Verra, the world's largest issuer of voluntary carbon market credits, opened applications this week for project developers seeking to issue a new instrument it calls Scope 3 Units — environmental attribute certificates (EACs) that let companies claim emissions savings from supply-chain investments against their value-chain inventories.

The registry plans to issue its first Scope 3 Units next year. Within roughly three years, Verra expects "dozens, if not hundreds" of projects generating millions of the units, according to Stefan Jirka, the nonprofit's director for agriculture and supply chain innovation. For scale: Verra currently administers more than 2,500 projects issuing credits under its voluntary carbon market standard.

Why Scope 3, and why certificates

Scope 3 emissions — those from a company's value chain rather than its own operations — typically make up the bulk of corporate carbon footprints. They are also the hardest to abate, because companies hold limited leverage over suppliers. EACs offer a workaround: buyers can count emissions savings toward Scope 3 inventories even without demonstrating a direct supply-chain connection to the project they funded. Instead, purchasers must meet a less stringent association test — for example, showing they source from suppliers in the region where the project operates.

Corporate uptake has been gated on standard-setter approval, and that barrier moved in June. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) signed off on the approach in its update to the Corporate Net-Zero Standard. PepsiCo cited that decision when it included EACs in its 2025 emissions statement, released last month.

A crowded field, no common rulebook

How many companies follow PepsiCo remains an open question. SBTi's June decision confirmed EACs can count toward emissions targets, but no single rulebook governs which credits companies may buy or how they must book them in carbon accounts.

Multiple players are building overlapping infrastructure. The cross-sector Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform has published guidelines. The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is still developing its position on credit use. On the commercial side, Athian issues EACs for livestock projects and S3 Markets operates an EAC registry.

That proliferation has pushed industry insiders into early-stage conversations about an overarching set of rules others could build from, according to one participant in those talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity because plans remain preliminary.

Verra's methodology pipeline

Verra is not starting from zero. The organization adapted two existing methodologies — agricultural land management and low-carbon concrete production — so developers can use them to generate Scope 3 Units from day one. Additional methodologies covering forestry, industrial fuels, superpollutants and refrigeration projects will follow, Verra said. In parallel, the organization is drafting rules that will govern which companies are eligible to purchase specific units — a demand-side control that will shape how the market matches supply with corporate buyers.

The concrete and agriculture methodologies signal where the first tonnage of Scope 3 Units will come from: materials streams and agricultural supply chains, the two categories where Verra already holds approved quantification frameworks.

What decides what happens next

Three milestones now set the pace. First, Verra's first actual issuance of Scope 3 Units next year will test whether adapted methodologies clear review and attract developer volume. Second, the Greenhouse Gas Protocol's forthcoming position on EAC accounting will determine how buyers book the units — and whether SBTi's June opening widens into a full accounting standard. Third, the informal talks on overarching rules will either consolidate into a single framework or leave the market fragmented across Verra, AIM Platform guidance, Athian and S3 Markets.

Until the Greenhouse Gas Protocol rules land, buyers face accounting risk on every EAC purchase. The registry opens; the rulebook is still being written.