Mass balance concept

What does mass balance mean?

Mass balance is about mixing fossil and recycled or renewable in our existing systems and processes while keeping track of their quantities and allocating them to specific products. The actual carbon molecules in the product may not be recycled or renewable, but through a third-party certificate, the recycled or renewable content is verified. This helps us all support sustainable sourcing of recycled and renewable raw material and enable the actual savings of CO2 emissions.

Mass balance is a well-known methodology that is used within the energy sector for electricity, by Forest Stewardship Council for wood, Fair Trade, Better Cotton Initiative among others. Eventually all the raw materials will be from renewable sources and every molecule you receive in the future will be from a sustainable source.

Not ONE method

However mass balance is not one methodology, there are different ways of applying mass balance which can be quite complex. We believe that when mass balance methodologies are applied, it is crucial that they are transparent, have credibility and that they drive real change and development of new raw materials and production processes. Therefore we apply traceable mass balance – with both chemical and physical traceability.

ISCC PLUS certified mass balance

For the shift of fossil materials to renewable and recycled we are applying an ISCC PLUS (International Sustainability & Carbon Certification) certified mass balance method which applies physical and chemical traceability. Applying an ISCC PLUS certified mass balance also means that all our sustainable raw materials are ISCC PLUS certified in all parts of the value chain all the way back to the point of origin. Our ISCC PLUS certification is third party verified and every site and product applying mass balance is audited once a year.

Learn more about Traceable Mass Balance here >>