Labelling Authority

A Labelling Authority establishes a set of criteria to indicate that a Production Facility or Product Certificate is above and beyond those of the Produce Code or the International Attribute Tracking Standard (Standard). These criteria are known as Labelling Schemes or Labels. Approved Labels must be implemented by the Code Manager and Issuer when the criteria for its adherence are fulfilled.

Labelling Schemes are classified as one or multiple of the following sub-categories: Verification Label, Product Facility Label, Product Certificate Label, or Redemption Label.

 Verification Label

• A Verification Label is a Labelling Scheme that provides additional or separate third-party verification of production output and can be used by Registrants as evidence for I-REC issuance. A Verification Label will especially be used for verification and auditing of Production Facilities that are different than described in the Product Code and associated Local Working Instructions (LWI). For the I-REC(E) Code, this concerns Production Facilities that cannot provide conventional evidence (e.g., electricity market settlements metering data) such as Distributed Energy Resources (DER). When using a Verification Label, the Registrant must provide evidence of the eligibility of the Label before the Issuer or Code Manager can accept the Verification Label as verification methodology for their issuance request.

 Production Facility Label

• A Production Facility Label is a label used on a Production Facility (or device) and all generation. The Label can be applied if the Production Facility adheres to a set of criteria set by the Labelling Authority. Applications for a Production Facility Label can take place at the time of or following the registration of a Production Facility by an Issuer. Examples of such criteria are certain policy requirements in the country or adherence to certain sustainability criteria. The Label provides additional information to end-users about the generation from the Production Facility and the Label is visible on the Redemption Statement of the I-REC.

 Product Certificate Label

• A Product Certificate Label is like a Product Facility Label as it provides additional information about the generation of a specific Production Facility. The Label can be granted if the responsible Labelling Authority determines that the generation adheres to a set of criteria. The difference with the Product Facility Label is that the Product Certificate Label does not automatically apply to all generation from the Production Facility, but rather a specific portion.

 Redemption Label

• A Redemption Label as a Labelling Scheme is used to approve Redemptions as being adherent to the criteria of the Labelling Authority, in this case, a Redemption Authority. An approved Redemption Authority has access to the Registry to approve Redemptions that claim adherence to the Label. Once the Redemption Authority has approved the redemption, the Label will be added to the redemption and will be visible in the Redemption Statement. Examples of Redemption Authorities are National Authorities that verify redemptions against a certain policy goal and voluntary consumer claim Standards.

Approval for Labelling Scheme

While the Labelling Authority and Labelling Scheme do not need to undergo Accreditation, they do need approval from the Board to function in adherence with the International Attribute Tracking Standard. To request approval for a Label Scheme, you can fill out the form from this page labelled, ‘Application for the Approval of a Labelling Scheme.’

Commercial agreements with Labelling Authorities are generally outside of the service delivery of a Product. Therefore, commercial agreements between Labelling Authorities and Market Entities may exist outside of the scope of work of a Product Code or the I-REC Standard.