Mass Balance Series | Part 2
Building Trust: Why Standards Matter in Mass Balance
Mass balance provides a practical way for businesses to invest in lower carbon fuels and materials while dedicated supply chains continue to develop. However, its success depends on one critical factor: trust. Without recognised standards, independent verification and transparent governance, businesses cannot confidently demonstrate that their sustainability claims are accurate or that environmental benefits have only been allocated once.
This second article explores why standards are fundamental to mass balance, the role of chain of custody certification, and how recognised frameworks are helping organisations make credible sustainability claims while accelerating investment in lower carbon supply chains.
In the first article of this series, we explored how mass balance enables businesses to support lower carbon fuels and materials without requiring entirely separate supply chains. Rather than tracking every physical molecule through a complex global network, mass balance tracks the environmental attributes associated with sustainable inputs, allowing organisations to begin investing in decarbonisation while infrastructure continues to evolve.
For businesses, this creates a practical way to reduce Scope 3 emissions and support the adoption of lower carbon technologies. However, it also raises an important question. How can organisations demonstrate that the environmental benefits they are claiming are genuine?
If a sustainable fuel is blended with conventional fuel before entering a shared storage or distribution system, how can a customer be certain that the emissions reduction they have paid for has not already been claimed by someone else? Equally, how can investors, regulators and customers have confidence that sustainability claims are supported by evidence rather than good intentions? The answer lies in standards, transparent governance and independent verification.
Without these foundations, mass balance risks becoming another accounting exercise. With them, it becomes a credible mechanism that allows businesses to invest in the transition while maintaining confidence in the integrity of their claims.
Understanding chain of custody
At the centre of mass balance is the concept of chain of custody.
A chain of custody system records how sustainable materials move through a supply chain and ensures that the associated environmental attributes are tracked from their point of origin to the organisation making the final claim.
Unlike physical segregation, where sustainable and conventional materials remain completely separate throughout production and distribution, mass balance recognises that mixing is often unavoidable. Sustainable aviation fuel, renewable marine fuels and many recycled or bio-based materials enter shared storage facilities, pipelines and transport systems where physical separation is no longer practical.
Rather than tracking the physical product itself, the chain of custody tracks the verified quantity of sustainable material entering the system and ensures that the associated environmental benefits are allocated accurately.
A business can never claim more environmental benefit than has been introduced into the supply chain. Every sustainability claim must be supported by a corresponding quantity of verified lower carbon material. This provides organisations with a practical way to support sustainable alternatives while maintaining confidence that environmental claims remain transparent and credible.
Why standards are becoming increasingly important
As demand for lower carbon products grows, businesses are facing increasing scrutiny over the claims they make.
Investors want evidence that sustainability commitments are backed by measurable action. Customers expect greater transparency around environmental performance, while regulators are introducing tighter requirements to reduce the risk of greenwashing.
Recognised standards help address these expectations by providing consistent rules for how sustainability attributes should be measured, verified and reported.
Rather than allowing every organisation to develop its own methodology, certification schemes establish common principles that businesses across entire sectors can follow. This consistency is essential for creating confidence in emerging markets for sustainable fuels and materials.
It also gives organisations greater certainty that investments made today will continue to be recognised as reporting frameworks and regulatory expectations evolve.
The organisations building confidence
A number of internationally recognised organisations are helping establish consistent approaches to mass balance and chain of custody accounting.
ISCC PLUS provides certification for bio-based, renewable and circular raw materials, helping businesses demonstrate that sustainability claims are supported by independently verified chain of custody systems.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) has developed certification frameworks covering sustainable fuels and bio-based materials, with a strong focus on environmental and social sustainability throughout the value chain.
ISO 22095, the international standard for chain of custody, establishes common terminology and principles for tracking sustainability characteristics through increasingly complex supply chains.
Alongside these standards, digital platforms such as 123Carbon are improving transparency by providing secure registries where sustainability certificates can be issued, transferred and retired. These registries reduce the risk of double counting by ensuring that environmental attributes cannot be claimed multiple times.
Industry organisations are also helping to create greater consistency across the logistics sector. The Smart Freight Centre continues to work with businesses across global freight and logistics to develop practical guidance for book and claim systems, supporting a more harmonised approach as adoption grows.
Together, these frameworks are helping create the confidence needed for businesses to invest in lower carbon supply chains while ensuring that sustainability claims remain credible.
Supply chain decarbonisation depends on multiple organisations working together, often across different countries, transport modes and regulatory environments. Manufacturers, logistics providers, shipping companies and customers all need confidence that sustainability data can be shared consistently and that environmental claims will be recognised throughout the value chain.
Without common standards, every organisation would need to develop its own accounting methodology, creating unnecessary complexity and reducing confidence in the market. Standardisation allows businesses to speak the same language, making collaboration simpler and enabling lower carbon supply chains to scale more quickly. As investment in sustainable fuels and materials continues to increase, this shared framework will become increasingly important.
Mass balance is often described as an accounting framework, but its significance extends well beyond reporting. When supported by recognised standards and independent verification, it creates a trusted mechanism that allows businesses to invest in lower carbon fuels and materials today while helping to finance the infrastructure needed for tomorrow.
Trust will ultimately determine the success of mass balance. Organisations must be confident that environmental attributes are verified, allocated fairly and protected from double counting. The stronger those governance frameworks become, the greater the confidence businesses will have to accelerate investment across global supply chains.
In Part 3 of this series, we’ll explore how organisations including DP World, DHL, Maersk and other global logistics providers are already putting these principles into practice, and what their experiences tell us about the future of supply chain decarbonisation.