ANSI Partners With ACR For Greenhouse Gas Accreditation Program

Washington, DC - /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ - As part of its continuing commitment to enhance the accreditation program for greenhouse gas (GHG) validation and/or verification bodies (V/VBs), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the American Carbon Registry (ACR).

Non-profit ACR, the first voluntary carbon offset program in the U.S. and now in its fifteenth year of operation, focuses on environmental integrity and transparency in standards and reporting. The organization develops science-based carbon offset standards and methodologies and provides an electronic registry system for members to record the purchase, sale, and retirement of project-based offsets.

ANSI is coordinator of the U.S. standards and conformity assessment system and administrator of an accreditation program for third-party bodies working to validate and verify GHG emission assertions for a broad spectrum of industries. Seventeen V/VBs have been accredited under the program to date.

Through the MoU, ACR and ANSI pledge to cooperate in the ANSI accreditation program for GHG V/VBs. This program evaluates conformance of V/VBs against ISO 14065, Greenhouse gases – Requirements for greenhouse gas validation and verification bodies for use in accreditation or other forms of recognition.

Organizations seeking to provide validation and/or verification for ACR projects will be required to attain accreditation by ANSI. In addition, these organizations will be assessed against additional requirements as specified by ACR.

"ANSI is proud to partner with the American Carbon Registry on this important initiative," said Lane Hallenbeck, vice president of accreditation services for ANSI. "The rapid growth of ANSI's greenhouse gas accreditation program is evidence of the recognition by organizations nationwide of the importance of monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and the value that ANSI accreditation brings to the process."

About ANSI
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private non-profit organization whose mission is to enhance U.S. global competitiveness and the American quality of life by promoting, facilitating, and safeguarding the integrity of the voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. Its membership is comprised of businesses, professional societies and trade associations, standards developers, government agencies, and consumer and labor organizations. The Institute represents the diverse interests of more than 125,000 companies and organizations and 3.5 million professionals worldwide. The Institute is the official U.S. representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and is a U.S. representative to the International Accreditation Forum (IAF).

About ACR
The American Carbon Registry (ACR) is a leading voluntary offset program with strong standards for environmental integrity and over a decade of experience in the development of high quality carbon offset standards and methodologies as well as operational experience in carbon offset issuance, serialization and transparent on-line transaction reporting. Founded by Environmental Defense Fund and Environmental Resources Trust in 1996 as the GHG Registry, ACR has issued over 30 million project-based carbon offsets, setting the bar for transparency and integrity that is the market standard today. ACR joined Winrock International in 2007.

SOURCE American National Standards Institute