The winners of Environmental Finance's 2021 Voluntary Carbon Market Awards have been announced.
The annual awards seek to recognise and reward the work of voluntary carbon market specialists, highlight best practice and thought leadership in the carbon offsetting world.
The winners were selected via an online survey, in which companies were emailed and asked to nominate the leading service providers active in the voluntary carbon markets. Voters were asked to make their judgements on the basis of: efficiency and speed of transaction; reliability; innovation; quality of service provided and influence on the market, not just the volume of transactions handled.
More than 2,000 completed responses were received.
Notable winners included:
- South Pole, winner of Best Project Developer in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Blue Carbon
- Kanaka Management Services, winner of Best Advisory/Consultancy, Best Project Developer, Forestry and Land-Use and Best Project Developer, Overall
- Redshaw Advisors, winner of Best Trading Company and Best Offset Retailer
- Verra, winner of Best GHG Crediting Programme and Best Registry Provider
New categories included:
- Best Project Developer – blue carbon (Winner: South Pole)
- Best GHG Crediting Programme (Winner: VCS, Verra)
- Best Monitoring Report – refers to best-in-industry examples of project monitoring reports that record emissions reductions alongside additional or wide-ranging impacts and co-benefits for a region, project-area or local community, such as UN SDG impacts. (Winner: The BCP Impact Report 2020)
- Best Carbon Exchange (Winner: AirCarbonExchange)
- Best Market Innovation – refers to a product, tool, offering, development or solution that has benefited the evolution of the voluntary carbon market (Winner: The CBL Global Emissions Offset (GEO))
The Best GHG Crediting Programme category replaced the former category of Best Voluntary Standard, to acknowledge the additional services provided by standards bodies such as independent auditing, project methodologies, accounting and/or registry services.
The winners were:
| CATEGORY | WINNER |
|---|---|
| Best Trading Company | RedShaw Advisors |
| Best Advisory Consultancy | Kanaka Management Services |
| Best Law Firm | Gabeiras & Asociados |
| Best Verification Company | EPIC Sustainability Services |
| Best Wholesaler | ClimatePartner |
| Best Broker | Numerco |
| Best Project Developer, Renewable Energy | South Pole |
| Best Project Developer, Energy Efficiency | South Pole |
| Best Project Developer, Forestry and Land-Use | Kanaka Management Services |
| Best Project Developer, Public Health | ClimateCare |
| Best Project Developer, Blue Carbon | South Pole |
| Best Project Developer, Overall | Kanaka Management Services |
| Best Offset Retailer | RedShaw Advisors |
| Best GHG Crediting Programme | VCS (Verra) |
| Best Registry Provider | Verra |
| Best Monitoring/Impact Report | The BCP Impact Report 2020 |
| Best Carbon Exchange | AirCarbonExchange |
| Best Market Innovation | The CBL Global Emissions Offset (GEO) |
| Best Individual Offsetting Project | BCP's Luangwa Community Forest Project |
| Best Corporate Offsetting Programme | Microsoft: Carbon negative by 2030 |
| Best Initiative | The LEAF Coalition |
Environmental Finance spoke to the winners more in depth about the market's rapid growth over the last year, how an explosion in demand has transformed it from a buyer's market to a seller's market, as well as rising trends they see developing in the future.