Beyond value chain mitigation, or BVCM, is a key concept in the SBTi’s Corporate Net-Zero Standard, which is the leading net-zero framework for businesses. BVCM encourages organisations to support climate action beyond their own operations, alongside reducing their business emissions, on the journey to net-zero.

Rather than relying solely on carbon offsetting, BVCM focuses on contributing to global decarbonisation through high-integrity carbon credits. These may include projects like reforestation, renewable energy, or tree planting carbon offset initiatives that remove or avoid emissions elsewhere.

Avoidance credits come from projects that prevent emissions from being released – such as protecting forests from deforestation or funding clean cookstoves. Removal credits, by contrast, are generated when carbon is actively taken out of the atmosphere, for example through afforestation, biochar, or direct air capture. Both play important roles in carbon offsetting, but only removal credits directly lower atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. High-integrity portfolios often include a mix of avoidance and removal carbon credits.

The Verified Carbon Standard (VCS), developed by Verra, is the most widely used program for verifying carbon credits globally. It ensures that carbon offsetting projects meet rigorous requirements for additionality, monitoring, and verification.

Each tonne of CO₂e reduced or removed generates a unique carbon credit recorded in Verra’s public registry. This transparency helps buyers trust that their investments fund genuine emissions reductions and contribute to global climate goals.