Ecobiz.asia – Verra has launched its Scope 3 Standard (S3S) Program, a framework designed to quantify, verify and certify the climate outcomes of projects implemented within corporate value chains.
The program allows project proponents to use an independent certification framework to generate Scope 3 Units (S3Us), potentially helping channel investment into climate action across corporate value chains.
Scope 3 emissions are indirect emissions generated across a company’s value chain, including by suppliers and customers. They typically account for more than 75% of a company’s total carbon footprint.
More than 40% of the world’s largest publicly listed companies have set net-zero targets that include Scope 3 emissions. However, Verra said there has been no independent and comprehensive system to certify emission reductions and removals resulting from corporate investment in value-chain climate action.
Under the S3S Program, each S3U represents one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) reduced or removed within a corporate value chain.
The program will operate alongside Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program, allowing eligible projects to potentially issue either S3Us or conventional carbon credits. This is intended to expand financing options for projects and broaden the potential pool of buyers.
“For years, the environmental community has debated whether climate action projects belong in Scope 3 accounting and related claims at all. Companies, meanwhile, have had the ambition to act in this space regardless,” Verra CEO Mandy Rambharos said in a statement on Tuesday (Sept. 15, 2026).
“What they haven’t had is a credible, independent way to account for and report on the impacts of their actions, which is key to driving finance to this type of climate action,” she added.
Rambharos said the S3S Program applies the experience gained from the VCS Program to in-value-chain emission reductions and removals, using harmonized accounting and reporting guidance and a tracking system.
The launch of Version 1 enables project proponents to list projects on the Verra Registry using an initial set of adapted VCS methodologies covering improved agricultural land management and low-carbon concrete production.
Verra plans to add methodologies for other sectors as the program expands, including forestry, industrial fuels, super-pollutants and refrigeration.
Future updates to Version 1 will allow registration, validation and verification of projects listed in the pipeline, paving the way for the first issuance of S3Us.
Version 2 will introduce guidance and requirements for demonstrating a company’s value-chain association with an impacted product directly affected by a project. It will also establish requirements for issuing corresponding reportable units derived from S3Us, which companies can use for greenhouse gas reporting and climate action claims.
The S3S Program was developed with input from more than 100 expert stakeholders involved in Verra’s Scope 3 Initiative, launched in 2022.
The program underwent pilot testing between 2022 and 2026, involving companies and organizations including Bayer, Patagonia, 3Degrees, Klim GmbH, American Forest Foundation, Anew Climate, Elanco Animal Health, Rabobank, 12Tree, 3M, Diageo, Lestari Capital and its Rimba Collective, NatureCo and Sodexo.
Verra said additional input came from organizations including SustainCERT, corporate partners, the Scope 3 Standard Program Development Group and other collaborators.
The S3S Program is designed to complement existing corporate climate frameworks, including the Science Based Targets initiative’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, ISO Net Zero Aligned Organizations Standard (ISO 14060), the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform and the Taskforce for Corporate Action Transparency (TCAT). ***
