The Green-e® certification program promotes the use of high-quality renewable electricity and EACs by providing environmental standards and consumer protection to support consumers’ choices to purchase and use renewable electricity. The program has offered guiding principles to expanding renewable energy markets for over 25 years, first launching in the U.S. and Canada, where it is the leading certification of its kind, and more recently in Singapore, Chile, and Taiwan R.O.C.
The Green-e® Renewable Electricity Standard for International Certification (the “International Standard”), provides criteria for Green-e® certification that can be applied in selected electricity markets, through the development of a Market Appendix for each new country or electricity market.
The International Standard adds a layer of quality and market growth criteria on top of existing renewable energy tracking systems, allowing compliance with many other international programs and demonstrating consumers' commitment to the most impactful renewable energy purchasing.
The International Standard will not replace any Green-e® certification standards that already apply to particular countries or regions, but instead allows certification of renewable electricity and EAC transaction in certain new markets, to be determined by CRS. CRS is currently investigating the possibility of Market Appendices for Japan and South Korea, allowing for Green-e® certification of renewable energy transactions in those countries for the first time.
CRS has also developed a Terms of Reference (“TOR”), which lays out the goals of the International Standard and the key issues that it would address. These include market need, sustainability, comparison to and compatibility with other existing relevant standards (e.g. RE100, CDP, LEED), implementation risk, and how to address such risk. The TOR also discusses how certification under the International Standard will be structured, how that differs slightly from Green-e® Energy certification under other current standards and how certification interacts with renewable energy tracking systems.
CRS has a broad mission to create policy and market solutions to advance sustainable energy around the world. Robust, widely accepted standards such as this one are an effective way to further this mission, by reducing market uncertainty and increasing consistency among markets with regards to definitions, minimum requirements, and uniform accounting methodologies.
Inquiries are accepted via email at comments@green-e.org.
For further background and detail on the Green-e® Energy program, see Green-e Energy and Frequently Asked Questions.