antidote. And at ACR, we are laser focused on creating ambitious climate results. Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Mary Grady

Executive Director, ACR

SPOTLIGHT
Planting a Forest Across Generations

Janie Cater’s grandfather, Grover C. Womack, first settled in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana in 1870. Establishing a family farm that operated for more than 100 years, generations of the Womack family were raised on the land. “It’s where everything happened,” Cater explained. “It’s where we rode horses, went hunting and walked with the children. I consider it a family legacy.”

Just over 1,000 acres, the farm was not fertile enough to grow cotton, the last crop the family tried. Instead, it was mostly used for grazing cattle. Then, the family was approached by GreenTrees with an opportunity to partner, offering an alternative income source via carbon credits to offset ownership costs. As a result, something different was planted, trees.

Read the case study here.

SPOTLIGHT
ACR Team in the Field

Late last year, the ACR Forestry Team held a retreat and site visit in Arkansas, including a tour of the Weyerhaeuser Razorback IFM Project (ACR885). Located in the southeastern part of the state, the project covers 56,879 acres of forestland, primarily loblolly pine stands and hardwood bottomlands. Historically managed for timber, Weyerhaeuser reduced timber production through extended rotations to increase greenhouse gas emission reductions and removals.

Weyerhaeuser owns and manages 6.4 million acres of timberlands in the southeast U.S., a substantial part of their 10.4 million acres overall. In Arkansas alone the company owns 1.2 million acres. As Frederick Weyerhaeuser stated when he founded the company 125 years ago, “this is not for us, nor for our children, but for our grandchildren.”

Our host at Weyerhaeuser was Jason Gibson, Director of Forest Carbon. With 25 years of experience at the company, Jason and his colleagues showed us around the project area. Weyerhaeuser is committed to the forest economy in the rural communities where it operates. As a result, the carbon project incentivizes climate mitigation while ensuring ensure adequate supply to mills in the region. Set in the Saline and Bayou Bartholomew watersheds, the project area is ecologically rich, with more than 100 species of fish and numerous wildlife species. In addition, the Saline River is the last major stream in the Ouachita Mountains that has not been dammed.

ACR offers our sincere thanks to Weyerhaeuser for hosting us and for generously sharing their time and expertise.

In 2025, ACR team members audited verifications of the following 16 projects:

• ACR276 – Allegheny Improved Forest Management Project
• ACR313 / CALS5263 – High Island Dairy
• ACR407 / CAMM5407 – BMMC1
• ACR545 / CAMM5545 – WMMC2
• ACR651 / CAMM5651 – CH4 – BWM Carbon Capture Project 1
• ACR751 – Green Assets – DLT Avoided Conversion Project
• ACR800 / CAMM5800 – CH4-BWM Carbon Capture Project 2
• ACR831 – LandYield Small Scale IFM Project I
• ACR917 / CAMM5917 – PMR VT2
• ACR966 – Heartland Methane Abatement and Land Restoration Project 2
• ACR1040 / CAOD1040 – Tradewater ODS 55
• ACR1067 / CAOD1067– Tradewater ODS 56
• ACR1090 / CAOD1090 – Tradewater ODS 57
• ACR1094 / CAMM1094 – RMMC1
• ACR1113 / ECYOD1113 – A-Gas 2-2024
• ACR1154 – Hay Road Landfill, Vacaville, CA: GHG Emission Reduction Automation Collection of Landfill Gas

NEWS & UPDATES

ACR Issues First IFM Credits for Washington Compliance Market

In September 2025, ACR issued more than 450,000 credits to the Rudio Mountain Forest Carbon Project (ACR1053 / ECYFR1053), in a first for the Washington State “Cap-and-Invest” market. The credits are the first to be issued to a project using the Washington State Compliance Offset Protocol for U.S. Forest Projects. 

Set on nearly 18,000 acres of forest in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, the improved forest management project was previously managed for timber production. As part of the project, the forest manager will increase rotation lengths to increase carbon stocks.

ACR is an approved Offset Project Registry (OPR) for the Washington State Cap and Invest compliance program.

Partners for Change in Peru

In a landmark collaboration, Grupo Perú and the Ministry of Environment of Perú partnered to develop the world’s first Indigenous Jurisdictional REDD+ Program under the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), earning the 2025 ACR Innovation Award.

Read the case study.

Video: Bringing Bison Back to the Blackfeet Nation

The National Indian Carbon Coalition is working with the Blackfeet Nation to develop an improved forest management carbon project to sequester carbon and steward lands for American Bison.

Watch the video.

MARKET NEWS

NativState Secures Investment from the  Inlandsis Fund to Grow its Portfolio of North American Nature-Based Carbon  Removal Projects – November 18, 2025, in Inlandis

Peatland Carbon Credits: Microsoft Invests in Pantheon to Restore Peatlands for Durable Carbon Removal – December 8, 2025, in CarbonCredits [dot] com

Anew Climate, Aurora Issue First Forest Credits Under Next-Gen Standard – December 12, 2025, in Carbon Herald

How CEOs Can Build Confidence In Carbon Credit Strategies – December 19, 2025, in Forbes

ACR offers our sincere gratitude to the organizations that retired ACR-issued credits in 2025.

