The technical division leads and manages the Gold Standard's technical policy, knowledge, work products and processes. This includes programme-level governance and management of standards, oversight and assurance as well as non-programme technical outputs such as frameworks and guidance.

The technical team is divided into two major branches: 

• The GS4GG Programme, which includes:

  • Standard Development Management (SDM)

  • Assurance Review Management (ARM), Accreditation

  • Oversight Management (AOM)

• The Corporate programme. 

There is a third smaller branch, the Technical Delivery Office (TDO), which is responsible for budgets.

They are the keepers of Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG). They publish new methodologies, which enable project developers to lead projects to be certified by Gold Standard and issue carbon credits (GS-VERs) - Verified Emissions Reductions.

Each new methodology goes through a 30-day public consultation phase, during which it is open to comments from anyone! You can find the current open consultations (as well as older ones) on the website. After 30 days, the consultation closes, comments are reviewed, and the methodology, if approved, is published and can be used by project developers to quantify the impact of their projects and seek Gold Standard certification.

But, hold on, who verifies that project developers are actually using the methodologies correctly? How do we know projects deliver what they promise?

Projects go through a rigorous certification process, during which they must not only show that they are following the Gold Standard methodology and associated activity requirements, but also that they have proper safeguards and follow our gender sensitive guidelines (some projects take this further and seek gender responsive certification as well!)

This process is under the purview of the Assurance team.

The Assurance and Review Team is essential for maintaining the integrity and credibility of projects seeking certification under the Gold Standard. Their key functions include: 

• Project Integrity & Risk Management: The team ensures projects meet Gold Standard requirements through thorough documentation and risk assessments, covering technical, environmental, and social aspects.

• Stakeholder Engagement & Certification: They facilitate stakeholder consultations and oversee final reviews, recommending projects for certification once all criteria are met.

• Continuous Improvement & Platform Development: The team contributes to internal process enhancements and manages tools like the GS assurance platform and D-SDG Tool to improve certification efficiency.

The Accreditation and Oversight Team

Each project is verified by an independent third-party: Validation and verification bodies (VVBs). VVBs verify that projects respect the methodologies and that the results are real. Each VVB must be accredited by the Accreditation and Oversight team at Gold Standard in order to validate projects. You can find a list of all accredited VVBs on the website.

Accreditation Oversight Management makes sure we have enough Validation/Verification Bodies and auditors to provide assurance services to our project portfolio under GS4GG. We check that they are competent, well organized, and know how to audit our standard well in the sea of other standards out there.