About the Global Heat Reduction Initiative

The Global Heat Reduction Initiative (GHR) was launched to support the international community in drawing down the excess trapped heat that is warming our planet and driving climate change. With comprehensive climate accounting based on the consensus climate science, our aim is to drive strategic climate action to accelerate global heat reduction.

• A Registry that issues “CO₂e+” credits – that is, CO₂e based on an expanded list of climate change drivers, plus verified data demonstrating the atmospheric heat reduction opportunity represented by each project
• Organization Climate Footprint services (CO2e+) to help organizations identify their annual impacts and draw them down
• Advisory and Advocacy for the application of CO2e+ data to drive strategic climate action

GHR is the outgrowth of a decades-long effort to advance climate awareness through scientific work carried out at SCS Global Services. Founded in California in 1984, the company has been a pioneer and leader in sustainability standards and third-party certification, working across the economy in the natural resources, built environment, food & agriculture, consumer products, and energy & climate sectors.

Spearheaded by visionary founder and CEO, Dr. Stanley P. Rhodes (1942-2023), SCS scientists worked for more than a decade to develop the Radiative Forcing Protocol, which became the scientific basis for the Initiative. The Protocol directly applies the consensus science summarized in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) synthesis and special reports of the past decade, especially the fifth and sixth Assessment Reports (AR5 and AR6). It was developed in consultation with international climate experts and peer-reviewed by the Scientific Advisory Panel of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), convened by UNEP.

Through this framework, GHR brings the science and data of atmospheric heat reduction to conventional carbon accounting and markets, enabling the most thorough climate assessments attainable today. GHR enables organizations and communities to make fully informed decisions and allocate resources to where they may generate the greatest positive impacts. 

We believe that climate success is a choice. The knowledge and tools to rapidly reduce excess trapped heat, stabilize, and ultimately restore our climate are available today. We invite all participants in the global climate ecosystem, whether they are private companies, public sector agencies, international organizations, or members of civil society, to come together and take swift action around this idea.