Rocky Mountain Institute × Energy Web

The Verified
Markets Initiative.

A coalition of industry leaders working to digitize sustainability market rules and methodologies, build a shared data-quality vocabulary, and address regulatory and market blockers for enhanced sustainability market digital infrastructure worldwide that scales mature solutions.

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The strategic case

The proof layer climate markets are missing.

The same activity, recalculated by two reputable platforms, can produce numbers that differ by 30 to 90 percent, and nothing in today's stack proves which calculation was run, with which inputs, against which methodology version. A new wave of regulation makes that gap untenable.

Problem 01
Methodology disagreement
Studies comparing widely used emission-factor databases find differences of 30 to 90 percent for the same activity, with Scope 3 still leaning on spend-based proxies the GHG Protocol and SBTi are preparing to phase out.
Problem 02
Opaque execution
No widely used reporting platform produces a tamper-evident, externally reconstructable record of the calculation that was actually run, diverting funds and capacity to reporting rather than impact.
Problem 03
A closing regulatory window
ISSA 5000, California SB 253, the EU Battery Regulation, CSRD and CBAM, and revised GHG Protocol and SBTi guidance all demand sufficient, appropriate evidence for every data source.
Verified Compute, built and operated by Energy Web, replaces sample-based, annual, manual audit with continuous, full-data-scope, cryptographically attested verification. A disclosed number carries its methodology version, factor-set vintage, calculation-engine hash, input commitment, and validator quorum, alongside the figure itself.
The VMI architecture

Five interlocking layers. One data-certainty schema.

Each layer is independently useful and adoptable. Together they make every climate claim reconstructable, attributable, and audit-grade, adding to the work of methodology owners, auditors, and platforms rather than displacing it.

Layer 01
Methodology & Factor Commons
A curated, version-controlled, machine-readable library of methodologies, calculation rules, and emission-factor sets, each with a signed manifest covering version, GWP basis, system boundary, allocation method, dependencies, and licensing.
Not a new methodology authority. It hosts and digitizes methodologies under terms set entirely by their authors.
Layer 02
Provenance & Dependency Graph
A graph of the relationships between methodologies, factor sets, calculation engines, and inputs, with every dependency pinned by hash and semantic version, so every calculation cites a graph path that can be replayed years later.
Not a check on physical truth. It verifies which methodology, factor, version, and inputs were used.
Layer 03
Verified Compute
The execution layer. Methodologies run as deterministic, hash-pinned code across a distributed validator network. Operators execute against committed inputs and submit on-chain attestations carrying methodology, factor, engine, and input hashes plus signatures and timestamps.
Not an opinion writer. It does not replace auditors or displace reporting platforms.
Layer 04
Auditor Attestation Interface
A purpose-built interface and evidence-pack format designed against ISSA 5000 and ISAE 3410 evidence requirements, producing structured, workpaper-grade evidence packs auditors drop straight into their assurance files.
Not the audit. Professional accountability stays entirely with the auditor.
Layer 05
Platform APIs & Integrations
REST and gRPC APIs, language SDKs, and an open schema aligned with PACT v3 for product carbon-footprint exchange. Platforms call VMI underneath their existing interfaces.
Not a competing platform. The customer relationship, dashboards, and consultancy revenue stay with the platform.
Across all five layers
The Data Certainty Schema

A connective vocabulary that dimensionally captures the quality of each input, activity-data quality, emission-factor quality, methodology-version stability, and aggregate uncertainty, so methodological pluralism can converge toward higher-quality, primary-data, version-pinned calculations.

Benefits by stakeholder

Value for everyone who touches a claim.

VMI is designed to add to the work of every participant in a climate market, from the bodies that author methodologies to the regulators that rely on the results.

Methodology developers
Reach, attribution & new income
  • A real-time dashboard of where and how a methodology is used
  • Version control, attribution, and dependency graphs
  • New per-execution licensing paths, with terms set by the owner
  • Digitization and upgradability at no cost to the methodology owner
Corporate claimants
Audit-ready, higher-accuracy disclosure
  • Streamlined checks of conformance to market rules and best practice
  • Higher Scope 1 to 3 accuracy, with the biggest gains in Scope 3
  • Real-time, full-data-scope assurance instead of annual sampling
  • No need to maintain in-house methodology and factor databases
Auditors
A continuous-assurance service line
  • Subscription-based continuous assurance as a new offering
  • Full data coverage rather than sample-based testing
  • Workpaper-grade evidence packs aligned to ISSA 5000 and ISAE 3410
  • Lower marginal cost and reduced engagement risk
Regulators
Lower cost, higher transparency
  • Reduced cost of administering complex reporting requirements
  • Lower administrative burden for reporting companies
  • Improved accuracy and transparency across sustainability reporting
How it is built

RMI curates the content. Energy Web builds the infrastructure.

VMI is delivered through three joint workstreams, with joint fundraising and joint communications. Governance is joint, with RMI as the convening voice and Energy Web as the named technology partner.

Workstream A
Methodology & Factor Database
RMI curates the intellectual content, drawing on its methodology partnerships. Energy Web digitizes methodologies and factor sets, builds the dependency graph and analytics, and ships interfaces and APIs for every database stakeholder.
Workstream B
Data-Quality Vocabulary
RMI authors the vocabulary with input from methodology owners and assurance practitioners. Energy Web operationalizes it, checking data against the digitized database in real time and producing schema-tagged evidence packs for auditors.
Workstream C
Convening
RMI leads engagement with regulators, methodology bodies, and buyers alliances. Energy Web supports with technical demonstrations, the Verified Compute build-out, and joint trial-partner engagement.
Use cases

Already in motion across high-scrutiny markets.

First reference implementations span aviation, shipping, carbon and nature, corporate reporting, and cross-border trade, with more onboarding as the working groups scale.

Aviation · Live
SAFc
Operational since COP28 and built by RMI with EDF, the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, and Energy Web. Deployed on Verified Compute, demonstrating end-to-end book-and-claim issuance, retirement, and double-counting prevention.
Maritime · Live
Katalist
Built by the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping and RMI, with Energy Web as technology partner. Operating with ZEMBA tenders and deepening to full Verified Compute onboarding.
Carbon & nature
Centigrade
RMI's carbon and nature listing platform with Ripple, joining VMI as the carbon and nature data foundation beneath the proof layer that VMI's evidence API provides.
Corporate reporting
Coral × Nissan
Coral, a SaaS platform, assesses the Nissan Formula E team's sustainability report through digitized methodologies on Verified Compute, with an auditor partner verifying the output.
CBAM · Steel
Foton & Enerjisa
With ResponsibleSteel, Foton and Turkish utility Enerjisa build a CBAM compliance use case, integrating utility-level energy data and supplier disclosures into verifiable carbon-footprint declarations for cross-border trade.
Clean energy
Sustainable Bitcoin Protocol
A cooperation between Energy Web and SBP exploring a Clean Energy Bitcoin ETF backed by attested carbon-free energy use, with RMI verifying the methodology for measuring miners' clean-energy use.
Planned
Methane MiQ
The Methane Performance Standard developed by RMI's CMTI with MiQ is a planned reference, alongside other RMI co-curated methodologies onboarding as working groups scale.
Join the initiative

Help build the trust layer
for climate markets.

Whether you author methodologies, run a registry or platform, provide assurance, or shape policy, VMI is the joint vehicle for making climate claims verifiable. We want to hear from you.

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