A sustainability claim is only worth something if it can be proven. Traceability is how the proof travels with the fuel: a record of where a batch came from, how it was made, and what can honestly be claimed about it.
Explore
One journey from claim to proof
Sustainability is defined and measured, and every claim is then proven along the supply chain. The highlighted steps are the ones covered on this page.
Define
How sustainability is defined, and who sets the rules.
Measure
How life-cycle emissions are measured and assessed.
This page
Prove
How each claim is proven along the supply chain.
Why we need to trace fuels
Certified and ordinary fuel look identical
Once fuels are mixed in a tank, truck or pipeline, records are the only thing that tells them apart.
What this means for Australian exporters
More than 70% of Australian canola seed is exported, and a significant share of it goes to European biorefineries. Australian tallow and used cooking oil are also exported for refining into fuels . Selling into those markets means meeting their record keeping rules, not just their emissions rules.
Chain of custody
Chain of custody is the set of controls that keeps a claim attached to a specific volume of fuel . It follows the fuel through the supply chain, recording what went into it, how it was made, moved and stored, and which standards were met.
At many points, certified and ordinary material end up in the same tanks, trucks and pipelines. Chain of custody models are the rules for handling that. Some keep certified fuel physically separate. Others let it mix and track the certified amount on paper, so the claim follows the records rather than the molecules.
ID
Identity preserved
Certified material is kept completely separate, including from certified material of other origins. The strongest physical link between feedstock, fuel and claim.
SG
Segregated
Certified material is kept physically separate from ordinary material, but certified material from different sources can be combined.
MB
Mass balance
Used where materials cannot be kept apart, such as a shared refinery or pipeline. The certified amount going in is recorded, and the same amount coming out can be sold as certified.
BC
Book and claim
The certificate is separated from the physical fuel entirely. A buyer can purchase ordinary fuel and, separately, certificates for an equivalent amount of certified fuel produced elsewhere. This works like buying renewable electricity: the power in your wires is mixed, but the certificates account for what was produced.
What gets recorded
What has to be recorded varies by scheme. It also depends on where a business sits in the chain: feedstock supplier, fuel producer, trader, fuel supplier or end user . Common examples include:
The feedstock type, where it came from, and how it was grown or collected
Volumes or energy amounts, and the conversion factors linking what went in to what came out
Supplier details and transaction records: purchases, deliveries and sales
Batch level identification, such as a unique number for each certified batch sold
Audit reports and the certificates issued
Life-cycle emissions, sometimes called carbon intensity: the greenhouse gas emitted for each unit of fuel
Follow one batch through the supply chain
Follow one claim through the chain. It starts as a sustainability declaration at step 2 and ends when the fuel’s certificate is retired at step 5.
Step 1
Collect
A used cooking oil collector picks up drums from restaurants and records where each one came from.
Claim starts
Step 2
Certify
An auditor checks the collector against a scheme’s rules. The oil now travels with a sustainability declaration.
Step 3
Refine
At the refinery the oil is mixed with other feedstocks. Mass balance records track the certified amount in and out.
Step 4
Register
The finished fuel’s certificate is recorded in a registry.
Certificate retired
Step 5
Claim
An airline buys the fuel and retires the certificate, so the same batch cannot be claimed again.
An illustrative example. Each step follows the certification and chain of custody processes described on this page.
How the main frameworks track a claim
These are the same frameworks introduced on the Sustainability page. Here they are shown only by how each one records and checks a claim.
Framework
How a claim is proven
International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC)
International
Sustainability details pass down the chain with each delivery, on standard documents called Sustainability Declarations. Buyers must check the seller’s certificate was valid on the day the fuel was dispatched . ISCC operates several scheme variants, including ISCC EU, ISCC Plus and ISCC CFC, which apply the same chain-of-custody approach in different markets.
Keep exploring
Resources
A selection from the library related to this page.