Click on the image below to expand it.

On August 13th, ACR’s Improved Forest Management on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands (IFM) methodology Earned Core Carbon Principle (CCP) Approval from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM). Credits issued to projects listed under Version 2.1 of the methodology are now eligible for the CCP-Approved label.

In late September, ACR issued nearly 190,000 CCP-labeled credits to The Conservation Fund for its Hodag Forest Project (ACR709), marking both the first issuance under IFM version 2.1 and the first CCP-labeled IFM credits in the market. We expect additional issuances in the months ahead, as there are 23 projects listed under IFM 2.1 covering 680,000 acres of forestland. Earlier versions of ACR’s Improved Forest Management methodology are still under assessment by ICVCM.

In July, ACR’s Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands (ARR) methodology also earned CCP approval. For the ARR methodology, the CCP label is applied to credits issued to projects verified for conformance that plant native species on degraded lands to sequester carbon and contribute to an ecosystem with broad environmental benefits and avoid potential negative impacts. All credits issued to date under the ARR methodology meet the criteria and requirements for CCP-approval and are labeled as such. This is a total of 7,792,791 credits, including those that were retired prior to the CCP Approval Decision. These also currently represent the first and only CCP-eligible ARR credits in the market.

Four ACR methodologies have now earned CCP Approval:

• Destruction of Ozone Depleting Substances from International Sources (as of 06/06/2024)
• Landfill Gas Destruction and Beneficial Use Projects (as of 06/06/2024)
• Afforestation and Reforestation of Degraded Lands (as of 07/17/2025)
• Improved Forest Management (IFM) on Non-Federal U.S. Forestlands (as of 08/13/25)

While ACR views these approvals as important steps forward, we will continue to engage with ICVCM throughout their assessment process with the intent of securing CCP-Approved labels across our portfolio of active methodologies, which includes emission reductions and removals from nature-based and industrial solutions.

New York Climate Week 2025 was as vibrant and busy as ever, with hundreds of events around town in late September. Held annually alongside the United Nations General Assembly, Climate Week offers an important opportunity for ACR to meet in-person with many different stakeholders in one location, while also introducing our approach to high-quality carbon crediting to new audiences at various events.

This year, ACR partnered with the Nature4Climate Coalition, which hosted the Nature Hub. As part of this partnership, ACR’s communications director, Brad Kahn, moderated a panel on “Today’s Business Case for Nature-Based Solutions: Delivering Returns for Nature, Climate, and Investors.” Including leaders from Nuveen Natural Capital, TotalEnergies, Lloyds Banking Group, and Nuveen, the session focused on the growth of nature and climate-focused investment, including where trends are headed.

ACR also co-hosted a “Forests for Climate” happy hour with the Forest Stewardship Council U.S. and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. As an informal networking event, we were heartened to see more than 100 people attend, given the plethora of events at the same time. Participants appreciated the opportunity to gather with other forest-focused professionals amidst the “creative chaos” of New York Climate Week.

While we attended many events, we want to highlight one that stood out: Yale University’s session on “Leveraging Carbon Markets to Fight Super Pollutants,” which included Tim Brown from Tradewater and Ben Apple from Environmental Commodities Corporation. With a focus on potent greenhouse gases, such as methane and ozone-depleting substances, the packed session was an important reminder of the need to tackle emissions of other gases alongside CO2.

The events above are just a tiny fraction of the activities at Climate Week. IETA held its North American Climate Summit, Anew hosted a lunch on improved forest management, Weyerhaeuser gathered people to discuss natural climate solutions, the Business Alliance for Climate Action convened a roundtable on measurement, reporting and verification, and much more.

Despite concerns that this year’s New York Climate Week would be under-attended, the reality proved to be a uniquely energizing opportunity to get a feel for just how much is happening to address climate change.

If you’d like to partner with ACR at a future New York Climate Week, please get in touch with Brad Kahn (brad.kahn@winrock.org).

“Momentum” is the one-word takeaway from London Climate Action Week 2025.

The event itself doubled in size from the previous year, with hundreds of events and by one estimate, 45,000 local and international participants gathering across the city. Given London’s role as a global center of commerce and finance, and the fact that the UK Government had an open consultation on voluntary carbon and nature markets, it is perhaps not surprising that there were many events focused on carbon markets. And whereas past large gatherings centered around integrity, London events emphasized the need for pragmatic action.

The week kicked off with an excellent gathering at the Nature Hub, which was organized by Nature4Climate. The N4C team gathered a strong group of global market leaders to discuss the need for private-sector investment.

Other events ACR participated in included the Natural Climate Solutions Alliance’s session on carbon crediting standards, IETA’s carbon accounting roundtable, meetings with ICVCM, and a dinner focused on remote sensing frameworks, hosted by Chloris Geospatial.

ACR’s goal for participation was to connect with stakeholders – project developers, credit buyers, market-supporting NGOs, and government leaders – and to reinforce awareness of ACR as a high-quality carbon crediting program. London Climate Action Week offered us an excellent opportunity to advance this goal.

If you are considering whether to invest in London Climate Action Week 2026, please let Brad Kahn (brad.kahn@winrock.org) know. ACR is very likely to participate again, based on our positive experience this year.