The year in which an entity (company, brand, etc.) expects to achieve certification. The 2025 Standard applies to the 2025 Certification Year

The time period of the GHG inventory. Typically this is the calendar year that precedes the Certification Year, although entities may choose a 12-month fiscal year period instead

Business Emissions Evaluator - the GHG management software platform developed and provided by The Change Climate Project

Brand License Agreement - an agreement signed by the certifying entity and The Change Climate Project, outlining the annual certification requirements that must be met in order to grant the entity a license to use registered marks, including The Climate Label, for marketing purposes

Climate Transition Budget - a company’s minimum total required one-year investment in qualifying projects to accelerate the net-zero transition. Creates financial structure and transparency for corporate climate transition plans. Calculated by multiplying total cradle-to-customer emissions by the internal carbon fee.

$15 per tonne for the 2025 certification year. Used to calculate a certifying entity’s annual Climate Transition Budget

Value Chain Abatement - a category of projects that have a principal goal of reducing GHG emissions within a company’s direct operations or supply chain

Beyond Value Chain - a category of projects that take place outside of the company’s operations and supply chain, and are often accessed through a financial purchase or investment in a market-traded instrument

Other Contributions - a category of projects that build capacity for the just climate transition within the certifying entity or across the broader market, and/or enable broader system change to accelerate the global net-zero transition

Tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent - a unit of measurement that normalizes different greenhouse gasses (GHGs) in terms of CO2, based on the differences in the warming effect, or global warming potential (GWP), of each gas

Life Cycle Assessment - a systematic analysis of the potential environmental impacts of a product, process, or service during its entire life cycle, including production, use phase, and end-of-life disposal

A production input (material, ingredient, or process) that represents a “business-as-usual” choice for a given product

A production input (material, ingredient, or process) with lower embodied greenhouse gas emissions, such that switching from a conventional to a preferred material input would reduce an entity’s GHG inventory

A period of four consecutive quarters during which the investments in VCA projects are allocated and spent. Typically the VCA period is the same as the Emissions year, but may overlap with the Certification year, up to the date of submission

Environmental Attribute Certificate - a tradable instrument that represents the environmental improvements caused by a project. EACs are created when a project is underway and verified according to independent standards. They are “issued” by the project developer and often offered for sale to buyers.
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Projects that generate EACs often generate other outputs, such as electricity, biofuel, or “green” steel. “Bundled” EACs are sold along with the project’s outputs. “Unbundled” EACs are sold separately from the project’s outputs.

Renewable Energy Certificate - a type of EAC that is generated by a clean or renewable energy project. May be referred to with different names or acronyms depending on the region, such as zRECs, iRECs, and GOs.

Marginal Abatement Cost - the amount of money it takes for an entity to reduce the next tonne of greenhouse gas emissions. Typically expressed in dollars per tonne of CO2e ($/tCO2e), and often estimated across a range of potential reduction projects to compare their cost effectiveness

Greenhouse Gas Protocol - a global Standard for greenhouse gas accounting that establishes accepted practices for measuring emissions from private and public sector operations, as well as value chains and mitigation actions

Science-based Targets Initiative - an independent nonprofit organization that develops standards, tools and guidance for entities that are setting GHG emission reductions targets aligned with what is needed to reach global net-zero emissions by 2050

The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market - an independent nonprofit governance body that aims to set and maintain a global standard for high quality and integrity in the voluntary carbon market

The Change Climate Project - the independent nonprofit organization that administers The Climate Label and the underlying Certification Standard