Introducing the GMA Insights Informational Series | Chain of Custody Models

Introducing GMA Insights

We are excited to launch GMA Insights, an informational series that will delve into important topics surrounding market-based approaches to value chain decarbonization. GMA’s mission to activate new markets for low-carbon fuels and materials is clear, but complex in practice. As we develop and operationalize robust approaches and systems to achieve this mission, many of the considerations informing our work warrant deeper explanation.

GMA Insights will be a forum to explore those topics. Our aim is to bring clarity and transparency to the principles, tools, and techniques that we apply to activating new markets.

GMA works on the leading edge of value chain decarbonization, which means that we are often in uncharted territory. Some concepts that we explore through GMA Insights may be evolving even as we discuss them.  We welcome reflections from the climate community on these topics. If you have thoughts about an insights article, or ideas for a topic that you want us to explore, please reach out at info@gmacenter.org.

Chain of Custody Models

Our first GMA Insights topic will address a fundamental set of tools that GMA applies to our decarbonization programs: chain of custody models. A chain of custody model is defined as an approach to tracking and documenting inputs and outputs of materials through a process or distribution network[1].

Chain of custody models are applied to products that people use and consume every day. Have you bought a piece of fruit that is labeled USDA Organic? A chain of custody model and requirements were applied to maintain appropriate separation of that fruit from non-organic fruit. Have you seen the MSC label on fish or other seafood? Same thing. Have you noticed the FSC Certified stamp on a greeting card or cardboard box? The wood that went into those paper products was tracked – you guessed it – according to a chain of custody model.

There are five general chain of custody models:

• Identity preserved
• Segregated
• Controlled blend
• Mass balance
• Book and claim

Book and Claim Models

Most of the programs that GMA and our partners manage rely on the book and claim model. In a book and claim model, the characteristics (within GMA’s work, the low greenhouse gas emission profile) of a product or service are separated from the product or service itself. These characteristics are assigned to Environmental Attribute Certificates (EACs), which are “booked” in a tracking system such as a registry. The physical product or service itself is then treated as though it were a normal product or service without its low emission characteristics.

A company that is committed to reducing its value chain emissions for the product or service associated with the EAC could buy and “claim,” EACs representing low emission products and services. Purchasing EACs enables the company to support decarbonized products and services, even if the company could not buy the decarbonized products or services in its physical supply chain. See Figure 1. (We will explore additional facets of book and claim and its benefits in a later entry.)

Figure 1

Making Informed Decisions

For organizations considering the use of book and claim systems to decarbonize their value chains, there are many factors to be aware of when assessing whether a system is robust and transparent. That makes it important for organizations to educate themselves about chain of custody models, their benefits, and their limitations.

A core part of GMA’s work is to develop high integrity book and claim systems that support our decarbonization programs. We’ve learned a lot about chains of custody through this work and are happy to share from our experience. The GMA Insights series offers a way for us to explain features of book and claim and other chain of custody models and the implications of their use, with an aim to foster transparency and informed decision-making by organizations purchasing products based on the models.

The next GMA Insight, in which we take a close look at key differences and similarities between book and claim and mass balance models, and the importance of system boundaries for those models, will be published in coming weeks.

[1] Readers interested in detailed definitions of chain of custody models can review ISO Standard 22095:2020, and keep an eye out for the forthcoming ISO Standards 13662 and 13659. We’ve also found National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Publication 1500-206 to be a helpful primer on chain of custody models.