Equilibrium's Digital Monitoring, Reporting & Verification (dMRV) Product: What We Built and Why?

Credibility and scientific rigor required for carbon removal and reduction projects becomes more attainable when data - from baseline to project completion - is consolidated on a single platform and displayed transparently.

The Voluntary Carbon Market has both upstream and downstream actors, each having its specific role, responsibilities, and requirements depending on the position they occupy in the value chain. Thus, credible information and traceability of emission reductions efforts, specifying accurately that a certain mitigation or adaptation activity has resulted in removing or avoiding harmful CO2 or equivalent emissions (a ton reduced per credit), is crucial for both supply and demand side integrity. 

Further, as the focus on carbon offsets intensifies, and so does the market scrutiny, buyers increasingly seek credits that deliver measurable and verifiable impacts supported by a robust framework for traceability, good governance, and equitable benefit-sharing. To achieve this, Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) is the way forward. 

What is Measurement, Reporting, and Verification?

Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) is a systematic process designed to quantify the GHG emissions reduced by specific mitigation activities, over a period of time. This process involves measuring the reductions, reporting the findings to an accredited third party, and undergoing verification. Once the third party validates the results, the process culminates into the issuance of carbon credits.

What we Built and Why?

Existing solutions miss the mark. Advanced systems often ignore on-ground realities, while the practical ones lag behind in adopting new advancements in methodologies and transparency standards. Given that carbon projects are fundamentally data projects, where data confidence directly influences buyer confidence, we realised bridging this gap is critical to building trust and ensuring meaningful impact.

Engaging with this evolving ecosystem necessitated embracing innovative solutions - solutions that not only account for the distinct needs of all the stakeholders in the marketplace, but also the unique and fragmented agricultural landscape in the Global South, particularly India.

Product Features:

Drawing on over three years of insights collected from the pilots across the nature-based solutions, Equilibrium’s Digital MRV product is built for the future of the Carbon Market.

Our proprietary dMRV product offers end-to-end capabilities, and has the following features:

• The product employs an omni-channel approach to data collection and management as it streamlines project operations under a single umbrella.
• It integrates physical data collection with remote verification, ensuring the data collected reflects the true picture on ground. 
• The product applies advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology on documents submitted by field agents, utilising state-of-the-art libraries with over 92% accuracy. It is also equipped with capabilities to extract and translate data from documents in Indian languages.
• As data is captured, it is simultaneously verified, with every change being recorded for audit purposes, ensuring transparency throughout the process.
• Using the captured KMLs, the product allows for baseline analysis to verify whether the specified locations comply with the methodology and align with its requirements. Satellite data is also gathers for various Indices to further determine the feasibility of the project.
• The product offers tailored dashboards for different stakeholders, providing customised access to relevant features and data. In other words, direct buyers, investors, registries and VVBs, rating bodies etc., get access to rich, near real-time data based on what’s relevant to them.
• Lastly, the product can also sit on top of any database and absorb input from any platform with commonly used data management principles.

In a market where buyers prioritise traceable and transparent carbon credits, we are transforming how carbon is measured and monitored.

To know more, reach out to our founder Siddhanth Jayaram at sid@equilibriumearth.com for a product demo.