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Smart Freight Conversations
Episode 34 | The Catalyst Series: Understanding EACs, Carbon Insetting, and Credible Scope 3 Claims
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What happens when a carrier decarbonizes but its customer isn't paying for it?
The reduction happens, but nobody can claim it. That gap is exactly what Environmental Attribute Certificates (EACs) are built to close.
In the latest episode of Smart Freight Conversations: The Catalyst Series, Andy Golding talks with Maria Lacalle, Head of Customer Decarbonization at Carboninsets, about how EACs work and why trust is the hardest part of scaling Book and Claim.
Key takeaways:
-EACs let buyers claim Scope 3 reductions without direct physical access to lower-carbon fuel
- Carboninsets connects buyers and sellers directly, keeping chain of custody intact
- Most buyers follow SFC's MBM Framework, including its two-year vintage rule
- Road freight is the mode everyone's now focused on
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Smart Freight Conversations, where we share interesting and important updates on all things freight decarbonization. I'm Andy Golding, Director of Strategic Services at Smart Freight Center, or SFC, as you'll hear us call it, and I'll be your host for today. Today we're having a conversation all about carbon insetting. We are talking about environmental attributes certificates, verifiability, reliability, trust, and credibility. Joining me for this episode, I have Maria Lacaye. Maria is the head of customer decarbonization at Carbon Insets. And without further ado, let's dive in to today's conversation. Maria, thank you so much for joining me.
SPEAKER_00Thanks to you.
SPEAKER_01Maybe you could start off with just telling us a little bit about yourself, your role, Carbon Insets, and some context for the conversation that we're having here today.
SPEAKER_00Sure. I joined Carbon Insets last May, so it will be soon one year. It's my fourth time in Smart Office Center, so I'm already a better one here, but I've been in the industry more in the reporting area before, and now I'm moving more into the climate action side of things. And basically I'm more I focus on Carbon Insetting. Carbon Insets is basically a company that focuses on matchmaking, connecting the supply and the demand on the AAC market. So companies like carriers, fuel suppliers that are have inventory, have available inventory of EACs. They have opportunities to offer those COVID-3 certificates to buyers that may be shippers, cargo owners, or uh LSPs, faithful orders. So basically, we are aiming to connect the dots. We in fact we launched in this edition a marketplace. So that's our new uh update, uh, let's say of a Sparfent Center Week 2026. And other than that, on my side, I'm particularly focused on the supporting the buyers uh in their to make uh informed decisions and to push their declaration goals.
SPEAKER_01Super, thank you. I know you actually you describe Carbon Insets as a matchmaking company, but I want to go back a few steps. We're talking about EACs, environmental attribute certificates. For somebody listening who might be like, huh? What do you mean? Can you maybe explain what is an EAC and why does it matter?
SPEAKER_00Very good question. It's always a tricky one, particularly when you're explaining what you do to people that are outside of the sector. Yes. So first let's understand that a carbon inset if we are focused, is a solution to found decarbonisation for hard-trade sectors. I think that's a relevant element uh to support companies uh to basically access emission reductions linked to their value chain. So a company like all of the companies here, they have um emissions linked to road, linked to rail, linked to air, linked to marine. But unfortunately, they it's they are struggling to directly access those reductions through their careers. So basically it's an instrument, it's a tool, so that whenever a company, like let's say a shipping line, they are making efforts to decarbonize, but their direct clients that are own the cargo that is being moved, own the containers et cetera, uh they are not paying for that green premium. Whenever that happens, there's like a mismatch. No, uh the reduction happened, but nobody can claim it because they haven't paid for that. So then uh we create this instrument, a certificate, a scope-free certificate that is eventually an emission reduction linked to the uh that that that's uh marine movement, no? Yeah. Uh that and that can be traded outside of the direct value chain. So basically any other buyer in the market can say, I'm interested in 1,000 tons of of this uh biofuel-related uh marine um insects, as we can call it, or EAC. And they can access basically that that reduction. Uh, so that again on the buyer side they can reduce that directly within their emission reporting, and on their seller side, they are basically recovering the cost of linked to their efforts. So, yeah, that's how I would explain it in not so few words, apologies.
