Structuring Demand for Lower-Carbon Materials

The report examines the use of environmental attribute certificates (EACs) via a book and claim model to scale lower-carbon steel and concrete. It argues that this mechanism allows organizations to fund upstream decarbonization even when they cannot directly procure low-carbon materials. The authors identify critical infrastructure needs—including certification schemes, standards, registries, and reporting guidelines—and share lessons from a Microsoft pilot, noting that the market is currently in early stages with a lack of fit-for-purpose accounting methods.

• Steel and concrete are among the most emissive industrial sectors, together accounting for over 10% of global CO2 emissions and half of all heavy industrial emissions.
• A book and claim system allows buyers to decouple the environmental attributes of a lower-carbon product from the physical material, enabling those without direct physical access to the product to fund and claim emissions reductions.
• Book and claim certificates differ from carbon credits because they are linked to a specific physical product volume and correspond to a supply chain activity rather than an external offset.
• To ensure high integrity, book and claim certificates must be evaluated against three foundational metrics: they must be verifiable by third parties, additional to business-as-usual scenarios, and catalytic for sector-wide technology transitions.
• The report identifies four primary challenges to implementing book and claim in materials: the lack of a uniform product (especially in concrete), supply chain complexity and lack of visibility, the risk of double counting with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), and a lack of uniform accounting methods.
• Robust market infrastructure for book and claim requires four integrated components: certification schemes to verify products, standards to define use cases, registries to track ownership and retirement, and reporting guidelines for climate disclosure.
• Microsoft's pilot exploration revealed that the market is in early stages, with few available certificates meeting the required criteria and a significant need for a stronger collective demand signal to encourage supplier investment.
• Current lower-carbon steel offerings often rely on high scrap fractions or 'internal carbon banks' that stack minor efficiency projects, neither of which are fully suitable for a high-integrity book and claim model without further evolution toward near-zero emissions ore-based production.

APA

Dougherty, C., Fidler, J., Gamage, C., Hutchinson, L., Masterson, M., Randol, C., Ross, K., Skinner, B., & Wright, L. (2024). Structuring Demand for Lower-Carbon Materials. RMI. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2024/07/structuring_demand_for_lower_carbon_materials.pdf

Chicago

Dougherty, Claire, Julia Fidler, Chathu Gamage, Laura Hutchinson, Maeve Masterson, Chandler Randol, Katie Ross, Ben Skinner, and Lachlan Wright. Structuring Demand for Lower-Carbon Materials. RMI, 2024. https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2024/07/structuring_demand_for_lower_carbon_materials.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{dougherty2024structuring, author = {Dougherty, Claire and Fidler, Julia and Gamage, Chathu and Hutchinson, Laura and Masterson, Maeve and Randol, Chandler and Ross, Katie and Skinner, Ben and Wright, Lachlan}, title = {{Structuring Demand for Lower-Carbon Materials}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2024}, month = jul, url = {https://rmi.org/app/uploads/dlm_uploads/2024/07/structuring_demand_for_lower_carbon_materials.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }