7.21.2008 - 06:05am ET

(CSRwire) ATLANTA, GA. - July 21, 2008 -- Sterling Planet, a leader in providing innovative climate solutions, announced today an agreement to purchase what the company believes are the first Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs) issued in the U.S. marketplace. The Greenville County landfill gas utilization project is believed to be the first U.S.-based project to be verified to the Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS), issuing VCUs. VCS provides a robust, new global standard and program for approval of credible voluntary carbon offsets, or VCUs.

Sterling Planet offers clients comprehensive solutions to address climate change, including White Tag(TM) energy efficiency certificates, shifting to renewable energy and purchasing high-quality carbon offsets to support climate change mitigation goals. Sterling Planet will add the VCUs from the Greenville project to their retail carbon offset portfolio, which will be used to help companies reduce their carbon footprint in an effort to become carbon neutral.

"Sterling Planet is excited to partner with a project team so focused and dedicated to the development of the U.S. voluntary carbon market," said Mel Jones, Sterling Planet's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The VCS-certified Greenville project will help support the demand that Sterling Planet has created for credible, high-quality carbon offset solutions."

The project was submitted to one of the strictest standards available, the Voluntary Carbon Standard, which is based on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) framework under the Kyoto Protocol. Det Norske Veritas (DNV), a leader in risk management, verified the project to the VCS.

"Having completed hundreds of verification and validation projects worldwide, the verification of this landfill gas utilization project according to VCS represents an historic milestone in the further development of the U.S. voluntary carbon market", said Luc Larmuseau, DNV’s Global Director of Climate Change Services.

The project, located in Greer, South Carolina, demonstrates how landfill gas mitigation is important to addressing climate change. Although the landfill is not required by federal air quality regulations to capture and combust methane, it was still contributing to anthropogenic emissions. It is estimated that the project will prevent the emission of 6,000 metric tons of methane, or 125,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, per year over the next 10 years. The environmental benefit of this estimate would be equivalent to removing 23,000 passenger vehicles from the roads annually, based on U.S. EPA data.

About Sterling Planet

Winner of the U.S. Department of Energy 2007 Renewable Energy Marketer of the Year award, Sterling Planet is a sustainability pioneer and innovative supplier of renewable energy, energy efficiency and low-carbon solutions. Sterling Planet develops new renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction projects and offers integrated products and services to a broad client base, delivering supply- and demand-side solutions in the rapidly expanding environmental market. The company was the first green power marketer to join the U.S. Green Building Council and to set a corporate greenhouse gas reduction goal as a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Climate Leaders Partner. Since 2001, sales of renewable energy to 1,437 business clients, 54 colleges and universities, 151 government agencies, 73 utilities and thousands of residential customers have avoided 25 billon pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, which compares to taking 2 million cars off the road for a year. www.sterlingplanet.com.

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