Verra has issued the first carbon credits under its VM0046 methodology for reducing food loss and waste. The credits go to the Brightly project, which works with 29 US food rescue organizations, including Feeding America, to keep surplus food out of landfills and direct it to human consumption. Verra says the project avoided around 720,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent between March 2020 and December 2023. Food waste is a significant source of methane when sent to landfill, so avoided disposal can carry a real emissions reduction. The project rescued 15.3 billion pounds of surplus food over the reporting period. SCS Global Services handled validation and verification. This first issuance gives food rescue groups a new revenue stream through carbon markets, though the long-term test is whether future crediting periods keep the baseline conservative and the methane reductions verifiable.
