How verification works
Gathering evidence, assessing risk, sampling, judging materiality and reaching a conclusion at the agreed level of assurance.
Our team
The people behind your verification opinion.
A verification opinion is only as good as the people who reach it. Ours are specialists in greenhouse gas verification and nothing else, with experience built up since 2007 across more than 20 sectors.
Who leads the work
Direct access to experienced verifiers.
You deal directly with the people verifying your footprint, under the technical leadership of Glenn Wilkinson MBA FRSA FCMI, Technical Director, who has over two decades of experience in carbon verification and certification.
Before carbon, Glenn was part of Archie Norman’s turnaround team at Asda in the 1990s. The lesson that stuck: keep your own costs low, give customers real value, and they keep coming back. It is how we run Carbon Verification. Good value by design
Our promise: the person you speak to is the person who verifies you.
Unless you ask for a change, or we agree one with you, the verifier on your first call leads your verification and stays your contact throughout, from scoping to the final statement and in the years that follow.
They get to know your scope, programme, deadlines and data, and how your internal systems and procedures work, so you explain things once. That knowledge, and the relationship that comes with it, is what lets us deliver exceptional service.
We don’t have a sales team. Everyone you deal with is technical staff, and most of our verifiers have been with us for more than ten years, so the person who verifies you this year will still know your inventory next year.
The independent review is carried out by a second verifier who has not worked on your inventory, as the standard requires. You can ask about anyone’s experience or independence before work starts.
What we have seen
Very little can surprise us.
Since 2007 we have verified inventories in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, police and emergency services, local and central government, universities, international charities, transport and logistics, and energy and utilities.
The work ranges from single-site organisations reporting Scope 1 and 2 to groups with dozens of entities across many countries, with Scope 3 covering purchased goods, travel, commuting, waste, logistics and capital goods.
What our verifiers know
The knowledge behind every engagement.
Every verifier is assessed on the knowledge their role needs. Across the team, that covers:
How inventories are built
ISO 14064-1 and the GHG Protocol: boundaries, consolidation approaches, emission sources and the split between Scope 1, 2 and 3.
Emission factors and calculations
UK government and international factors, unit conversions, combined heat and power, refrigerants, fleets and half-hourly electricity data.
Scope 3 methods
Spend-based, activity-based and supplier-specific methods, the data behind them, and how to avoid counting the same emissions twice.
Contracts that change boundaries
Renewable electricity contracts and certificates, leases, franchises, and control versus equity-share reporting.
Auditing data and systems
Tracing totals back to source records, testing spreadsheets and software, and understanding the controls around them.
How we work
Knowledge only counts if it is applied well.
- We judge risk. We focus our testing where errors are most likely and would matter most, and adjust when new information comes to light.
- We test, not just read. Recalculation, analytical checks, document review and interviews with the people responsible.
- We look for what is missing. Sources, sites or gases that should be in your inventory but are not.
- We weigh the evidence. Is there enough of it, and is it good enough, to support the conclusion?
- We explain clearly. Our findings and statement are written so your team and your readers can understand and act on them.
“We do not take figures on trust. Every claim is tested against evidence, and we actively look for evidence that contradicts it.”
Professional scepticism is the attitude that turns knowledge into a sound opinion.
Who does what
Three roles, kept separate.
The verification team
One or more verifiers, led by a team leader, who plan the work, gather and test the evidence, judge whether any errors are material and draft the opinion.
Technical experts
Specialists we bring in for particular subjects, such as refrigeration or biogenic carbon. They advise the team but do not act as verifiers or sign the opinion.
The independent reviewer
An experienced verifier who was not part of the team checks the work and the conclusion before the opinion is issued.
Keeping competence current
How we make sure the right people do the work.
Nobody verifies for us without formal authorisation, and authorisation covers only the roles and sectors a person has shown they can handle. It is based on their education, training, relevant experience and mentoring, and on how they perform on real engagements.
Team leaders are also assessed on judging risk, checking that the team and time are adequate, and standing behind the conclusion. Competence is reviewed at least once a year.
Carbon accounting changes every year, so training is continuous: updates to the ISO standards and the GHG Protocol, the annual UK emission factor update, new regulation and sector developments. Difficult judgement calls are discussed in peer reviews and debriefs after engagements.
Our competence framework follows ISO 14066:2023, the standard for the competence of verification teams, including its annex on greenhouse gas work, within the requirements of ISO 14065 and ISO/IEC 17029. Our verification programme
Start with a 20-minute conversation.
You will talk to a verifier, not a salesperson. Tell us why you report, which scopes you need verified and when you need the statement, and ask whatever you need to. You do not need a finished inventory. If you go ahead, the person you speak to leads your verification.
No obligation, and no sales pitch