Why is value chain verification important for corporate climate action?

As thousands of companies set science-based targets, ensuring the credibility of climate claims has become more critical than ever. For businesses, a robust emissions reduction plan is no longer just a sustainability ambition — it’s increasingly tied to long-term resilience, regulatory readiness, and even the license to operate.  

Yet, for most companies, the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions occur in their value chain, outside their direct control. Companies need to collaborate with partners along their value chain to create interventions that can reduce these emissions. That's where independent, third-party value chain verification becomes vital. It builds trust and validated impact, and helps ensure that emissions reductions and removals are measurable and real, thus unlocking credible co-claiming for value chain partners.

This blog explores why value chain verification is a cornerstone of credible climate action and how it enables reporting progress on Scope 3 emissions, stakeholder trust, and collective decarbonization of value chains.

Value chain verification involves the audit of GHG data by an independent third party. It ensures that the intended emission reductions and removals of a project are really taking place and validates measurable outcomes. Value chain verification provides a layer of trust to credibly use Scope 3 emissions data for inventory and intervention reporting, as well as reliable data sharing with value chain partners. Value chain verification can focus on auditing the emission factors of specific commodities, or the mitigation outcomes of value chain interventions.

1. Credibly report progress toward science-based targets

GHG accounting is key for companies to track progress towards science-based targets and strategically reduce emissions across their value chains. However, there is often a lack of trust in Scope 3 data and limited guidance from standards for value chain intervention accounting. Verification can mitigate these challenges by confirming emission reductions and removals are taking place, increasing trust in the quality of the data. Verified data can then be used for inventory and intervention reporting in line with GHG Protocol and other standards frameworks. Third-party value chain verification also supports compliance with regulatory frameworks such as the EU’s CSRD and EUDR, ensuring that companies are ready for upcoming regulatory requirements.

2. Increase transparency and trust among stakeholders

Companies’ climate initiatives face a high level of scrutiny from consumers, regulatory bodies, and investors. Many companies hesitate to invest in value chain interventions due to lack of trust in emissions data and lack of standardized business cases. By undergoing independent value chain verification, companies can increase trust in the data and demonstrate their value chain interventions are leading to real impact, creating opportunities to engage other actors in the value chain to co-invest in emissions reductions. By publishing verified information in a public registry, companies can also increase transparency and reduce the risk of double counting.

3. Unlock collaboration and co-investment opportunities

Transparent, verified data facilitates stronger engagement across the value chain and encourages joint climate action. Companies can have trust when sharing verified data, enabling collaboration on interventions in joint value chains.

Third-party value chain verification can reduce uncertainty and risks related to Scope 3 emissions by confirming the emission reductions and claims are legitimate. This leads to increased stakeholder confidence, enhanced supplier engagement, and reliable data sharing.

SustainCERT’s Impact Management Platform enables transparent co-claiming even without full traceability, as well as collaborative financing of mitigation outcomes with value chain partners. Intervention owners can issue Impact Units (IUs) to fairly allocate and monetize the impact of value chain interventions. This enables transparent co-claiming and co-financing — all while eliminating the risk of double counting.

4. Prioritize high-impact initiatives

By verifying the mitigation outcomes of interventions, companies can see where real impact is happening. This helps prioritize programs and investments that have the biggest impact on reducing emissions in their value chains. Companies can also use verified mitigation outcomes to justify return on investment from value chain sustainability initiatives, incentivizing further investments.

Value chain verification can focus on either emission factors or the impact of interventions. Emission Factor Verification can be seamlessly incorporated into Scope 3 inventories, while Interventions Verification helps demonstrate the climate impacts of projects designed to reduce emissions.

Emission Factor Verification

Emission Factor Verification focuses on the emission factors of commodities to ensure the credibility and accuracy of organizations' Scope 3 emissions reporting. Emission factors enable companies to calculate the emissions of their products and activities, and to report them according to frameworks such as the GHG Protocol (including the Land Sector and Removals Guidance) and ISO standards. Emission Factor Verification is possible whether or not the company is changing its operations through interventions.

Verified emission factors use actual supplier data, increasing accuracy and often lowering reported emissions. This is because verified emission factors capture supplier-specific improvements, which are not visible in default emission factor databases. Verified emission factors also enable year-on-year comparisons of emissions, allowing companies to track progress over time. This helps support premium pricing for lower-carbon goods, mitigate risks for off-takers, and seamlessly integrate verified data into Scope 3 inventories. Emission Factor Verification uses inventory accounting and enables claims under Scope 3, Category 1.

When collaborating with other companies, Emission Factor Verification also enables companies to provide the emission intensity of a product to a client, or sell emission factors to 3rd parties. Location-specific insights also help companies optimize sourcing strategies and target decarbonization efforts effectively.

Interventions Verification

Interventions Verification focuses on the impact of a value chain intervention, ensuring that the intended emissions reductions or removals have occurred. Possible interventions include a new technology or process change in the value chain, such as regenerative agricultural practices.

Interventions Verification allows companies to credibly report the emission reductions that have taken place in the value chain, meeting the highest standards of integrity and accountability. This approach uses a combination of project and inventory accounting, allowing for Scope 3, Category 1 claims as well as narrative claims for reductions and removals within corporate value chains. Verifying interventions helps companies justify investments by demonstrating their impact on Scope 3 emissions.

Upon successful verification, companies using the SustainCERT Impact Management Platform can be issued Impact Units. Impact Units are a unitized representation of verified GHG mitigation outcomes, expressed in absolute tCO2 and linked to the amount of product produced in a specific Supply Shed. Impact Units can be incorporated into company reports, as well as transferred and co-claimed with value chain partners, incentivizing collective action on value chain decarbonization.

Get in touch with our team to learn how we can help you improve Scope 3 reporting credibility and unlock market opportunities with value chain verification.