Rob Watson, “Father of LEED,” Joins Absolute Climate Advisory Board

Sustainable leader joins to help shape standards and ensure scientific integrity in carbon removal

May 22, 2025 09:00 ET | Source: Absolute Climate

SAN FRANCISCO, May 22, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Absolute Climate, the company driving the first, independent industry-wide carbon removal standard, today announced, Rob Watson, a pioneer in market-based environmental standards, has joined its advisory board. He will support the development of the Absolute Carbon Standard by advising on rigor, transparency, and market alignment. Watson brings more than 30 years of experience in environmental policy and standard-setting, most notably as the founder of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

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"Rob has reshaped how organizations and nations approach environmental responsibility by building standards that are both scientifically rigorous and widely adopted," said Peter Minor, CEO and co-founder of Absolute Climate. "As carbon removal enters a defining moment, his experience in aligning integrity with impact will be instrumental in helping us establish a foundation the world can rely on."

Known as the “Father of LEED,” Watson is a globally recognized expert in sustainability and market-based environmental policy. Over his career, he has helped shape industries and deliver measurable climate outcomes by developing independent, science-based standards. As founder of the LEED Green Building Rating System — one of the world’s most widely used green building certifications — he led one of the most influential environmental market transformations to date. He has also advised U.S. agencies, global institutions, and leading climate organizations, and is a recipient of the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership Award.

"Creating standards that drive real environmental outcomes and significant market adoption has been an important part of my life's work," said Watson. "As the climate crisis accelerates, it is essential to harness the power of the markets to generate solutions. Markets thrive on certain and consistent information, and Absolute Climate is creating a robust, verifiable, and consistent way to ensure that carbon reduction and removal projects are real and not greenwashing."

Watson joins a growing roster of climate leaders on Absolute Climate's advisory board, including:

• Giana Amador, Executive Director at the Carbon Removal Alliance and co-founder of Carbon180
• Erin Burns, Executive Director at Carbon180 and veteran climate policy strategist

The advisory board plays a key role in shaping the Absolute Carbon Standard, an independent framework that evaluates carbon removal credits across all pathways. The board provides guidance on scientific integrity, policy relevance, and market usability to support Absolute Climate's mission: building a carbon removal market rooted in trust, transparency, and measurable climate impact.

About Absolute Climate

Absolute Climate is accelerating market adoption of carbon removal through the first universal standard that assesses and verifies carbon credits independent of registries. The Absolute Carbon Standard enables registries to independently apply consistent, science-based evaluations across all carbon removal pathways and issue credits that reflect true carbon impact. By separating the roles of standard-setting and credit issuance, Absolute Climate eliminates conflicts of interest to ensure that credit quality aligns with genuine climate outcomes rather than market pressures. Founded by experts in measurement, verification, and reporting—Peter Minor and Greg Becker—Absolute Climate is helping scale carbon markets to achieve gigatonne-level impact.