Northern Trust has announced a major enhancement to the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) with the ability to generate digital voluntary carbon credits in near real-time through The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem, streamlining the verification process for carbon offset projects.
Northern Trust, a provider of wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking, has been working with climate project developers and data providers to automate the creation of verified carbon credits in the VCM. Through The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem, real-time data is received, enabling the instant recording of verified carbon credits. Each credit includes data points such as carbon capture flow rates, energy usage, and location details, ensuring accuracy, transparency, and reliable traceability.
Northern Trust is collaborating with climate solution providers to enhance the process. InceptionX, a platform for real-time carbon measurement and equipment monitoring, successfully transmitted quantified carbon data from a San Francisco wastewater recycling facility to The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem, enabling instant carbon credit creation. Meanwhile, Mangrove Systems, a digital measurement, reporting, and verification provider, is working with The Carbon Removers, a UK-based carbon capture project. Together, they are automating carbon credit verification at a Scottish distillery, mapping real-time data against carbon capture protocols.
Northern Trust formally launched The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem in September 2024, facilitating direct transactions between institutional buyers and project developers. The platform, built on private blockchain technology, allows buyers to purchase and retire digital carbon credits against their emissions footprint. Northern Trust acts as custodian, ensuring secure recording, transfer, and settlement of credits.
The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem, powered by Northern Trust’s digital assets platform Northern Trust Matrix Zenith, is offered through The Northern Trust Company, Chicago.
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Justin Chapman, global head of digital assets and financial markets, Northern Trust, said: “Despite some automation and digitisation in the VCM over the last few years, the measurement, reporting and verification of carbon credits has been characterised by manual processes which are resource- and time-intensive. This additional capability of The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem further enhances our ability to support a fully digital lifecycle management solution for voluntary carbon credits. The recordation of verified carbon credits in near real-time on our platform supports project developers in expediting the commercialisation opportunity of their projects.”
Tom Dickie, CEO, at InceptionX, said: “The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem provides us with a set of solutions that allows us to securely create carbon credits in near real-time on behalf of our project developer clients, enabling them to transact those credits in a shorter timeframe.”
Brandon Vlaar, CEO, at Mangrove Systems, said: “The Northern Trust Carbon Ecosystem will store critical data parameters required for robust verification and traceability of each credit, enhancing the transparency into the verified carbon credits and speeding up the time it takes to have them recorded on a register.”
Sanjay Parekh, chief commercial officer at The Carbon Removers, said: “Having the capability to capture specific information like the date, location and flow rate for every carbon credit we capture and sequester allows us to ensure that the buyers of our credits can see the full lifecycle of each credit created – providing full transparency and traceability.”
