In April 2026, the AIM Platform published V1 of its Standard and Guidance. With this publication, we are offering companies a clear, credible framework to assess, invest in and report on high integrity decarbonization actions across their value chains – helping clear a path to greater levels of corporate climate action and investment.
Shortly following the announcement, the AIM Platform hosted a webinar featuring members from the AIM Platform Secretariat, testimonials from staff from Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Science Based Targets initiative, as well as panelists from Patagonia, Stegra, and World Wildlife Fund. A recording and the slides can be found here. The compiled Q&A from that webinar is shared below. This includes questions that were answered live during the webinar, as well as those left unaddressed during the session because of time constraints.
Please reach out to info@aimplatform.org with any further questions.
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Audience Questions |
AIM Platform Answer |
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Was the AIM Platform Standard and Guidance launch webinar recorded? |
Yes, the webinar recording can be found here. |
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Who should use the AIM Platform Standard and Guidance? |
The AIM Standard is primarily written for companies who want to invest in interventions to decarbonize their value chain and report the outcomes of those interventions in their multi-statement GHG report. These companies are referred to as “reporting companies” throughout the AIM Standard. However, other organizations will find that the AIM Standard contains critical information to consider, particularly companies downstream or upstream of the reporting company that implement the intervention (known as intervention hosts), or third parties who act as intermediaries between the intervention host and reporting company (known as intervention outcome suppliers). |
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What are the next steps for the AIM Platform? |
The AIM Platform will be working on our first set of sector-specific guidance for electricity. Our draft Electricity Annex was open for public consultation at the end of 2025. We will now be revising that document to fit within the AIM Standard framework with the goal to publish later this year. |
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Will the AIM Platform be sharing any materials on how to use the Standard? |
Yes, the AIM Platform will be working on educational materials to help companies understand and implement the Standard. We will also be sharing case studies for different sectors to help explain requirements. If your company is interested in developing case studies you can reach out to us on our website. |
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Will the AIM Platform be publishing updates to this Standard? |
Yes, the AIM Platform will continue to monitor the standards landscape and revise this Standard as needed to ensure its relevance and utility. |
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What is the relationship between the new Standard and the Association Test and QAR? How do I think about those documents? |
Version 1 of the AIM Platform Standard and Guidance is a unified framework that brings together the work of the Association Test and the Intervention Quality, Accounting, and Reporting (QAR) Standard. With V1 of the AIM Standard released, companies should no longer be using the Association Test or the QAR independently. |
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Are there going to be more opportunities to pilot the Standard and provide feedback? |
Yes, in the next phase of our work we will be offering opportunities to peer exchange with other companies using the Standard. If you are interested in participating, please reach out to us or join our mailing list on our website. |
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How does the AIM Platform relate to the GHG Protocol Actions and Market Instruments (AMI) technical working group plans? |
The AIM Platform congratulates GHG Protocol on the recent AMI white paper, signaling a clear move toward multi-statement reporting which is also a critical part of the AIM Standard. Multi-statement reporting allows companies to transparently and inclusively account and report the range of climate actions available to address operational and value chain emissions. The AIM Platform has supported GHG Protocol by having a Secretariat member (Kim Carnahan) participate as a member of the AMI technical working group and ensuring the GHG Protocol has access to learnings from its pilot programs and public stakeholder comment periods. The AIM Platform’s goal is to achieve alignment between the standards, and progress towards this goal can be seen in the AMI white paper which references and aligns with concepts in the AIM Standard. The white paper can be found here. |
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Will companies be able to report insets based on the AIM standard in their Scope 3 Category 1/PGS inventories? |
The AIM Standard is designed for companies to account for and report on interventions they have invested in to address emissions in their value chains but that cannot be clearly accounted for in their GHG Inventory following current GHG Protocol accounting standards (this is referred to as the physical inventory in the AIM Standard and the AMI white paper). The AIM Standard defines two additional GHG emissions reporting statements – the contractual inventory and the impact statements. These are designed for different accounting methods. An intervention that addresses scope 3 emissions could fall across any of the three reporting statements – physical, contractual, and impact. Figure 4 in the AIM Standard provides a high-level flow chart that tracks decisions and requirements that indicate which reporting statement is most appropriate for a given intervention or inset. |
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Can the AIM Standard help me identify interventions? |
Ultimately, a company is responsible for understanding the emissions sources in their physical inventory and identifying possible interventions to address those emissions. However, the AIM Standard is written to help companies do the planning necessary to make investment decisions, providing guidance on how to assess their physical inventory and use that information to decide which interventions are most relevant. See Appendix E on identifying, quantifying, and locating (sub)components and Appendix F on identifying and locating interventions. |
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Is there a step to forecast / project intervention outcomes? |
The AIM Standard requires that intervention records must only be issued after the intervention occurs, meaning no ex-ante crediting. Additional details about how to handle an intervention when it is a one-time action that has ongoing reductions can be found in Section 5.8 Record Creation Timing. |
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What are ways to aggregate demand / connect with suppliers? |
Buyers alliances exist to aggregate buyer demand and connect companies with suppliers of low-carbon products. Examples include the Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance (ZEMBA), Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), Sustainable Concrete Buyers Alliance (SCoBA), Kinetic Coalition, GMA Trucking, GMA Chemicals, and Superpollutant Action Initiative. Many of these buyers alliances have been deeply involved in the AIM Platform’s work and have designed their programs so that contracted projects meet minimum AIM Standard requirements. |
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Does the AIM Platform have a graphic to assist with how different players in the standards ecosystem relate? |
Figure 1 in the AIM Platform Standard and Guidance explains the relationship of different standard setters across scopes and ledgers. This graphic is also reviewed in the AIM Standard launch webinar which can be viewed here. |
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For companies who are already conducting EAC transactions, what advice or guidance can you give to them on how they should go about these transactions in the interim until standards are fully developed and refined? |
Companies who are already investing in interventions can use the AIM Standard to associate those interventions with their value chain, ensure intervention quality, and credibly account for and report those interventions in a multi-statement GHG report. Examples of companies using the AIM standard will be beneficial to GHG Protocol as they continue their work on AMI (with a first draft of the standard expected for public consultation in 2027 and a final standard expected in 2028). |
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Do AIM Platform, GHG Protocol and SBTi plan to align on the options they put forward for traceability/connectivity to the supply chain? Right now companies have to consider the Association Test (AIM Platform) vs. Activity Pools (SBTi) vs. Physical Traceability via CoC (GHG Protocol). As well as other concepts like TCAT’s Physical Delivery and VCI’s MBI Supply Shed, etc. Are there any efforts to harmonize to reduce complexity and confusion on this topic? |
Yes, there are ongoing efforts to harmonize and reduce complexity and confusion among all mentioned parties. |
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How is the AIM Standard aligning with SBTI BVCM mechanism? |
The AIM Platform’s remit does not cover beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM). Companies looking to address BVCM should refer to other standards. |