Gold Standard was established in 2003 by WWF and other international NGOs as a best practice standard to ensure projects that reduced carbon emissions under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) also contributed to sustainable development. Its next-generation standard launched in 2017, Gold Standard for the Global Goals, allows climate and development initiatives to quantify, certify, and maximise their impacts toward climate security and sustainable development. Certification against the standard provides the confidence that these results are measured and verified, enabling credible tracking of progress toward the Paris Climate Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. Gold Standard now has a broad NGO Supporter Network and 1500+ projects in over 80 countries, creating billions of dollars of shared value from climate and development action worldwide.

There are generally 10 basic steps in the GS project cycle： PLAN PROJECT AND HOLD STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATION；PRELIMINARY REVIEW BY SUSTAINCERT；PRELIMINARY DESIGN APPROVAL；THIRD-PARTY VALIDATION；PROJECT DESIGN REVIEW BY SUSTAINCERT；DESIGN CERTIFICATION；PROJECT MONITORING；THIRD-PARTY VALIDATION；PERFORMANCE REVIEW BY SUSTAINCERT；PERFORMANCE CERTIFICATION.