Understanding which companies are retiring carbon credit, their industries and the attributes of their portfolio is pivotal to understanding demand in the carbon market. Here's a breakdown of how we assess retirement data and how we define the different roles (e.g. beneficiary and transaction partner).
What is a “beneficiary”?
The corporate beneficiary is identified as the ultimate corporate entity eligible to make a claim for the use of a retired carbon credit.
What is a “transaction partner”?
The transaction partner is the intermediary entity that retires credits on behalf of the ultimate beneficiary. These entities that “hold” the credit on behalf of the beneficiary are often consultants, marketplaces and sometimes even the project developer.
How do you make a distinction between the two?
Our models aim to distinguish between the transaction partner that initiates the retirement process and the company making the claim or incorporating the credits in their inventories.
For instance, if Company X holds the carbon credit but retires it on behalf of Company Y, Company Y will be logged as the “beneficiary” and Company X will be logged as the “transaction partner”. Both of these fields are searchable within the Retirement Beneficiaries dashboard located in the Analytics module.
However, this level of data is not always available. In that case we assign either
- Not disclosed: If a retirement does not give any detail of who the beneficiary or the transaction partner are.
- Retired for an undisclosed client: If the transaction partner is disclosed but the ultimate beneficiary, or their client, is not.
How do you handle large corporations and their subsidiaries?
Recognizing the complexity of large corporations with multiple subsidiaries, we simplify the process for users by displaying the parent company in our dashboard. For example, a search for "Company 1.1," a subsidiary of Company 1, will yield results encompassing all retirements associated with the parent company, Company 1.
How do you ensure your data is of high integrity and consistently updated?
Our team is committed to enhancing user experience by expanding the list of beneficiaries on a weekly basis. Additionally, we continuously improve the underlying technology to ensure accurate assignment of beneficiaries. Users can expect regular updates and expansion of our dataset to reflect evolving corporate structures as well as new companies joining the market.