Xpansiv and environmental non-profit GreenBlue have integrated the Recycled Material Standard (RMS) ARC certificate registry into the Xpansiv Connect portfolio management system, enabling users to manage Attributes of Recycled Content (ARC) certificates directly within the platform. The development is expected to broaden access to ARC certificates beyond their traditional users in the plastics production, recycling and packaging sectors.
ARC certificates, based on the ISO-defined book-and-claim accounting method, can be used by consumer goods companies, both online and high-street retailers, and other businesses that sell or use plastic products to address the environmental impact of plastic within their value chains. They can also support companies’ Scope 3 emissions reporting, including “end-of-life treatment of sold products” under Category 12 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
Elizabeth Ritch, Senior Manager of the Recycled Material Standard at GreenBlue, said: “ARCs serve a similar role in environmental commodity portfolios to renewable energy certificates, and enable companies to fund external recycling programmes to account for plastic waste in their value chains.” She added that integrating the RMS registry into Xpansiv Connect is “an important step to make ARCs available to a wider user base in the global sustainability community.”
Veritiv, a packaging distributor, began purchasing ARCs two years ago. Martha Issa, Vice President of Quality and Corporate Responsibility, said: “We realised that by introducing ARCs, we could support North American recycling infrastructure and take a new approach to improving the environmental impact of the packaging products we distribute.”
The ARC credit system allows participants to sell credits representing the environmental benefit of one metric tonne of plastic diverted from landfill and processed into feedstock for new manufacturing.
Xpansiv Connect currently integrates with 15 major carbon and renewable energy registries and is used to transfer around one billion environmental assets each year. GreenBlue’s ARC registry operates on Xpansiv’s digital registry infrastructure.
Russell Karas, Senior Vice President for Strategic Market Solutions at Xpansiv, said: “We believe market-based mechanisms, including those in new asset classes like recycled materials, are indispensable tools in company sustainability programmes.”