SPEAKER_01No, it's all good. Thank you for that explanation. And I think the EACs play a very important role in the decarbonization space because when we look at book and claim or a market-based measures approach and we're approach, and we're decoupling physical supply and demand. So, you know, I might be moving goods here, but the burning better fuel there. Yeah, EACs are a really important factor that helps make it credible, trustworthy, verifiable. And this is why this is such an important conversation. So we've spoken a little bit about what EACs are, they're essentially proof that better fuel was used or a better operating model was employed. Yeah, a lower carbon operating model was employed, and they unlock this access where physical demand doesn't exist, or physical supply, sorry, doesn't exist. So if I want to do this, if I have a company saying, okay, I want to move goods, I don't have access to sustainable aviation fuel, for example, right here. Yeah, how do I procure EACs?
SPEAKER_00There are different alternatives in terms of sourcing of those EACs. Eventually, you need to understand like who is owning those EACs. There's two main uh companies that can generate them and then therefore own them and sell them. One of them is the basic career, basically, uh the career, the shipping line, the airline, that they have the fleet, uh they implement those uh decarbonization technologies, therefore they can create those reductions and commercialize them via ACs. The other one would be the fuel supplier, uh, that that can also be a key uh player a little farther away, uh, but um that that depending on the contract that they have with the carriers, they can also be the owners of the scope-free ACs. Uh, then, of course, there are many buyer alliances, uh, traders, brokers in the market that can generate that connection. Uh and uh, well, of course, I cannot forget about ourselves. Uh matchmakers, uh marketplaces like Carbon Insets, that of course we are supporting that those transitions to happen in the market.
SPEAKER_01And how would a company use carbon insets as a matchmaker?
SPEAKER_00Uh I think like maybe answering you like in another way why companies value our positioning. I would say that it's basically, I mean, first of all, we are not a trader, we are not going to buy and resell. We connect. So a company like a shipper, they may have needs. They come to us, they explain to us everything that they are requiring, uh, the quality points, the pricing points, of course, the modality, whatever. We hear them and we connect them with the right match, kind of like the Tinder of ACS. So um once that happens, they will buy directly from the source. So we don't, thinking on thinking of the smart presenter rules uh and the and how it's expected to be to happen, we don't block the chain of custody because we are not going to intervene. We are connecting them, they will sign a standardized contract, they will uh be delivered of those EECs directly from the seller, and we believe that's that's the right way because quality happens following this um this model.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that chain of custody conversation is such an important one because we often on the show talk about book and claim, and the one thing that, and you know, there's so many companies that are willing to take on a you know, use and adopt a market-based measures approach because it does offer so much value, but they also need that accountability, that credibility, that verifiability, and that uh chain of custody is so critical to maintaining that. What about additionality and vintage constraints? How are you managing those?
SPEAKER_00I would say, like, as always, the we follow the buyers' preferences. At the end, uh all of them have different uh concerns, different challenges, different priorities. They set their standards. We always ask about what's your checklist. So I would say maybe to give you an example, most of the buyers that we speak to, they align to the Smart Freight Center MBM rule uh around the two years vintage eligibility. That's something that would normally happen. If it's a shipper, they will accept 2025 and 2024 vintage for 2026 uh a year of applicability. But of course, they wouldn't accept something before that because they align to what you guys are have defined. Another element is the additionality, of course, given it is an indirect model uh where that physical connection doesn't apply, they would always demand additional places. So that's something that we always guarantee for sure. Um and uh there are many other KPIs of decision making that as I would as I would say. So for us, it's super important to really listen to the buyer, understand what do you want, because then we can bring them closer to the ideal solution.
SPEAKER_01And I think for anybody listening, curious about the you've mentioned the the MBM work or the book and claim work from Smart Freight Center. Smart Freight Center did write the market-based measures framework and the specifications alongside that. And it is really a guiding document to help companies get started with implementing book and claim and creating an industry-wide standard practice of this is how we can do this.
