Mass Balance
Please note that this content is under development and is not ready for implementation. This status message will be updated as content development progresses.
Overview
Mass balance fraud is a particularly challenging greenwashing vector. It happens when a fraudulent actor buys a small quantity of high ESG integrity inputs (eg genuine carbon neutral, organic, deforestation free cotton) and mixes that input with lower quality alternatives and then sells the full volume of manufactures product (eg woven cotton fabric) as sustainable product, re-using the valid credentials from the niche supply. The UNTP solution to this problem involves trusted third parties (certifiers or industry associations) to act as quota managers that issue "guarantee of origin" credentials (a type of conformity credential). In this model, the guarantee of origin certificate for 10 Tons of cotton fabric (for example) can only be issued when the third party has evidence of the purchase of at least 10 Tons sustainable input materials. The third party will also mark the input batch as consumed (in a similar way to the anti-counterfeiting protocol) so that the valid sustainble input cannot be re-presented to a different third party.