We are very grateful for and extend thanks to our partners—CRS’s program participants, committee members, attendees, and stakeholders—whose engagement, advocacy, and collaboration support our mission. They share in our success.
Despite some headwinds for the clean energy industry, CRS’s programmatic impact grew and included a number of bold new initiatives that promise to support the tracking and accounting backbone needed to facilitate tomorrow’s clean energy markets, support organizations in taking action with real environmental impact, and help other countries and regions design and build robust infrastructure to support growing renewable energy markets.
CRS has grown steadily over the last few years as we expand our scope and invest deeply in programs that have lasting impact. Our Green-e® certification programs continue to ensure integrity in retail clean energy products, more than doubling their reach in the last five years. Our Renewable Energy Markets™ (REM™) conferences grew in scope and size in both North America and Asia and continue to serve as the most important venues for leaders in the clean energy space to renew connections and collaborate on the future.
Please take a moment to read about what we’ve been working on this year, and consider lending your expertise to our common cause. Join an advisory or working group, speak at a conference or on a webinar, read our reports, comments, and whitepapers, reach out with an idea for collaboration. At CRS we have always believed that if you want to go far, go together. It is only by sharing the work and our collective expertise that we can achieve our goal of a sustainable energy future.
Best wishes for the new year, and we look forward to working with you in 2026.
Jennifer Martin
CEO
Program Updates
Green-e®
Green-e® Energy, our renewable electricity certification program, had a year of strong growth, adding new sellers and certified products and increasing certified retail volume by 14% despite headwinds from policy changes in Oregon and California that affected access to certified programs and products. Stakeholder engagement this year contributed to the development of an hourly REC certification option, launching in 2026. Green-e® staff continued the program’s expansion internationally with public stakeholder comment periods to add Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia to the Green-e® Renewable Electricity Standard for International Certification. Approximately one million retail customers now purchase Green-e® certified renewable energy, including over 78,000 businesses.
Our certification program for retail offsets, Green-e® Climate successfully navigated a challenging year for the voluntary carbon market with a 13% increase over the prior year and sales in 17 different countries. The year ended with 12 sellers in the program.
Our on-product and corporate certification program, Green‑e® Marketplace, recognizes organizations that use renewable energy in their manufacturing and operations. Overall, Green‑e® Marketplace participants purchased or generated enough renewable energy to support nearly 900 different products and consumer goods.
Green-e® Renewable Fuels continued to make meaningful progress on standards and participation. Program staff released an update to the Green-e® Renewable Fuels Standard with newly approved Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) rules to strengthen environmental integrity. CRS staff also held the first of two public stakeholder comment periods for a proposed standard update that will incorporate renewable hydrogen into the program.
Clean Energy Tracking Collaborative
The Clean Energy Tracking Collaborative (CETC, “set-see”), which launched this year, is a new initiative supporting the evolution and expansion of the energy tracking systems that will play a critical role in the transition to a clean energy economy. CETC works collaboratively with government agencies, EAC tracking systems, and market participants to identify and align emerging tracking functionalities and data needs. This year CETC transitioned from concept to a multi-stakeholder initiative with significant backing, and early commitments from eight of the nine tracking systems. We were excited to welcome two industry experts to work on CETC: Matt Clouse, formerly of the EPA and the Green Power Partnership, and Mark Teklinski, who came from CleanCounts (formerly M-RETS).
Advisory Services
Our mission-driven Advisory Services helps organizations in the public, private, and civil-society sectors navigate their clean energy transitions and achieve impactful decarbonization goals. Grounded in decades of experience, the team specializes in advancing renewable energy by developing solutions in market development, impactful procurement strategies, energy tracking system design, emissions accounting and clean energy verification, policy design, credible claims and standards development, and clean fuels markets guidance. Recent projects include validating carbon-free energy portfolios and hourly matching frameworks for U.S. utility companies, advising multinational corporations on supply-chain decarbonization strategies and supplier engagement, and leading in-depth research on China’s renewable energy market.
Clean Energy Accounting Project
This year our Clean Energy Accounting Project (CEAP) elevated CRS’s position as an authoritative voice on market-based accounting for electricity and fuels. Early in the year we published the Market-Based Accounting for Clean Fuels guidance, articulating for the first time quality criteria for contractual instruments that support a company’s credible claim to the emissions profile of purchased clean fuels. Subsequently, CRS staff were invited to present the guidance at several national and international biofuel conferences. The criteria for clean fuels instruments was followed by publication of Indicators of Clean Energy Procurement, which defined pathways for renewable energy buyers to maximize their impact on expanding new clean energy supply. CEAP’s guidance documents are increasingly referenced in major frameworks, cited in industry whitepapers, and relied upon by utilities and large buyers to help guide their decarbonization and sustainability strategies.
Policy and Market Development
CRS’s Policy and Market Development program continued its broad, high-impact engagement with state-level and regional regulatory policy and voluntary-market standards and frameworks. Team members served on a number of important stakeholder groups including GHG Protocol Scope 2, SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard update, ISO TC 308’s book-and-claim work, RE100 criteria, and the Climate Group 24/7 Coalition.
At the state and regional level, CRS influenced rulemakings and legislation in Arizona, California, Oregon, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Washington, consistently advocating for protecting REC integrity, preventing double counting, and maintaining regulatory surplus. The team provided extensive input on California ISO’s GHG allocation framework and suggested features and functionality to the WREGIS tracking system in order to support the overall market and Green-e®, while also shaping emerging cap-and-invest and corporate disclosure rules such as California’s SB 253.
Renewable Energy Markets™ Conference
The annual Renewable Energy Markets™ (REM™) conference marked its 30th anniversary in September in Houston, with eight organizations and one individual presented with Green Power Leadership Awards by CRS for their roles in promoting and expanding the use of renewable energy. We recognized the integral role REM™ has played in the evolution of the industry, as it continues to be a required stop for decisionmakers who value deep dives on relevant, technical subjects, and the conversations they spark.
This year also saw the fifth anniversary of Renewable Energy Markets™ Asia and the associated REM Asia Awards, held in Singapore at the beautiful Sofitel Singapore City Centre. It included two days of in-depth conversations, panel discussions, and targeted small group meetings focused on providing the latest information and strategies. Registrations this year increased by over 50%, with attendees from nearly 30 countries.
To learn more about Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), visit the website at www.resource-solutions.org or call +1-415-561-2100.