SPEAKER_00At the end, this is the voluntary market, so it's super important for the buyers to really understand like okay, I can, I can, I can I can follow these uh this as one of my strategies of decarbonization. It's great, but how do I do it? And having the MBM, it's like a great element so that they can really adapt to the standards that the experts at the end have defined. And I really see that most of my buyers are really following that so that they they really feel more comfortable because then they are following a guideline, even if it's voluntary, they still feel safe, no?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it creates that standardization, that standardized approach. Uh so it's not um in a previous episode of this podcast, before in the the time before the GLEC framework, it was um it was defined as the wild, wild west of emissions accounting and reporting. And that the GLEC framework comes in and creates the standardized framework for how we calculate and report. And I think the MBM framework does the same thing. You know, as you say, it's a voluntary market. So, how do we get people working in the same way and moving in the same direction so that everybody's rowing their boats constructively forward?
SPEAKER_00I literally had one slide yesterday on the on the procurement session that we had uh that was the wild wide market of EACs and all of the challenges, like like it was the same.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so so you feel me basically. Yeah, yeah. And what are you guys seeing and experiencing around the market demand for uh for EACs?
SPEAKER_00I think it's um again, like it's always going to be linked to uh the buyer's preferences, and in this case, in terms of modalities, depending on their footprints, they may want to decarbonize more one area or another because that's more important or more impactful for them. I've been speaking with many many shippers and free forwarders these days, and they tell me now road is getting more and more important for us. I think that's kind of something that I feel all around this week. Uh, that the basically road is the new uh element in the crowd. Everybody is like trying to figure out uh what they want to do with road. Before that, uh air and marine has always been uh present. Most of the companies have already a comprehensive strategy around that. And maybe rail is less is less relevant because it has a less a lower impact, at least on the footprint, or because it's already per se a solution that decarbonizes in general. Yeah. If they use uh some kind of biodiesel or electric through uh through a rail. So yeah, that's that's my answer. Cool.
SPEAKER_01This can all feel quite complex. Um, you know, getting started with market-based methods, getting started with EACs. I love that you described carbon insets as the tinder of EACs. I think that becomes something people can immediately understand and relate to. But if somebody listening to the show is going, I I want to get started, I see some opportunity here, but I don't actually know where to begin, what advice would you give them?
SPEAKER_00Uh, first of all, 100%, it's never easy. I think if not, we would not have a job here. And also on the other side, you would get bored. All of the people here in Smart Fates community, we are curious people, we are very ambitious, we we want to push the boundary, so I think that's also why it gets funny, no? But answering your question, I would say, like, first of all, like we all have net zero commitments, all the companies have that ambition. And I understand that many of them they have started with scope one and scope two, but they cannot forget about scope three because for most of the companies, that's the biggest um chunk of their emissions. So I would say my advice is don't delay the action. And at the end, probably all of the companies that are listening, they already have emission reporting that's of course uh compulsory in many countries, and also it's data that they need to have. It's not normal that uh we have all of the financial KPIs, we measure sales, we measure every element of the company. It couldn't happen, the sustainability is left apart. They need to know their emissions, they need to know where they are, but also they need to know um what do I need to do to reach that net zero commitment. Yes. So basically just build a plan that suits your company uh so that um in progressively you basically reach that net zero towards 2045, 2050, whatever is your deadline. But my advice would be to start little by little towards that. Always focus on uh where your emission footprint is the biggest, because then you will feel better about the impact that you're getting. If not, really like it you will feel like you're working for something that is minimal, focus on what's the big impact and decarbonize that. And of course, uh it's a matter of combining your operational strength with the solutions that are available beyond what you can directly control, basically EACs. So combine that as a strategy, and uh of course, finally define a clear criteria of decision making towards what if you want to buy EACs, what's my checklist? Yeah, what's my quality minimum? Uh what's you know, all of that needs to be defined.
SPEAKER_01So create a plan, decide where you're going, know what your minimum viable quality that you will accept is, and work at it paso by paso, step by step.
SPEAKER_00Paso paso.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Super. Maria, thank you so much for joining us for this episode. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Me too. I will be here again whenever you want me. Thank you. If you would like to learn more about decarbonization or MBM market-based measures and book and claim, head to academy.smartfreightcenter.org where we have courses and free educational media resources available to help you scale up your decarbonization journey. Thank you for listening to this episode of Smart Freight Conversations. If you found value in this episode, or if you, a partner, a colleague, anyone that you know could benefit from listening to this episode, please feel free to share it. Until next time.