Resilient Planet, Sustainable Livelihoods

The Infrastructure Platform for nature markets, bringing trust, speed and flexibility to nature-based solutions

Infrastructure for Nature

Social Carbon is the infrastructure platform for nature markets, turning credible nature outcomes into finance-ready assets.

We combine science-based methodologies with integrated technology across the project lifecycle — from project screening and design through certification, verification and issuance. Our interoperable infrastructure enables projects to access multiple pathways to nature finance, including offsetting, supply-chain insetting and Nature Stewardship.

By reducing the cost, complexity and risk of bringing nature projects to market, we help projects scale faster, strengthen trust for buyers and investors, and unlock more capital for climate, biodiversity and communities.

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What makes us different?

Social Carbon combines rigorous science, innovative nature-market pathways, and automated workflows to turn nature projects into finance-ready assets — accelerating delivery, reducing risk, and building buyer confidence.

We uniquely provide modular, interoperable pathways across carbon, insetting and biodiversity markets. This enables projects to be structured at landscape, supply-chain and community levels and allows them to evolve with buyer demand, policy shifts and financing needs, creating multiple routes to revenue.
Our systems and digitised workflows support projects to get to market faster, reducing project costs, accelerating impact and de-risking delivery. At the same time, they reduce uncertainty for project funders and give us a materially lower cost base than competitors.
All our methodologies embed scientific rigour across climate, biodiversity and community outcomes. They are designed for complex nature systems, enabling credible projects, stronger safeguards and faster integration of new science as markets and local contexts evolve. Our technical assets and market innovation strengthen integrity beyond market standards and reduce delivery risk.
Our approach is grounded in the Sustainable Livelihoods framework. Projects assess and monitor impact across six resource areas: biodiversity, natural, human, social, financial and carbon.
This ensures projects are truly holistic, supporting the foundations for lasting environmental outcomes: healthy ecosystems, resilient communities and sustainable local economies.
SOCIALCARBON was the first voluntary carbon standard developed in the Global South. Its roots trace back to the Bananal Island Carbon Sequestration Project in Brazil, where it became clear that nature-based climate action must include local people if it is to endure.
That founding principle still shapes SOCIALCARBON today. Our standards are designed for real-world project conditions, especially in emerging markets where many of the world’s most important nature-based solutions are located.

Accreditations

Pilot phase

ICVCM - Pending

Delivering Sustainable Livelihoods.

Our approach is based on the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA), a methodology used for planning the development of new initiatives as well as assessing the contribution that existing initiatives have made to sustaining livelihoods.

“A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets both now and in the future, while not undermining the natural resource base.”

Latest

Nature Stewardship Framework live

Published: 28th January 2026
Social Carbon Foundation (SCF) today announced the launch of the Nature Stewardship Framework (NSF), a new, science-backed framework to measure, verify and finance biodiversity and community outcomes across nature-based projects — independently or alongside carbon.

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New Support for Project Developers: SOCIALCARBON Pre-Feasibility Service Now Live

Published: 15th December 2025
Social Carbon Foundation is proud to announce the launch of a new suite of services tailored to support carbon project developers worldwide. This strategic initiative is a response to feedback and requests from our global network of project proponents, aiming to simplify early-stage project planning and improve access to robust methodology support.

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Social Carbon Foundation Launches Groundbreaking Methodology to Put Smallholder Farmers at the Center of Global Climate Finance

Published: 17th November 2025
Social Carbon Foundation is proud to announce the launch of SCM0011, a pioneering methodology specifically designed to unlock equitable climate finance for smallholders.

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Nature³ Launched

Published: 30th July 2025
The Social Carbon Foundation today announced the official launch of Nature³, marking a pivotal moment in the evolution of environmental certification. Nature³ builds upon over two decades of the Foundation’s commitment to holistic climate action, introducing a next-generation standard designed to meet the urgent and complex demands of today’s climate and nature crises.

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Nature Stewardship Framework public consultation launched

Published: 6th February 2025
The Social Carbon Foundation is proud to announce the launch of its Nature Stewardship Framework (NSF) Version 1.0, an innovative approach to scale nature-based solutions beyond carbon markets. The framework is open for a 60-day public consultation, inviting feedback from industry experts, Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LCs), and the broader environmental community.

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Social Carbon Foundation launches first-of-its-kind Insetting framework for public consultation

Published: 9th December 2024
Social Carbon Foundation announces the release of its groundbreaking Insetting Framework for public consultation, running from 9 December 2024 to 31 January 2025. Designed to address a critical gap in the insetting space, this groundbreaking framework provides clear, actionable guidance for Forest, Land, and Agriculture (FLAG) project types, fully aligned with the GHG Protocol Scope 3.

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New methodology launched for Peatland Restoration

Published: 16th August 2024
SOCIALCARBON publishes a new methodology and module for the restoration of peatland. The first module enables the quantification of emission reductions from the rewetting of drained peatland on agricultural land in temperate climatic regions.

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Seeing the forest from the trees

Published: 15th November 2023
This report analyses the current landscape of Afforestation / Reforestation / Revegetation (ARR) in the voluntary carbon market, whilst also highlighting opportunities for improvement.

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Blockchain and the carbon markets

Published: 20th July 2023
This paper assesses the potential value Blockchain can deliver to the carbon markets, current approaches taken by market participants, and then outlines how SOCIALCARBON and Wilder Earth have approached the utilization of Blockchain and the rationale for doing so.

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Embedding Biodiversity Monitoring into Nature-Based Solutions

Published: 13th June 2023
The loss of biodiversity is considered one of the most pressing environmental issues facing the planet today. It has far reaching consequences for ecosystems and society in general.
This paper assesses the need for biodiversity monitoring for successful nature-based solutions, outlining the models available and how SOCIALCARBON approaches biodiversity.

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