Anew Climate and Aurora Sustainable Lands Issue Carbon Credits Under ACR’s IFM 2.1 Methodology, Setting a New Standard for Forest Carbon Integrity
Aurora Sustainable Lands and Anew Climate combine proven land stewardship and innovative, technology-driven carbon quantification to deliver verifiable climate benefits.
Anew Climate, the world’s largest generator of certified, verified carbon removals today, and Aurora Sustainable Lands, one of the largest private U.S. forestland landowners, announced the issuance of carbon credits from three Aurora-owned properties—Big Poplar, Little Bear and Cumberland Gap—under the ACR’s Improved Forest Management (IFM) 2.1 methodology, representing a major step forward in forest carbon accounting and transparency.
Together, Aurora and Anew are pioneering a new model for climate impact: combining Aurora’s leadership in sustainable land stewardship with Anew’s advanced carbon quantification technology. This collaboration delivers some of the first credits verified under ACR’s IFM 2.1 methodology, recently approved by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) as meeting its Core Carbon Principles (CCPs).
Advancing Forest Carbon Through Innovation
Anew Climate and Aurora Sustainable Lands are collaborating to advance forest carbon integrity, with Anew leveraging its proprietary Epoch Platform to support this effort. Unlike traditional static baselines, Epoch applies dynamic, continuously updated measurements using high-resolution remote sensing, satellite-based carbon tracking, machine learning, and ground observations to enhance accuracy, transparency, and confidence in verified climate impact. By pairing Aurora’s science-based land management with Anew’s data-driven approach, the collaboration demonstrates how improved forestry methodologies can accelerate credible, scalable climate solutions.
“This issuance represents a breakthrough in the evolution of high-integrity forest carbon,” said Josh Strauss, president of environmental products at Anew Climate. “By combining ACR’s rigorous methodology with Aurora’s land stewardship and our Epoch evaluation framework, we’re raising the bar for forest carbon credibility, transparency, and scalability.”
The three projects span tens of thousands of acres across the southeastern United States and are owned and managed by Aurora Sustainable Lands, which stewards 1.65 million acres nationwide with a mission to transform timberlands into long-term carbon storage and biodiversity assets, aligning financial performance with positive environmental outcomes.
“This achievement demonstrates how climate-smart forestry practices and science-based land management can work together to generate demonstrable results for investors, ecosystems, and the climate,” said Jamie G. Houston IV, CEO of Aurora Sustainable Lands.
The issuance underscores how technology and improved forestry methodologies are driving a new era of high integrity and transparency for the voluntary carbon market. Together, Anew and Aurora are setting a higher standard for forest carbon projects—delivering verified impact at scale.
About -
About Aurora Sustainable Lands
Aurora Sustainable Lands is one of the world’s leading carbon removal platforms and climate-focused asset managers. To date, Aurora has acquired over 1.7 million acres of U.S. forestland with a history of industrial logging and now manages these lands with a carbon stewardship management strategy that focuses on maximizing natural carbon removal and storage potential. By actively managing with this strategy and utilizing cutting-edge proprietary technologies, Aurora taps into the oldest and most effective carbon removal tool, trees, to offer nature-based carbon credits with unrivaled reliability, durability, and quality and at an unprecedented scale. Aurora is a joint venture between Anew Climate and a group of equity investors led by Oak Hill Advisors, AB CarVal, EIG and GenZero among other leading financial sponsors.
About Anew Climate
Anew Climate, LLC, is a global leader of diverse climate solutions built on the principles of transparency and accountability. With deep market understanding, Anew leverages technological and nature-based solutions to create value through the generation and marketing of environmental credits for low carbon fuel, carbon, renewable energy, and emissions markets. Anew is majority owned by TPG Rise, TPG’s global impact investing platform. The company has offices in the U.S., Canada, Germany, Hungary, and Spain with an environmental commodities portfolio that extends across five continents.