| Additionality | A metric for evaluating whether the emissions reductions or profile associated with an intervention (e.g. certificate purchase) would have occurred absent the intervention. In particular, regulatory additionality assesses whether the activity is already required by and used towards a regulatory obligation. |
| Auditor | Auditor is used throughout this document to refer to a Conformity Assessment Body, which covers both Certification Bodies and Validation/Verification Bodies. Specifically, we refer to Conformity Assessment Bodies that are independent of the organization that provides the claim, have no user interests in that claim (i.e. third-party), and are accredited to certify to a particular standard. |
| Best Practice | A recommended action or approach that stakeholders may adopt to align with its corresponding principle. The best practices provided in this document offer a snapshot of prevailing approaches today. New best practice approaches and methods will emerge and develop over time, and book and claim systems will adapt and evolve to meet those needs. |
| Book and Claim | A chain of custody model that allows environmental attributes to be decoupled from physical products or services that would ordinarily directly carry those attributes, creating a separate certificate that allows buyers without physical access to decarbonized transportation services or fuels to financially enable the decarbonization of heavy transport and claim its benefits. |
| Book and Claim System | The market infrastructure (sustainability certification systems, registries, and accounting standards) that allows fuel or transport service providers to “book” the environmental attributes of a transportation product and/or service they’ve generated, creating certificates, so that customers can then “claim” the emissions benefit represented by these certificates for climate disclosures. |
| Certificate | A certificate represents the environmental attributes (including carbon intensity, GHG emissions reductions, and other sustainability characteristics that substantiate a claim) associated with a given quantity of low carbon fuel or transport service (e.g. metric ton of neat SAF or MJ of energy). For the purposes of this document, we will use the term “certificate,” though this is also commonly referred to as a BCU (book and claim unit), credit, or token. |
| Certification | Certification is the process of evaluating something (in this document, a supply chain’s sustainability) against a set of established criteria by an independent accredited auditor. |
| Double Counting | Double counting in book and claim systems refers to the erroneous, duplicate or improper accounting of emission reductions, encompassing three main scenarios: double issuance (duplicate creation of certificates for the same solution), double claiming (multiple parties claiming the same certificates), double use (repeated utilization of a single certificate by the same party for multiple purposes). |
| Environmental Attributes | Characteristics of energy sources and other activities that represent specific sustainability aspects of those sources and activities. These attributes may include carbon intensity, GHG emissions reductions and other sustainability characteristics. |
| Intervention | An action taken to produce a low carbon fuel and/or transport service that leads to the creation of a certificate. A single intervention creates both scope 1 and scope 3 certificates. |
| Principle | A fundamental statement that should apply to all book and claim systems in heavy transportation supply chains, across all transportation modes. Every credible book and claim system or piece of infrastructure should align with the listed principles to maintain its validity and integrity. |
| Registry | A systematic collection of documented information or data that is organized and maintained according to specific requirements. |
| Sustainability Certification Schemes | Sustainability certification schemes encompass standardized frameworks or methodologies designed to evaluate and confirm the sustainability performance of products, services, or processes (referred to as environmental attributes in this document). These schemes are typically overseen by independent organizations or regulatory bodies, which accredit auditors to certify operators to their schemes. |