Communities such as cities and counties are increasingly interested in understanding how nature-based solutions can help them reach their climate change mitigation and adaptation goals. However, many communities do not know what role their existing forests and trees already play in influencing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because they don’t include them in their inventories.

This supplemental guidance to the Global Protocol for Community-Scale Greenhouse Gas Inventories (GPC) provides detailed methods that communities can follow to estimate both GHG emissions from land-use change and other forest disturbances and carbon dioxide removals by forests and trees growing within their borders. It provides guidance on how to select appropriate data sources, perform calculations, ensure standardized reporting, and use the inventory information to set transparent climate action targets.

The Land Sector and Removals (LSR) Standard is the first GHG Protocol standard to provide greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting requirements and guidance that equip companies with the methods needed to quantify, report, and track land emissions and CO₂ removals. This standard also offers companies accounting requirements and guidance to report technological CO₂ removals (e.g. direct air capture) and CO₂ capture with geologic storage.

The LSR Standard was developed through a rigorous, transparent, and inclusive five-year effort involving global participation including more than 300 external reviewers. The effective date of the standard is January 1, 2027.

The Executive Summary document can be accessed here. Read this article for a quick overview of the Standard.

Please note, with publication of the LSR Guidance, minor, non-substantive edits are being made to the LSR Standard (v1.0) which was published on January 30, 2026. A document detailing the edits can be found here. The LSR Standard v1.1 is now the version users should refer to.   

There is considerable interest among companies in claiming that their products can help avoid greenhouse gas emissions compared to other products in the marketplace. While it’s true that the use of some products can help to avoid GHG emissions, accurately measuring a product’s impact—whether positive or negative—can be challenging.

This paper outlines a neutral framework for estimating and disclosing both positive and negative impacts of products and provides recommendations for companies to improve the credibility and consistency of their claims.