•• Facilitating third-party services

Entities expanding and simplifying market player interactions with I-RECs

Platform Operators are in the position to provide additional services such as facilitating a marketplace, providing better visualization tools for market players and end-users, and many other things they see as beneficial in the market. The I-REC Accredited Registries are the single point of truth for legal ownership of I-REC(E) and can be used for the issuance, transfer, and redemption of certificates. The I-REC Standard Foundation (I-REC Standard) supports Platform Operators to innovate and provide additional services. A Platform is in direct connection with the Accredited Product Registry and hence does not jeopardize the robustness of the associated I-REC Accredited Products.

From Platforms, requests for Issuance, lodging for sale, transfer, or Redemption of a Product Certificate held within a Registry are accessible to individuals or organizations (entities) other than those who are Accredited with the I-REC Standard. Moreover, Platforms are also capable of initiating the registration or management of Entities or Production Facilities within a Registry.

Platform Operators can coordinate with the Registry Operator and Code Manager in the development of a Platform. However, a Platform is required to undergo Accreditation to ensure it adheres to the requirements of the Standard. In general, as all commercial relationships between sellers and buyers are already outside of the scope of the International Attribute Tracking Standard (Standard), so too is the work of platforms largely outside of the scope of the Standard.

Therefore, the interaction between Platform Tracking systems and the role of Platform Operators within those systems can generally be understood with the following analogy.

Tracking systems are like a concrete tube: what enters the tube needs to be checked to ensure it is of the highest quality, standards (issuance) and what comes out of the tube (redemptions) needs to have clear end-users and purposes of use defined. Within the tube, the information cannot change but is rather just transferred from one place to another. These strict controls at the front and the end of the tube are what the I-REC Standard regulates, what the I-REC Standard doesn’t regulate is the tube that transfers the content in the tube from its starting to its ending point. This tube is the market, Platform, or method of trade that was chosen by the users of the system. So long as the system does not affect the quality of the output, any method of transfer is accepted. What this analogy implies is that the market for I-RECs is free for Market Participants to define on their own, so long as the underlying data that went in the tube is not modified, lost, or amended. It is also critical that, at the point of exit, the ownership of the I-REC is clearly defined and linked to the I-REC in perpetuity.

In this way, the I-REC Standard is looking to facilitate Platform Operators who develop different “tubes” or trading mechanisms between issuance and redemption. If there are no leakages or modifications, it should be possible for any party to develop a platform in adherence with the I-REC Standard. All platform operators are subject to Accreditation by the I-REC Standard Foundation.

More information about the accreditation process for Platforms can be found here.