Project type

The project may be biobased construction material manufacturing. In this case, carbon credits are issued according to the amount of biobased materials sold to building developers during the reference calendar year. The Project Developer may be the biobased construction material manufacturer.

The project may be the use of biobased construction materials in new, permanent building construction or renovation of permanent buildings during the reference calendar year. RCCs are issued according to the amount of biobased construction materials used in the new building construction. The Project Developer may be the building developer, i.e. the entity responsible for technical choices, building design, and oversight of the development.

Biobased material type

Biobased construction materials may include but are not limited to, wood framing, wood panels, hempcrete (concrete containing hemp fibers), and cellulose thermal insulation.

Types of biomass used for biobased construction materials may include wood (timber/lumber), bamboo, hemp, straw, recycled paper, and flax, among others.

Project scope

For the manufacturing of biobased construction materials, one project corresponds to the production of a single biobased product by one registered company within a single country.

For the use of biobased construction materials, one project includes all biobased materials used within a single building development, where a building development is defined as all construction covered under one building permit.

This methodology covers projects that manufacture biobased construction materials and/or use these materials in building construction or renovation. The eligible biobased materials include, but are not limited to, wood framing, hempcrete, and cellulose insulation, derived from biomass sources such as wood, bamboo, and hemp.

Monitoring Plans for this methodology shall include, but are not limited to, tracking of the following information for biobased material producers:

• amount and type of biobased building material units sold

• amount, type and source of biobased inputs

• proof of adherence to the No Double Counting criterion

Monitoring Plans for this methodology shall include, but are not limited to, tracking of the following information for building developers using biobased materials:

• amount and type of biobased building material units incorporated into buildings

• proof of adherence to the No Double Counting criterion

The Project Developer is the party responsible for adhering to the Monitoring Plan.

Project Developers shall demonstrate that they meet all eligibility criteria outlined in the Riverse Standard Rules, and described below with a specific focus on biobased construction.

Eligibility criteria that do not require specific methodology instructions are not described here. These include:

• Measurability

• Real

• Additionality

• Technology readiness level

• Minimum impact

Permanence

The project biobased material must have an expected carbon-storage duration of 100 years or more to be eligible for removal RCCs. Note that the carbon storage duration may differ from the reference service lifetime.

Carbon storage duration determination

The expected carbon-storage duration shall include the total years that carbon remains stored in the project biobased material. This includes its first use, plus additional years if the material is recycled, reused, or disposed of in a landfill.

By default, the carbon-storage duration shall equal the reference service lifetime declared in the material’s EPD.

Project Developers may justify a longer carbon-storage duration than the reference service lifetime. The justification shall be based on reputable sources, such as scientific literature, industry reports, public databases, or performance tests, among others.

For composite materials made of multiple components with different lifetimes, the carbon storage duration of the final product shall be used, even if some components have different lifetimes.

Risk of reversal

Project Developers shall fill in the Riverse biobased construction risk evaluation to evaluate the risk of carbon storage reversal, based on social, economic, natural, and delivery risks.

Project Developers shall assign a likelihood and severity score to each risk, and provide an explanation of their choices. The Riverse Certification team shall evaluate the assessment and may recommend changes to the assigned scores.

The project Developer or the Riverse Certification team may suggest additional risks to be considered for a specific project.

Each reversal risk with a high or very risk score is subject to:

• risk mitigation plan, developed by the Project Developer, that details the long-term strategies and investments for preventing, monitoring, reporting and compensating carbon removal reversal, OR

• additional contributions to the buffer pool, at a rate of 3% of verified removal RCCs for each high or very high risk

No double counting

Project developers shall sign the Riverse MRV & Registry Terms & Conditions, committing to follow the requirements outlined in the Riverse Standard Rules, including not double using or double issuing RCCs.

For projects that manufacture biobased construction materials, Project Developers shall prove that users of the project biobased material (e.g. building developers) will not issue carbon credits for their incorporation into buildings.

• For the top buyers of the project biobased material that make up a sum of 80% of materials purchased annually, the Project Developer shall provide signed agreements with each buyer stating that the defined type and amount of biobased materials have already been issued carbon credits, and they commit to not issue carbon credits for that material in the building.

• Project Developers shall communicate the same information to customers via marketing, packaging, or examples of sales contracts.

For projects that use project biobased materials in buildings, Project Developers shall prove that the biobased materials used were not already issued carbon credits for their manufacture and sale.

• The Project Developer shall provide signed agreements with the top suppliers of biobased construction materials that make up a sum of 80% of biobased materials used in the building, stating that the construction materials used have not already been issued carbon credits.

If part of the project’s biobased components have already been issued carbon credits, the remaining portion of biobased components are still eligible. Signed agreements do not exclude a project from issuing RCCs for all of their biobased components– only for the components that have already been issued carbon credits in another project.

Co-benefits

Project developers shall prove that their project provides at least 2 co-benefits from the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework (and no more than 4).

Common co-benefits of biobased construction projects are detailed in Table 1. Project Developers may suggest and prove other co-benefits not mentioned here.

