Impact Assessment Standards

To receive funding eeef eligible projects should achieve on an annual basis at least 30% primary energy savings and/or at least 30% CO2e savings compared to baseline. To ensure the standards of the impact assessment are met, the energy consumption, CO2e emissions and primary energy savings of each project are tracked quarterly and monitored in line with the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP) for energy accounting, ISO 14064 for carbon accounting. All methodologies used by the eeef have been validated by a global engineering company. The data is based on estimations for projects under construction and with less than one year of operations and actual data for projects which have been in operation for over one year.

Currently, all projects with concrete data are reporting in alignment with these guidelines, and all new projects are aligned with these frameworks. Factor sources include the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) for technology benchmark data and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the conversion of energy data into greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity emission factors are sourced from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and are updated annually in line with ISO 14064-2. For some projects in the portfolio, factors cannot be updated due to project specifics, so they continue to report on factors issued within the loan documentation.

To determine the impact of eeef investments through measuring, monitoring and verification processes, the eeef technical criteria need to be assessed based on the project’s technology and investment size. For projects with higher investment volumes and/or more complex technologies, detailed energy analyses are required in the form of third-party-validated reports.

For small standard projects (e.g. street lighting), project savings can be obtained directly by using validated calculations from greenstem™, the Fund’s proprietary impact management and verification system. The calculation is aligned to the international standards mentioned above and best practices, which are validated by a global engineering company.

greenstemTM

greenstemTM is a web-based carbon and energy monitoring and verification tool from the Fund. On the one hand, greenstemTM automatically and consistently calculates anticipated and realized impact indicators based on the underlying investment and benchmark data. The calculation is aligned to international standards (please refer to the “Standards” section for “eeef- specific impact assessment”) and best practices, which is validated by global engineering company.

On the other hand, it enables eeef clients who have been approved to submit their energy data into validated models to produce primary energy and carbon savings. As a client, you are also able to upload supporting technical documentation including eeef Due Diligence, third party energy audits and eeef annual audit documentation.

greenstem™ is in the process of rebuilding and migrating its platform to provide a more resilient, secure, and functional solution. Each client will have their own profile within the tool, displaying their annual and cumulative savings reports in chats and dashboards.

BlueMark

eeef’s impact management system is independently verified by BlueMark, a leading provider of impact verification services in the impact investing market. BlueMark was incubated and launched in January 2020 by Tideline, a leading women-owned impact investing consultancy, with a mission to strengthen trust in impact investing and to help bring more accountability to the impact investment process. As of November 2021, BlueMark completed more than 50 verifications.

eeef’s Independent Verification Report can be found under Downloads.

Go to BlueMark