Sterling Planet Offers Green-e Climate Certified Carbon Offset Product

Corporate Social Responsibility Press Release

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7.28.2008 - 01:23pm ET

News from: Center for Resource Solutions

Sterling Planet Offers Green-e Climate Certified Carbon Offset Product

Center for Resource Solutions announces new Green-e Climate Certified greenhouse gas emission reduction product offered from a U.S.-based VCS-certified project

(CSRwire) SAN FRANCISCO, CA. - July 28, 2008 — The Center for Resource Solutions announced today that Green-e(R) Climate, the nation's first independent certification for carbon offset products, has certified a retail carbon offset product offered by Sterling Planet. This product meets or exceeds Green-e Climate's strict standards for project verification and measurement, consumer transparency, and truth-in-marketing claims, and will be granted the use of the Green-e Climate logo.

Sterling Planet's product is sourced from a Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) certified landfill gas utilization project located in Greer, South Carolina. It is, according to Sterling Planet, the first U.S.-based VCS certified project to be publicly announced. VCS is a program that standardizes and provides transparency to the voluntary carbon offset market and is based on the Clean Development Mechanism framework under the Kyoto Protocol. This is the first domestic methane carbon offset product available through Green-e Climate.

"We are pleased to have Sterling Planet offering its customers a Green-e Climate Certified offset product," said Lars Kvale, manager of the Green-e Climate program. "By adding a domestic landfill gas utilization project to its portfolio, Sterling Planet is supporting the mitigation of one of our biggest sources of domestic methane-a harmful greenhouse gas-while also promoting local solutions to climate change." Green-e Climate is a consumer-protection program requiring that greenhouse gas emission reductions be verified according to strict project-level certification that ensure the reductions have taken place, are permanent, and come from projects that would not have happened under a "business as usual" scenario.

Sellers of Certified offsets must provide customers with a product content label that explains where the reductions were sourced from, including the locations and types of projects, such as renewable energy, forestry, and methane capture. Sellers must also undergo a yearly audit to ensure their supply of offsets matches their sales, and comply with Green-e Climate's consumer-disclosure and truth in advertising requirements.

"Sterling Planet is excited to support the continued development of the retail carbon offset market with our offering of a Green-e Climate Certified product," said Mel Jones, president and chief executive officer of Sterling Planet. "This independent certification is important to our customers and verifies that carbon offsets result in real, permanent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere."

About Green-e Climate and Center for Resource Solutions

Green-e Climate is the nation's first certification program for greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions (carbon offsets) sold to consumers on the retail market. This consumer-protection program strengthens the voluntary market by providing credible oversight of and transparency to retail offset products. Consumers purchasing Green-e Climate Certified offsets have clear information about the projects their GHG reductions are sourced from, and are guaranteed that offsets have not been double sold or double counted. The program verifies that a seller's supply of offsets equals their sales, that GHG reductions are independently certified and verified, and that consumer disclosures are accurate. Find out more at www.green-e.org/climate.

Green-e is a program of the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), a San Francisco-based nonprofit with a global impact. CRS brings forth expert responses to climate change issues with the speed and effectiveness necessary to provide real-time solutions. Our leadership through collaboration and environmental innovation builds policies and consumer-protection mechanisms in renewable energy, greenhouse gas reductions, and energy efficiency that foster healthy and sustained growth in national and international markets.

About Sterling Planet

Winner of the U.S. Department of Energy 2007 Renewable Energy Marketer of the Year award, Sterling Planet is a sustainability pioneer and innovative supplier of renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon solutions. Sterling Planet develops new renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction projects and offers integrated products and services to a broad client base, delivering supply - and demand - side solutions in the rapidly expanding environmental market. The company was the first green power marketer to join the U.S. Green Building Council and to set a corporate greenhouse gas reduction goal as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Leaders Partner. Since 2001, sales of renewable energy to 1,437 business clients, 54 colleges and universities, 151 government agencies, 73 utilities and thousands of residential customers have avoided 25 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, which compares to taking 2 million cars off the road for a year. www.sterlingplanet.com.