Tuesday at Climate Week NYC, The Change
Climate Project (TCCP) launched the 2025
version of its certification Standard and debuted The Climate
Label — the evolution of the nonprofit’s
established climate-action certification program, Climate Neutral
Certified.
The newly launched Standard and Label will take effect beginning in 2025. The
evolution of the certification requires companies to walk their talk on
meaningful climate action — centering climate-transition funding as a critical
component of every company’s journey to net zero. Certified companies can use
The Climate Label in their marketing to signify third-party validation of their
climate initiatives.
TCCP’s multi-year, stakeholder-driven effort to develop the new framework
incorporated recent lessons from across the climate movement. The 2025 Standard
will accelerate corporate climate investment at a scale and pace that matches
the urgency of the climate crisis. Voluntary corporate action can address
persistent gaps in climate finance if more companies set an internal carbon fee
and fund GHG-reduction projects within and outside their supply chains.
Notably, the 2025 Standard takes a more inclusive approach to climate finance,
carving out the need for investments both within and beyond a company’s
operations and supply chain. To foster trust, certified companies must disclose,
in addition to their annual GHG emissions, details about their reduction plans,
transition spending, and the funding of carbon
credits
and other market-based instruments.
Consumers increasingly savvy about sustainability claims
Join us to hear insights from brands including Applegate on marketing lessons from consumer response to sustainability claims on CPG packaging, at SB'24 San Diego — October 14-17.
“Most corporate climate targets are still not backed by the requisite funding to
meet them. Meanwhile, people continue to struggle to distinguish honest
corporate climate action from
greenwashing,”
said Austin Whitman, CEO and
co-founder of TCCP. “We are confident that the updated Standard will bring about
much needed progress and clarity in the corporate climate movement.”
Leaders in climate and sustainability from NGOs and companies, together with
consumers, provided over a thousand comments on successive versions of the 2025
Standard and updated label. The framework builds on the important work of other
corporate climate initiatives including the Greenhouse Gas
Protocol, the Integrity Council for the Voluntary
Carbon
Market
and the Science Based Targets
initiative;
as well as emergent templates for climate-transition planning and reporting.
“How companies actually invest in climate action matters more than aspirational
pledges,” says Elizabeth
Strucken, Managing
Director of Corporate Partnerships at the Environmental Defense Fund. “The
transparency at the heart of The Change Climate Project’s approach can help
ensure that climate goals and promises are backed by the progress we need to see
in this decisive decade.”
As part of the development process, the draft framework also underwent detailed
beta testing with over a dozen companies to ensure its efficacy and integrity.
This set of corporate climate leaders — which includes
Allbirds,
JuneShine,
MiiR,
REI
and Winrock International — successfully met the 2025
Standard criteria and are the first to earn The Climate Label certification.
”We’ve been proud to partner with Change Climate over the last several years to
help elevate REI’s climate strategy and bring much-needed tools and guidance to
the industry,” says Greg
Gausewitz, REI’s Senior
Manager of Product Sustainability. “We’re pleased to see them launching The
Climate Label to help more businesses take accountability for their emissions
and invest in climate
solutions.”
TCCP’s certification program aims to generate hundreds of billions of dollars
for the net-zero transition by tapping the power of consumer preferences. The
Climate Label and updated Standard will begin to replace the Climate Neutral
Certified mark in early 2025.
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Sep 25, 2024 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST