Expedited Service of Certification Reviews

Expedited Service of Certification Reviews

Guideline for Expedited Service of Certification Reviews

SustainCERT (SC), serving as the Certification Body for Gold Standard for the Global Goals (GS4GG), extends expedited services for certification reviews to our clients, enabling Project Developers (PD) to meet their deadlines and requirements promptly. PLEASE NOTE: This fee is not service is not applicable for Validation/Verification services. 

1. Certification Reviews Expedited Service Process

If you are a PD wishing to request an expedited service, are initially required to follow the standard process to initiate the review, which involves requesting a review on the SC App, paying the applicable review fee, and submitting all relevant project documents. For Land Use and Forestry projects, the review process takes place outside the platform.

As a next step, you must contact our Client Support Center at help@sustain-cert.com and submit a request to expedite the review (GSID reference attached). Upon receiving such a request from the PD, SC will assess internal capacity and confirm (or not) whether we can perform the review in an expedited way.

A. In case if the expedited review option is available
  1. The PD will receive an additional invoice for the services
  2. Once the payment is confirmed, the CX team will communicate the expedited review start date
B. In case if the expedited review option is not available
  1. The customer experience team will communicate the outcome of the request to the PD


2. Exemptions to Expedite Service 

SustainCERT (SC) is unable to provide expedited service in the following specific situations:
  1. The first project that incorporates a new technology into the GS project portfolio.
  2. The first project that utilizes a newly approved methodology.
  3. Performance reviews of project activities claiming emission reductions exceeding 500K tCO2 within the defined monitoring period.
  4. For reviews that have undergo internal validation/verifications for micro scale scheme.
  5. The project activity is subject to a Grievance reported on the GS website at https://www.goldstandard.org/our-story/grievances-deregistration.
SustainCERT must suspend the expedited review in the following circumstances:
  1. A request for Deviation approval is submitted before SC reaches a decision on the review.
  2. Clarifications need to be addressed before SC can conclude the review.
  3. The project is selected by GS for Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) during the first round of review.
  4. GS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) or an NGO raises a comment during the first round of review.


3. Fee Charge for expedited reviews

  1. Renewable Energy (RE)

2500 USD - Per Review/ Per Project 
3000 USD - Per Review/ Per Project, effective for all projects invoiced from 3rd July 2023. 
*Above fee is additional to review fee.

  1. Land Use and Forestry (LUF)

500 USD - Per Review/ Per Project
*Above fee is additional to review fee.


4. Timeframes

*For the regular review timeframe, please consult the GS4GG principles & requirements and the Gold-Standard-Project-Review-Timelines-2013.

SustainCERT will suggest the following expedited review timeline based on our current internal capacity plan, taking into account the day the PD requests the service and the type of review. Please note: These timelines are for reference only, SC will provide concrete timelines once the request is submitted and internal capacity assessment is confirmed.

If the PD is unable to respond to raised findings within the designated time, SC may not be able to guarantee the expedited timeline for subsequent review feedback rounds (depending on internal capacity changes).

Please note that the reviews are subject to the rounds for completion, and they have a minimum duration required as per Gold Standard's Principles and Requirements. The proposed timelines are for SustainCERT to provide feedback and not as a timeframe for the reviews to be completed as a whole.

*The proposed review timeline does not include the period allocated for completeness checks in each review feedback round.

Table 1




 Should you have any inquiries, clarifications for this service, or even need assistance with review initiation for LUF, please reach out to help@sustain-cert.com.

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