media contact[email protected]Gold Standard ,
Press Office
Today, Gold Standard has launched its first standardised set of Model Guidelines to measure and verify the Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) changes using a clear seven-step workflow.
The new Guidelines co-authored with Seqana and Sustainable AG, support project developers, auditors and Validation/Verification Bodies (VVBs) working under Gold Standard’s existing SOC Framework Methodology. By setting consistent standards for how SOC models are applied, the Guidelines ensure results are scientifically credible while allowing projects the flexibility to reflect local conditions.
“These guidelines mark an important step forward in ensuring consistency, transparency, and scientific rigor in soil organic carbon modelling. By providing clear direction, we aim to build confidence among practitioners, policymakers, and investors, enabling soil carbon projects to deliver credible climate and environmental benefits at scale.”
said Giancarlo Raschio, Senior Specialist for Nature at Gold Standard.
Without healthy soil, life on our planet cannot thrive. It is not only a critical tool to mitigate emissions through carbon sequestration but also supports sustainable agriculture and global food security. These guidelines will set a pathway for Gold Standard certified projects to apply proven SOC models in a consistent way to deliver high-integrity climate action.
“The guidelines provide a robust scientific foundation while ensuring ease of use and universal applicability for cost-effective, scalable soil carbon modeling solutions. They enable both model-assisted and digital-soil-model-based estimates, supporting Gold Standard soil carbon projects and the evolving Nature-based Responsibility Framework.”
said Julian Kremers, Co-Founder and CTO at Seqana
Rather than a single, one-size-fits all approach, the model guidelines will take a model agnostic approach. This means Gold Standard will allow projects to choose the model best suited to their local geography, soil and climate and then follow a seven-step process that will cover projects’ objectives, model selection, data collection, calibration, validation, prediction and verification.
By combining SOC models with field measurements, projects can get scientifically credible, consistent, and conservative SOC stock estimates, gradually reducing the frequency of soil sampling and lowering monitoring costs over time.
This approach gives the project flexibility to operate according to their context whilst maintaining robust transparency and accountability in credit verification – ensuring there is no compromise on the high integrity of Gold Standard certified projects.
Read more about the SOC model guidelines on the Gold Standard website and attend the upcoming webinar - Introducing Gold Standard’s New Soil Organic Carbon Model Guidelines - featuring speakers from Sequana to learn more about the new model guidelines on October 14, at 14:00 (CEST)
