Introducing
The Climate Label

Choose companies that choose to price their carbon.

In 2025, The Climate Label will replace the Climate Neutral Certified label.

Launched in 2019, Climate Neutral Certified has emerged as the leading independent climate action label. In 2025, it will become, simply, The Climate Label.
This evolution is happening because a stable climate demands action beyond neutrality. The Climate Label will set a new bar: a first-of-its-kind certification for companies that actively fund carbon-reducing projects based on an internalized carbon fee.
According to CDP, most companies have no plan to meet their long term greenhouse gas reduction targets. Budgets are scarce; spending even scarcer. The Climate Label requires companies to set a budget based on total annual emissions, and dedicate that budget to climate solutions. The carbon fee and budget ensures that each certified company is putting money toward the low carbon transition at a level that matches the scale of their business.
icon - consumer, an eye with The Climate Label mark in it's pupil.

For consumers

The Climate Label offers a way to identify companies that make emissions reductions a financial priority, and weed out those with empty pledges and targets.
icon - businesses, a shoe with The Climate Label tag.

For businesses

The Climate Label offers a way to differentiate your products and services, and creates a platform to highlight a range of decarbonization initiatives to your customers.

Corporate climate claims now rooted in carbon pricing

Financial accountability on display. Companies that achieve The Climate Label must use an established carbon fee to determine their minimum budget for funding the climate transition. This approach raises the bar for climate claims by centering the important question: are corporate climate leaders funding their pledges appropriately?

A big-picture approach to climate solutions

More money to more projects. Climate transition budgets may be allocated to eligible categories across operations, supply chains, and beyond-value-chain projects, subject to some guardrails. Market-based instruments such as clean energy credits and carbon removals play an important role in facilitating immediate allocation of funding.

Transparency into GHG reduction outcomes

Disclosure helps build trust. Certification requires year-on-year tracking and disclosure of emissions, along with required target-setting and action planning. This makes it possible to assess a certified company’s emissions reduction progress and priorities across their value chain.

Incentives for advocacy and climate justice

Support for the just transition. Contributions to broader system change and market transformation are recognized under the framework. Companies are encouraged to use budgets to support advocacy, policy, education, and climate justice for communities that bear an unjust burden.

Developed and tested by stakeholders and companies

To develop the 2025 Standard, TCCP incorporated recent lessons and challenges from across the corporate climate movement. We led a multi-year, stakeholder-focused effort in which leaders in climate and sustainability from NGOs and companies, together with consumers, provided over a thousand comments on early drafts of the standard and label.
The resulting framework builds on the important work of other corporate climate initiatives including the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHGP), Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM), Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), and climate transition planning initiatives.
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Embracing Transparency and Accountability

“We’ve been proud to partner with Change Climate over the last several years to help elevate REI’s climate strategy and bring much-needed tools and guidance to the industry. We’re pleased to see them launching The Climate Label to help more businesses take accountability for their emissions and invest in climate solutions.”
REI Co-op
Greg Gausewitz
Senior Manager, Product Sustainability
“MiiR is incredibly proud to be an early adopter of The Climate Label, a certification standard that has evolved with shifting global regulations to better support certified brands and drive critical climate action...Participating in the Beta Program has encouraged us to approach climate action more strategically, accelerate investments in our value chain, take bold risks, and be more creative when it comes to making meaningful, measurable results in emissions reductions.”
MiiR
Devon Richardson
Sr. Impact Manager
“Companies should check out The Change Climate Project's updated certification Standard and Label. Its design is balanced well between simplicity and robustness. It allows companies of different sizes to participate. Moreover, it’s designed to ensure companies not just set targets but have a concrete plan and internal mechanism — the Climate Transition Budget — and give confidence to investors and consumers that the company will fund the climate transition. It could serve as a standalone climate target and implementation standard or complement a company’s existing Science-Based Target.”
WinRock International
Brad Schallert
Director, Net Zero Climate Services
“The Climate Label takes a unique approach to incentivize investment in climate projects, and we are excited to be part of a small group of corporate climate leaders beta testing this new standard.”
Allbirds
Aileen Lerch
Director of Sustainability
“The new framework that The Change Climate Project has introduced through its 2025 Certification Standard has improved JuneShine's sustainability impact. By measuring and analyzing carbon emissions, we can identify operational changes that align with our certification goals...Being recognized as certified with The Climate Label not only enhances brand reputation but also clearly defines JuneShine's environmentally conscious mission of producing honest alcohol for a healthier planet.”
JuneShine
Luke Sutmiller
Sustainability Manager

Timeline for Updating our Standard

October 2023

Changed our name to The Change Climate Project (TCCP) to better represent our broader vision.

November 2023 – January 2024

Consulted hundreds of sustainability thought leaders, NGOs and companies to inform the biggest update to our consumer-focused standard and label since our founding in 2019.

February 2024

Released initial draft of the Provisional Certification Requirements for early stakeholder feedback.

March 2024

Began beta testing with a limited group of participating companies.

April 2024

Started of a 60-day public comment period to gather insights and feedback from our wider community.

May – August 2024

Collected and synthesized feedback on the Standard from beta testing period and public input. Evaluated design and wording alternatives for the certification label.

Fall 2024

Public launch of the updated 2025 Standard and label.

January 2025

Begin certifying companies under the 2025 Standard.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is the framework better than carbon neutrality?

Neutrality creates unwanted incentives for short term investment and can pit carbon credits against direct reductions. The updated Standard accounts for tighter regulations of all climate claims, and neutrality claims in particular. Breaking away from the neutrality model also enables companies to prioritize higher quality, higher cost decarbonization projects.

Is The Climate Label best for beginner or advanced climate programs?

All companies start at different places on their climate journey. The Climate Label Certification Standard meets companies where they are and tracks continuous improvement. The framework includes gradual increases to annual carbon prices and the portion of transition budgets that are dedicated to value chain investments.

What can certified companies do with their budgets?

Companies can fund an array of projects, such as low-carbon product materials, transition to low-carbon suppliers, electrification of fleets and buildings, and high integrity carbon credits. We will also recognize limited company spending on internal capacity building and actions that support climate policy advocacy and a just transition to Net Zero.

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