Verra

Verra is committed to helping reduce emissions, improve livelihoods and protect natural resources across the private and public sectors. We support climate action and sustainable development with standards, tools, and programs that credibly, transparently and robustly assess environmental and social impacts and enable funding for sustaining and scaling up these benefits. We work in any arena where we see a need for clear standards, a role for market-based mechanisms and an opportunity to achieve environmental and social good.  

Verra was founded in 2005 by environmental and business leaders who saw the need for greater quality assurance in voluntary carbon markets. We now serve as a secretariat for the various standards we develop and programs we manage, as well as an incubator of new ideas that can generate meaningful environmental and social value at scale. The strategic direction of Verra is set by both staff and the Verra Board of Directors. Our headquarters are in Washington, DC, and we have staff working remotely in various parts of the world. Verra is a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.

Verra develops and manages standards and frameworks to vet environmental and sustainable development efforts, build their capacity and enable funding for sustaining and scaling up their benefits. By ensuring that our standards are robust, practical and transparent, we can accurately quantify benefits and drive investment in responsible, high-performing projects and programs. We work closely with civil society, governments, and the private sector to develop novel frameworks and enable results on the ground. We continue to bring our expertise in standard development and program management from our flagship voluntary carbon market program into new fields, to increase the scope and scale of our impact.

All of our programs undergo extensive stakeholder consultation and expert review and draw from four key components: standard,  independent assessment, accounting methodologies, and registry.