Greenhouse Friendly™
The Greenhouse Friendly™ initiative has been operating since 2001 to certify carbon neutral products and services and approve abatement credits for sale on the voluntary market, including to Greenhouse Friendly™ certified product and service providers.
Greenhouse Friendly™ has been an effective and successful avenue for participation in the voluntary carbon market in Australia.
Introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (the Scheme) has implications for Greenhouse Friendly™. The Scheme will have broad sectoral coverage, which means there will be less scope to pursue offset activities with offsets limited to emissions sources uncovered by the Scheme. This means the Scheme will impact on the types of abatement that can be provided, because abatement in sectors covered by the Scheme will no longer be additional to “business as usual”.
For these reasons Greenhouse Friendly™ will wind up on 1 July 2010.
Greenhouse Friendly™ certification of carbon neutral products and services will continue to operate until 1 July 2010. Applications for new abatement projects have closed. Abatement may be generated by current Greenhouse Friendly™ abatement providers up to 1 July 2010, and may still be sold and purchased after that date.
The Government has made a commitment to develop a National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) to provide national consistency and give consumers confidence in the voluntary carbon offset market. The NCOS will provide the function of Greenhouse Friendly™ in a way that complements the Scheme.
Progress
On 4 February 2009, it was announced that Greenhouse Friendly™ will finish on 1 July 2010.
Applications for new abatement providers closed on 27 May 2009.
Certification of carbon neutral products and service will continue until 1 July 2010.
Greenhouse Friendly™ product and service providers will be able to continue development of carbon neutral products and services under the National Carbon Offset Standard by meeting the requirements under the Standard.