Eligibility criteria
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.
For example, if a biobased construction Project Developer uses wood frames and cellulose insulation, they shall contact the material suppliers to obtain their signed agreement that the materials have not already been issued carbon credits. If the cellulose insulation has already been issued carbon credits by a material manufacturing project, then the Project Developer may only issue RCCs for the wood frame biobased components.
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.
8.4 Resource efficiency in consumption and production
Projects using waste biomass instead of raw materials such as concrete and steel use less raw, non-renewable resources.
9.4 Upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes
Biobased construction may have better performance in the use phase, or may require less energy in the manufacturing phase.
12.2 Achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
If waste biomass is used, projects give value and a second usable life to the organic waste.
15.1 Ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services
Projects using wood from sustainably managed forests support the ecosystem services provided by those forests.
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.
For example, if the project biobased material has a worse performance than the baseline material, a larger quantity of the project material may be required to attain the same performance/function as the baseline material.
Or, if the project biobased material requires additional, ancillary materials to serve the same function as the baseline material, the ancillary materials shall be included in the project scenario for the purpose of calculating avoided emissions.
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.
Examples of activity shifting leakage in biobased construction projects may include, but are not limited to:
Dedicated cultivation of biomass shifts the cultivation activity that previously occurred on that land elsewhere. This may result in land use change to replace the previous function.
Diversion of biomass residue, co-products or byproducts that would normally have been used in competing applications, now must be supplied by another means. If there is not a surplus of that material available, then new materials must replace the demand.
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.
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