SDG 13 on Climate Action by default is not considered a co-benefit here, since it is implicitly accounted for in the issuance of carbon credits. If the project delivers climate benefits that are not accounted for in the GHG reduction quantifications, then they may be considered as co-benefits.

Table 1 Common co-benefits that biobased construction material projects may provide are detailed, including types of proof that can be used to justify each co-benefit.

Substitution

Biobased construction materials and buildings must be valid substitutes for the construction material chosen for the baseline scenario for the purpose of calculating avoided emissions.

Project Developers shall explain how the project biobased material substitutes the baseline material according to the following characteristics: function of the product, service lifetime, performance, and price/quality.

• Performance indicators vary by material type, but may include insulation capacity, load bearing capacity, or compressive strength.

• Sources for this criteria may include performance tests, dynamic thermal studies, secondary reports, scientific literature, and EPDs.

If the performance of the primary function of the project biobased material is different from the baseline material, this must be accounted for in the baseline scenario and project scenario selection.

If the performance of secondary functions of the project biobased material is worse than the baseline, and causes, for example, increased energy consumption during the use stage, this is included in the Riverse biobased construction risk evaluation.

If the service lifetimes differ between the baseline and the project, the difference will be accounted for in the comparative LCA (see Calculations section).

Environmental & social do no harm

Project Developers shall prove that the project does not contribute to substantial environmental and social harms.

Project developers shall fill in the Riverse biobased construction risk evaluation, to evaluate the identified risks of biobased construction. The identified risks include:

• Forest management, land use and deforestation

• Intensive cultivation of biomass with fertilizers, irrigation and pesticides

• Use of dedicated crops, competition for food and agricultural land

• Distant transport of biomass

• Chemical treatment of construction materials

• Energy intensive processing

• Worsened energy or other performance in the use stage

Leakage

The project’s avoided GHG emissions should not be indirectly transferred elsewhere.

Project Developers shall transparently evaluate the potential leakage risks from activity shifting and from upstream/downstream emissions in the PDD. Note that due to the LCA approach for GHG reduction quantification, most relevant upstream and downstream emissions are likely already included in the quantification.

Any material sources of leakage that cannot be mitigated shall be conservatively included in the GHG reduction calculations or the discount factor.

Targets alignment

Biobased construction projects must lead to at least a 73% reduction in GHG emissions compared to the baseline scenario. This is aligned with the European Union’s 2040 Climate targets, as described in the Riverse Standard Rules.

The scope of the reduction is the biobased material/product. More details are in the System boundary section.

This shall be proven using the GHG reduction quantification method described below.

General

General GHG reduction quantification rules can be found in the Riverse Standard Rules.

Calculations of GHG emissions for the baseline and project scenarios shall follow a robust, recognized method and good practice guidance. The overall methodological approach is a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) at the project-scale, based on ISO 14064-2:2019.

Project biobased materials with an expected carbon storage duration of less than 100 years are only eligible for avoidance RCCs. Materials with an expected carbon storage duration of 100 years or longer are eligible for removal and avoidance RCCs.

See section Carbon storage duration determination for more details.

Functional unit

The avoided emissions between the project and baseline scenarios shall be compared on the basis of a common functional unit.

The functional unit shall describe the amount, units, lifetime, and function of the building material for the project and baseline scenario.

Annual avoided emissions are calculated by multiplying the avoided emissions per functional unit by the quantity of project biobased materials sold over the year (for building material manufacturers), or the quantity of project biobased materials used in a building (for building developers).

Project scenario

The Project scenario shall represent the manufacture or use of biobased construction materials by the project during the reporting period (typically 1 year).

It shall respect the Project Scope and Data Sources requirements described in the present methodology.

Baseline scenario

The baseline scenario shall represent the conditions or practices that would occur in the absence of the project. The baseline scenario depends on the project-specific context (e.g. project biobased material, country...), but shall follow the same standard guidelines:

1. Identify the replaced construction product: define the application of the project biobased material that is being replaced (e.g., thermal insulation for flat roofs).

   • Identify products with a similar application, performance, lifetime, price as the project biobased material.

   • If the project biobased material has multiple likely applications, a market mix of likely applications should be used (e.g., thermal insulation for roofs in general).

   • The market mix should be based on national construction practices/statistics, and come from reliable, recent, and transparent data sources.

2. Identify the replaced construction material: clearly identify the type of material being replaced (e.g. stone wool or a mix of different materials)

   • Define the specific material/s that composes the replaced construction product/s (e.g. stone wool used for thermal insulation)

   • Identify materials with a similar performance, lifetime, price as the project biobased material

   • By default, a mix of materials from various manufacturers and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) shall be used to accurately represent the market mix for the specified material type. A specific material type from a particular manufacturer may only be considered with adequate justification and proof.

   • A material in the national market share may be omitted if it is proven to be an unsuitable equivalent product for the project biobased material.

3. Select appropriate EPDs for the identified baseline construction product/s and material/s. This selection should be made conservatively and, as much as possible, should respect the geographic location of the project.

