Identity Preservation – Certified and non-certified products cannot be mixed and certified products may not be mixed either. This affords traceability to a specific producer, farm, or forest |
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Mass Balance |
Certified and non-certified products may be mixed however, the exact volumes of certified materials are tracked such that an equivalent volume of the product can be sold as certified |
Commonly used for products where segregation is difficult such as Coffee, Cocoa, Sugar, and Tea. |
Timber – The complex nature of the production process at paper mills makes segregation almost impossible.
Cocoa – Complex supply chain means that segregation is very expensive.
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Book and Claim |
A company can obtain sustainability certificates for the volume of certified materials put into the system. The certificates can be bought and sold meaning that sustainability claims can be made via the existence of a certificate even though the actual product may not have been certified. |
In this system, certified and non-certified products are mixed and there is no requirement to track them. Rather, the certificates issued and traded are tracked. |
CO2 Emissions and Green Power – the trading of certificates allows retailers to offer green power at a premium despite not knowing if the electrons it supplies were certified or not so long as it has purchased the certificates needed to do so. |
Table 2 |