This article offers a concept-note structure for early project planning and feasibility assessment. It helps organize technology, boundaries, additionality, monitoring and data needs. This is a practical reference template, not an official Verra template. It cannot replace a formal project description or guarantee registration or credit issuance. The application of ISO 14064-2 and eligibility for VCS registration must be assessed separately.
Download: Carbon Project Design Document (PDD)—Monitoring Plan, Data Collection and Additionality Evidence (original Word file)
The attachment retains the supplied original content. Statements such as “strictly compliant with VCS” are not evidence of conformity. Fixed monitoring, calibration, verification intervals and retention periods must be checked against current program rules, the applicable methodology and project conditions. The outline below is intended for an initial assessment.
1. Project Concept Note
| Basic information | What to record |
|---|---|
| Project name | Working or registered project name |
| Location | Country, city or county, site, facility and coordinates where relevant |
| Developer and responsibilities | Proponent, facility owner, participants and ownership of emission-reduction or removal rights |
| Contact and date | Contact details, preparation date and document version |
1. Project summary
- Activity type: energy efficiency, renewable energy, fuel switching, methane management, industrial reductions, afforestation or another activity. First check VCS eligibility and exclusions.
- Objective: preliminary annual reduction or removal estimate and expected co-benefits.
- Technology: main equipment, process, improvement measures and technology maturity.
- Scale: production capacity, installed capacity, treatment volume and operating hours.
- Crediting period: select it under the applicable activity rules; do not assume that any project may simply choose 10, 20 or 30 years.
2. Scope and project boundary
| Boundary | Information to document |
|---|---|
| Spatial | Buildings, equipment, pipelines, facilities, land and included or excluded areas |
| Temporal | Start date, baseline-data period, monitoring period and basis for the crediting period |
| Emissions and removals | Baseline, project and leakage sources, carbon pools and gases required by the methodology |
| Exclusions and double counting | Each exclusion and its rationale, conservativeness, other registries and overlapping rights |
Corporate Scope 1, 2 and 3 inventories may help identify data sources, but they do not replace the project boundary required by a methodology. The fact that an item is difficult to monitor does not automatically justify excluding it; check whether estimation, conservative treatment or additional monitoring is allowed.
3. Additionality
- Select the applicable additionality approach, tool and version.
- Check legal requirements, plausible baseline alternatives and common practice.
- Where required by the method, provide investment analysis, barrier analysis and traceable supporting evidence.
- Record when carbon-credit revenue was considered in project decisions and retain evidence, where applicable.
Conclusion field: assessment pending / evidence to be supplemented / argument to be completed using the applicable tool. Do not claim VCS additionality merely by ticking a box. The listed analyses are not all mandatory for every project.
4. Baseline scenario and calculation
Describe a reasonable scenario that would occur without the project, the activity data, emission-factor sources and the period for which the data apply. A simplified concept is baseline emissions = activity data × emission factor. Formal calculations must use the methodology’s complete equations, units and adjustment parameters.
Data may come from historical records, measurement or permitted default values. Retain the source, version and reason for selecting each value.
5. Project emissions
List emissions from project energy use, fuels, processes and other sources. For each item, record the equation, parameters, data source, monitoring method and treatment of uncertainty.
6. Leakage assessment
Identify activity shifting, changes in material or waste flows, transport changes and any other leakage sources specified by the methodology. Document the quantification method and whether the source must be deducted, monitored or may be treated as negligible under the applicable rules; retain supporting evidence.
7. Estimated net reductions
Simplified illustration: net reductions = baseline emissions − project emissions − leakage emissions. For removal activities and projects involving carbon pools, use the applicable equations and check conservative deductions, reversal risks and buffer requirements.
Enter annual and crediting-period estimates and disclose assumptions, data gaps and sensitivity to key parameters.
8. Applicable methodology
Record the identifier, official title, version, status, effective date and transition dates. Check eligibility, exclusions, baseline, additionality, leakage and monitoring requirements clause by clause. Combine methodologies, modules or tools only when the rules expressly allow it.
9. Sustainable development and safeguards
Describe environmental, social and biodiversity co-benefits, stakeholder engagement, risks and safeguards. CCB is a separate program with its own requirements; listing co-benefits does not establish CCB certification.
10. Risk and quality assurance / quality control
| Area | Suggested records |
|---|---|
| Monitoring | Parameters, units, instruments, accuracy, frequency, owner and methodology reference |
| Quality control | Calibration, data review, missing-data treatment, anomaly follow-up and calculation-file versions |
| Data management | Original evidence, access controls, backups, retention period and traceability |
| Risk | Activity levels, leakage, reversal, regulation, rights ownership and delivery risks |
11. Implementation plan
After methodology and eligibility assessment, follow the applicable process to prepare the formal project document, obtain independent validation, register the project, prepare monitoring reports, obtain verification and apply for issuance. Verification should not be described as an annual requirement for every project; plan it according to current rules and the monitoring period being reported.
2. Methodology screening examples
The table corrects identifier/activity mismatches in the supplied draft. It is for identification and screening, not a ready-to-use recommendation list. Confirm eligibility, current versions and transition arrangements on the official program pages.
| Identifier | Official title or activity | Selection reminder |
|---|---|---|
| VM0001 | Refrigerant Leak Detection | Not a general renewable electricity methodology |
| VM0012 | Improved Forest Management in Temperate and Boreal Forests (LtPF) | Not a boiler or compressed-air efficiency methodology |
| VM0035 | Reduced Impact Logging | Not a building-lighting or heat-pump efficiency methodology |
| VM0041 | Reducing enteric methane emissions from ruminants through feed supplements | Not an afforestation methodology |
| VM0042 | Improved Agricultural Land Management | Not equivalent to a general forest-carbon methodology |
Sources: Active VCS methodologies, VM0041, and VM0042.
3. Methodology selection sequence
- Confirm that the activity is eligible under the VCS Program and is not excluded.
- Search the official list for a current methodology that is permitted for use; do not infer applicability from a VM number alone.
- Check the technology, location, scale, baseline, additionality and data availability against the methodology.
- Confirm that any combination of methodologies or modules is allowed and does not create double counting or conflicts.
- If no methodology applies, assess the formal methodology-development process, schedule and cost.
The official VM0042 FAQ also lists restrictions on combining methodologies. Do not treat “combine multiple modules” as a generally permitted option.