The InterWork Alliance Sustainability Initiative to Develop Trusted Solution for Standardizing Token-based Carbon Emission Accounting, Credits, and Offsetting

Wakefield, Mass. – July 29, 2020 – The InterWork Alliance (IWA) today announced the formation of its Sustainability Business Working Group, which will focus on making the tokenization of sustainability business use cases possible through standards and a trusted certification program. To date, there is no global standard solution for tokenizing the outcomes of accounting processes designed to track greenhouse gas emission reductions in the form of offsets or credits. By developing a technology-neutral standard for tokenizing emissions and offsets, along with contractual requirements to operate against these tokens, the IWA can dramatically accelerate the implementation and interworking of carbon markets – both voluntary and regulated – using distributed ledger techniques.  

Businesses from around the world are making the quest to take on climate change, only to find sustainability efforts like climate accounting far too complicated. Tokenization has the potential to simplify and dramatically reduce the number of intermediaries, paperwork, and work involved in exchanging, converting, and re-converting carbon accounting certificates, and managing a global carbon mitigation accounting system. By standardizing the representation of ownership rights for carbon credits digitally through tokens, the IWA Sustainability Business Group will set the stage for tokenized business use cases and their contracts to be fulfilled across platforms. 

“The damaging impact of ever-increasing carbon emissions in our atmosphere threatens our world. While tokenization has the power to accelerate climate action, the auditing of carbon credits and offsets has not been solved to date. The IWA will tackle this challenge by developing a solution that assures tokens designed to address sustainability are trusted to interwork on the business level, regardless of underlying technology platforms,” said IWA President Ron Resnick. “We invite companies across the ecosystem to join us and contribute to this important initiative.” 

The IWA Sustainability Business Working Group will be led by Chair Darko Pilav of Digital Asset and Vice-Chairs John Lee of Accenture and Cameron Prell of Xpansiv. IWA members participating in this Working Group include Accenture, Chainlink, Climate Chain Coalition, Digital Asset, Microsoft Corp., Nasdaq, Neo Global Development, R3, SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), Xpansiv, and others.  

“Given that Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting is already common practice among many corporations worldwide, making climate and sustainability accounting more efficient through tokenization is critical. It’s the number one area IWA members want to solve first,” said Marley Gray, principal architect, Microsoft Corp, and IWA Chairman. “The Sustainability Business Working Group will look at the business uses cases for emissions reporting and the tokenization of carbon offsets and credits to create a more efficient and standardized method for exchanging certificates and other digital assets tied to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.” 

The working group will establish the standards for tokenization, contractual extensions, workflows, and analytics for greenhouse gases (GHG)/carbon emissions and offsets. These standards will serve as foundations for both voluntary and regulated carbon markets using distributed ledger techniques to create an auditable ecosystem. The group’s primary focus will be voluntary carbon market architectures that center around emissions, offsets, and contracts. The Initiative will expand its focus to regulated markets in the near future. 

About the InterWork Alliance 

The InterWork Alliance (IWA) is a non-profit, member-led organization creating platform-neutral specifications and trusted certification to define how digital token business processes can interwork regardless of location or market segment. By focusing on real-world projects, market requirements, and performance metrics, the IWA will define tokenization and interworking standards to drive business-level interoperability, multi-party interchange, and trust across applications and networks. Our global membership includes leaders, adopters, innovators, developers, and businesses representing the best practices for every use case the token-powered ecosystem has to offer. To join the IWA, please reach out to membership@InterWork.org. To learn more about the IWA, please reach out to info@InterWork.org or visit https://interwork.org/. 

Follow IWA on Twitter @IntWorkAll; Facebook: InterWorkAll; and LinkedIn: InterWork Alliance