Preliminary Review

Preliminary Review

Steps of the Gold Standard certification process

• What is the Preliminary Review?
• Which documents must be submitted for Preliminary Review?
• What is the estimated timeline for Preliminary Review? 
• Can a project be submitted for Preliminary Review without conducting a physical meeting and stakeholder feedback round? 

What is the Preliminary Review?

The Preliminary Review process is a light check on the general eligibility of the project (availability of a methodology, start date, etc.), which also helps with confidence that the project can continue with certification. The Preliminary Review Request form is a checklist allowing project developers to assess their project idea before they commit further resources to certification. 

Note that a successful preliminary review and subsequent listing of the project on the GS Impact Registry does not guarantee success in certification. This is determined in the following certification steps, where the project needs to prove compliance with all relevant standard requirements and procedures, continually, through the project cycle.

To reach the decision on whether a project has the potential to conform to the Gold Standard Requirements and may therefore progress to listed status, Gold Standard will review the draft documentation submitted using an approved certification reviewer. The reviewer may request clarifications where required.  

With approval from the Preliminary Review, the Project will obtain ‘Listed’ status in the Gold Standard Registry. This means that the Key Project Information, and stakeholder consultation report are made publicly available, and the Project Developer may promote the Project according to the Claims Guidelines as appropriate for ‘Listed’ status Projects.

More information on the certification steps can be found in the Principles and Requirements and the step-by-step certification guide.

Which documents must be submitted for Preliminary Review?

The following documents must be submitted for Preliminary Review: 

• Preliminary Review Request Form
• Stakeholder Consultation Report
• PoA Design Consultation Report (PoAs only)
• Signed Cover Letter
• Signed Terms and Conditions
• Signed Terms of Use
• Draft PDD/PoA-DD/VPA-DD is only needed when no other project applying the same methodology and/or product is listed on the Gold Standard Impacts Registry, or the project is applying Land Use and Forests (including Agriculture) Activity Requirements  - Check this with SDI team

LUF Preliminary Review

For a LUF preliminary review the following documents are also needed:

• LUF Risks and capacities
• Additionality
• Applicability
• Baseline
• CO2 fixation

All the templates for these documents can be located in the templates section of the website.

What is the estimated timeline for Preliminary Review? 

As an approximate guideline a simple ‘Completeness Check Review’ can take as little as 14 days from submission of documents and payment of the fee. The timeline is from 4 weeks for a more extensive review, (i.e., for new project types, methodologies, or products, or for projects applying the land use and forestry Activity Requirements). 

View the Principles and Requirements Section 5 for more detailed information on the Preliminary Review and its timelines.  

Can a project be submitted for Preliminary Review without conducting a physical meeting and stakeholder feedback round? 

The stakeholder consultation is a core requirement. The physical stakeholder consultation must take place before preliminary review but stakeholder feedback received at any time can and should be included in the project before the conclusion of validation by VVB. See Stakeholder Consultation Requirements for full details.