Adjusted Certification Process for C-sinks

Good day

The sale of carbon sinks (C-sinks) has been steadily growing in recent years and continues to grow strongly. High credibility of realized C-sinks and transparency of the project are becoming increasingly important. To ensure this, a reliable certification of the C-sink according to a well-recognised standard is necessary, such the EBC C-Sink Standard. Furthermore, the markets requirements on documentation of C-sinks and projects in the registry are increasing.

To meet this demand, Carbon Standards International has decided to adapt the process for certifying a C-sink and thus also meet the requirements of the International Carbon Reduction and Offsetting Accreditation (ICROA).


The adjusted process is now structured as follows:

Project Design Document

The producer of the biochar creates a Project Design Document (PDD). This document describes how the biochar is produced and for what application it is intended. To simplify this process, Carbon Standards International has created a template for this purpose. This already contains all the information regarding the standard. Please add your company-specific data.

The processor of the biochar fills out a separate document. This document exclusively covers the respective processing step.

Monitoring Report

The data necessary for calculating the C-sink potential and the C-sink must be monitored and documented in the IT tools by the biochar producers and processors. These data form the basis for the Monitoring Report.

Please add your company-specific data and attachments.

The excerpt from the dMRV tool (EBC Portal) will be sent to you by CERES-CERT. In the future, documents can be downloaded from the new Biochar Tool.

Validation

CERES-CERT evaluates the information in the PDD and the Monitoring Report. CERES-CERT creates a validation report and confirms that the submitted project is realistic and feasible, and that the data in the Monitoring Plan are complete. The costs for this validation will be billed at an hourly rate, similar to the inspection costs.

Verification

Verification corresponds to the current on-site inspection by CERES-CERT, with which you are already familiar. During the inspection, both the quality of the biochar and the data in the Monitoring Report are annually reviewed. The inspection is summarized in a Verification Report by CERES-CERT. This report includes any nonconformities from the inspection and your corrective actions. This process remains the same for you as usual. The only difference is that an additional report is created, which is publicly viewable in the registry.

Responsibilities and Data Protection

The first owner of the C-sink is responsible for tracing the process chain back to the production of the biochar used and for submitting all 4 documents (PDD, Monitoring Report, Validation Report, Verification Report) with the application for certification of the C-sink for each process step.
Protecting your data and supply chains is very important to us. Therefore, all documents are encoded and do not contain any personal or company-specific data. An exception is the PDD, which includes the name of the project and the name of the quality manager.

Implementation Period

New C-sinks should be accompanied with the new documents in the registry as soon as possible. To achieve this goal, we would like to support you in issuing the necessary documents. Your C-Sink Broker is also happy to provide assistance. Please submit your completed PDD or the completed attachment to the PDD, as well as the Monitoring Report to climate@ceres-cert.de.

You are welcome to participate in one of our webinars, where we will explain the procedures and documents and answer your questions.

We are looking forward to your participation and are happy to answer any questions.

Best regards

Carbon Standards International AG

Julia Winter
COO
+41 (0) 62 552 10 93

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