4. Ensure functional equivalence by analyzing the characteristics of the project biobased material and the chosen Baseline scenario EPDs. They should already have similar characteristics after following steps 1 and 2, but may not be equivalent. The amount of project or baseline material may need to be adjusted to ensure that the scenarios have the exact same functional unit (e.g. same amount, units, lifetime, and function). This includes, at a minimum:

   • Performance: the performance characteristics of the replaced product including but not limited to, energy efficiency, strength, mechanical resistance, reaction to fire, or insulation capacity (e.g., thermal resistance of 7 m²·K/W). See the Substitution section for more details.

   • Lifetime: e.g. if the project and baseline materials have an expected lifetime of 100 and 50 years, respectively, then twice the amount of the baseline material is needed to fulfill the same function as the project material, since it will be replaced halfway through the project material's lifetime.

When faced with uncertainty in defining a baseline scenario, a conservative choice shall be made.

The baseline scenario shall account for the use of biobased construction materials, and biogenic carbon removals, already currently used. The method below for calculating the biogenic carbon and carbon removal shall also be applied to any biobased baseline materials that have a lifetime of 100 years or more.

Data source

Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) shall provide the main source of information for both the project and baseline scenarios. EPDs are developed according to EN 15804, which itself is based on ISO 14025.

Information taken from EPDs shall include the project and baseline material’s:

• lifetime (Reference Service Lifetime, RSL)

• performance characteristics

• end of life waste treatment methods

• climate change impact (sum of fossil, biogenic, and land use change)

• biogenic carbon content

If no EPD is available for a project, then a similar document may be used instead, given that it includes the above information, is independently verified, and follows ISO 14025.

System boundary

The avoided GHG calculations shall include the cradle-to-grave impacts of the project and baseline scenarios. This corresponds to the “cradle-to-grave and module D” scope that includes all stages of modules A, B, C and D in EN 15804 (Figure 1).

If module D was excluded from either the project or baseline EPD, then the A-C cradle-to-grave scope shall be used for all products in both the baseline and project scenarios.

Calculations

Avoidance credits

The following formulas shall be used to calculate the avoided GHG emissions for all projects, regardless of the carbon storage duration:

Removal credits

If the expected carbon storage duration of the project biobased material is 100 years or more, then the project is eligible for removal RCCs in addition to the above-mentioned avoidance RCCs.

Project removals are calculated by subtracting the carbon sequestration of the project biobased material from the induced emissions from producing that material. Net removals are calculated by subtracting project removals from baseline removals.

The biogenic carbon amount reported in the EPD of the project biobased material shall be used as the basis for calculating the amount of carbon removal credits to issue.

Note that any ancillary materials required in the project scenario from avoidance calculations are not included in removal credit calculations.

Note that EPDs report biogenic carbon uptake as a negative value in Module A using the -1/+1 method (common in LCAs of construction), and this must be removed in order to consider only GHG emissions induced by production (see Equation 3).

Uncertainty assessment

See general instructions for uncertainty assessment in the Riverse Standard Rules. The outcome of the assessment shall be used to determine the percent of avoided emissions to eliminate with the discount factor.

The use of an assumption for carbon storage duration leads to high uncertainty. This duration can be estimated, using best available information and proof, but it is impossible to know with certainty what will be the fate of the material decades from now.

The baseline scenario selection method has high uncertainty. The requirements outlined here ensure that appropriate baseline materials are selected, but ultimately this remains an assumption and can not be known with certainty.

Note that this covers only the method used to select the baseline scenario. For a given project, the specific baseline scenario selected may have more or less uncertainty, depending on the nature of the project.

Equations 1-5 are used to calculate GHG avoidance and removals and have no uncertainty. They are commonly used and basic equations.

No estimates or secondary data are used at the methodology level. The following secondary data are used as parameters at the project level, and their uncertainties must be assessed for each project. Expected uncertainties, based on the data source, are provided below as a guideline:

The uncertainty at the methodology level is estimated to be medium to high. This translates to an expected discount factor of at least 6% for projects under this methodology.

Buildings are responsible for 21% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). These can be split into operational emissions (such as energy consumption while buildings are used), and embodied emissions (emissions from the production, maintenance, and waste treatment of building materials). Embodied emissions of buildings account for almost 5-12% of national GHGs across European countries. Much of this impact comes from the energy-intensive production of cement and steel, which are the top two building materials used globally, along with masonry (bricks, blocks, and stone).

Biobased construction materials are composed of matter derived from biogenic origins. They typically have lower embodied GHG emissions than conventional materials because they 1) are mostly composed of renewable, biogenic carbon, which comes with low or even negative embodied emissions, and 2) can have less energy-intensive manufacturing processes.

If the construction material has an expected carbon storage duration of 100 years or more, then the biogenic content of that material counts towards removal Riverse Carbon Credits (RCCs). Regardless of their carbon storage duration, all biobased construction materials are eligible for avoidance RCCs, if the biobased construction material has lower embodied impacts than conventional materials thanks to its low-carbon inputs.

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