A global energy company was buying carbon offsets generated by development programs in India, among them a scheme distributing energy-efficient lighting to households and a large infrastructure-linked program. On paper, the offsets existed. The client wanted to know whether they existed on the ground: were the programs operating as described, at the scale claimed, run by the people named in the documentation?
“The programs' activity on the ground was checked against their documentation.”
The engagement, carried out during my tenure at a global investigations firm, sent the verification to where the programs were supposed to be running. The project developers behind the schemes were researched and engaged; the programs' on-the-ground reality was checked against their documentation; and the findings went back to a client that could then stand behind, or step away from, the credits it was buying.
Offset documentation and what happens on the ground can differ, and the difference is usually visible only in the field. The same approach applies to other environmental, social and governance (ESG) claims a company reports or relies on, such as labor standards or sourcing claims. In my view, a figure that reaches a company’s disclosures should be checked by someone who was not paid to produce it.