We are pleased to announce the launch of the 7th Enviros Group Verification Scheme to verify 1st, 2nd and 3rd Milestone performances.  In the previous schemes approximately 500 sites had their emissions verified.

CCA sites that beat their milestone target have the potential to generate "CO2 allowances."  When these allowances have been verified, they can either be:

•  banked and used to meet future CCA milestone targets
•  traded via the UK Emissions Trading Scheme

CO2 allowances can only be banked or traded if they have been "verified" by an accredited independent verifier.  The verification process involves a review of energy and production data for the milestone year.  Once the verification process is complete, the owner of the allowances can either trade or bank the allowances.

You may want to join the 7th Enviros Group Verification Scheme if you wish to:

• have your data for the 3rd Milestone period verified (i.e. data for  October 2005 to September 2006).

• have data for the previous Milestones verified (MS1, Oct 2001 to Sep 2002; MS2, Oct 2003 to Sep 2004).  You may wish to do this if you beat the Milestone 1 and/or Milestone 2 targets and have not yet had your ringfenced surplus verified.
• for those sites affected, have your data for MS2.5 (Oct 2004 to Sep 2005) and/or MS3.5 (Oct 2006 to Sep 2007) verified.

Please see Information Sheet 55 for further information and complete this fax back form to register interest.  Please return the form as soon as possible and no later than 25th April 2008.

Blank Milestone 3 Verification Data Packs: (available soon)

Coversheet, Energy Source List and Declaration

Production Data

Electricity Supplies

Gas Supplies

Bulk Energy Supplies

Privately Imported Energy Data (Complex)

Exported Energy Data (Complex)

Milestones 1, 2, 2.5 & 3.5 Verification Data Packs - available upon request from the CCL Help Line.

Verifying CO2 Allowances

If a site beats its CCA milestone target it will have saved more energy and hence CO2 than required. These savings can be turned into CO2 Allowances. These Allowances can be traded in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme but only if the data upon which they have been generated has been independently verified.

What is Verification?
The process of verification involves checking the validity of your energy and production data for the milestone year to confirm your performance versus your CCA target. This can only be undertaken by a UKAS accredited verifier.

What is Group Verification?
Group verification is a methodology that makes use of the data already submitted to your Trade Association scheme through your CCA annual data returns and supplemented by extra data.

The Enviros Group Verification Scheme (GVS)
Enviros have successfully run four GVS by using the data submitted to Enviros as part our CCA Administration activities. Over 450 sites have been successfully verified.

Enviros collate the CCA data together with collecting additional data from participants and send these ‘Data Packs’ to an independent verifier. By working with a group of sites operating under a single CCA reporting regime the verifier has only needed to visit a small sample of sites in the group to confirm the accuracy of the data being collected. This has provided a significant cost saving compared to being verified individually.

Another important reason to consider verification relates to multi-site companies. If you wish to transfer CO2 allowances between sites performing well and sites performing badly you will need to have emissions verified (unless all your sites are in a single "bubble" target unit).

The value of CO2 allowances can only be realised if your emissions are verified. Providing the cost of verification is less than the value of the CO2 allowances it is logical to have your emissions verified. One of the objectives of the Group Verification Scheme is to provide a low-cost verification process that enables sites with a small quantity of CO2 allowances to sell or bank.

What extra data is needed?
The annual data you submit to Enviros is sufficient for most CCA purposes but does not contain enough detail for the verification of CO2 allowances. Each site in the Group Verification Scheme needs to send Enviros a pack of data to provide an audit trail for energy and production figures. This will include meter readings from your main electricity and gas meters, copies of energy invoices, details of how production data is calculated etc. If you are keeping an "evidence pack" as recommended in Information Sheet 23 you will have the majority of extra data readily available.

Are there any further benefits?
The main upside is the possibility of the price of CO2 rising. Another benefit is that sites that have been verified are unlikely to be selected by DEFRA for random audits.