Over 20 companies across sectors to apply first-of-kind tool that allows organizations to connect impactful decarbonization initiatives with their value chains.
February 6, 2025 (Washington DC) Today, the Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform announced the launch of the AIM Association Test pilot program that includes pilot testers drawn from over 20 global companies. While thousands of organizations have set value chain emission reduction targets, a fundamental challenge to decarbonization progress has been companies’ uncertainty as to whether an emission reduction investment can be applied towards its climate goals. The crux of the problem lies in the vast and dynamic nature of value chains in today’s global economy, which makes it difficult for companies to identify, account for, and claim investments occurring outside their direct operations. Through the draft Association Test, the AIM Platform provides a three-step approach to identifying investments associated with a company’s value chain. The Test is designed to bring companies the clarity and confidence to unlock massive new capital streams to low carbon fuels and technologies. Among the pilot testers are companies representing consumer goods, technology, finance, logistics, energy, and industrial sectors, including A.P. Moller Maersk A/S, Amazon, ClimeCo, Dow, H&M Group, Levi Strauss & Co, Netflix, Patagonia, REI Co-op, Salesforce, Schneider Electric and Shell Chemicals. Pilot testers are implementing the Association Test within their companies from January to April 2025 and will provide feedback to help ensure that the final AIM Association Test is clear and straightforward to apply.
“Companies have long sought a clear and workable method to determine if a decarbonization investment opportunity is ‘in value chain’– and that lack of certainty up to now is stalling progress during a critical window of opportunity for climate action,” said Holly Lahd, Standards Director at the Center for Green Market Activation. “The AIM Association Test fills an important gap in the current guidance around value chain interventions, and we are excited for its potential to unleash investment in low carbon solutions.”
The AIM Association Test works for multiple decarbonization strategies companies are pursuing. These include working directly with suppliers or customers, decarbonizing commodity markets, and advancing cutting-edge decarbonization technologies in industrial and other hard-to-abate sectors of the economy.
“The AIM Association Test represents a first, necessary step to enable companies to justify investments that reduce scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions because they will now be able to demonstrate a connection within their value chains,” said Verena Radulovic, Vice President, Business Engagement at C2ES. “We look forward to using the insights gained from this pilot test to help the AIM Platform finalize a robust designation process that allows companies to credibly show their scope 3 emission reduction results.”
The AIM Platform was launched in early 2023 as a cross-sectoral, multistakeholder initiative focused on ensuring that high quality value chain decarbonization interventions, regardless of sector, have clear guidance to enable transparent and credible accounting, reporting, and claiming of resulting emissions benefits. The AIM Platform Governing Committee have detailed greenhouse gas accounting knowledge and hands-on experience pursuing impactful decarbonization investments with Fortune 500 companies. Since its formation, the AIM Platform has released guiding principles and 11 draft criteria. The AIM Association Test builds on the first criterion and serves as the cornerstone of the AIM Platform. The remaining criteria will undergo further development this year, culminating in the release of the completed AIM Platform Standard and Guidance in late 2025.
“The work of the AIM Platform over the past two years has confirmed the fundamental importance of a reliable test to help companies identify and account for qualifying value chain interventions,” said Owen Hewlett, Chief Technical Officer at Gold Standard. “We extend our thanks to the pioneering companies who have stepped up to engage as pilot testers – their efforts over the coming months will help us refine the AIM Association Test to ensure it reaches its full potential as a key solution to the scope 3 challenge.”
In conjunction with the launch of the AIM Association Test pilot program, the AIM Platform has unveiled a newly redesigned website to enhance public access to its publications, information on the AIM Platform’s governance, and other related materials. In parallel to the pilot test, the AIM Platform will run a stakeholder comment period from February through April to ensure opportunity for broad and comprehensive feedback on the AIM Association Test. A public webinar on the pilot test and stakeholder comment period findings will be held in late spring 2025.
About the AIM Platform
The Advanced and Indirect Mitigation (AIM) Platform is a cross-sectoral, multi-stakeholder initiative jointly established in early 2023 by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), the Center for Green Market Activation, and Gold Standard. The AIM Platform seeks to unlock vast new sums of private climate finance by bringing together civil society and the private sector to remove roadblocks to value chain mitigation and ignite sectoral transition. Our vision is a world where businesses can easily account for and claim value chain emissions interventions, driving collective climate action, scaling advanced, low-carbon technologies, and enabling the transition to a sustainable economy in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
For more information, visit aimplatform.org or email info@aimplatform.org.