When and how can new sites be added to a registered Verra grouped project?

New instances are added in one or more batches at verification. Each batch sits in a single eligibility area, meets the area's criteria, was implemented during the monitoring period being verified, earns credits only until the crediting period ends, and was never enrolled in another Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) project unless Verra authorises.

The batch rules (Standard, sections 3.5.8 to 3.5.11)

1. Instances are added at verification, in one or more batches.
2. Each needs the right to operate and the right to reductions and removals, shown under section 3.6.
3. All instances in a batch are within a single eligibility area.
4. All conform to that area's eligibility criteria.
5. All were implemented during the monitoring period being verified.
6. They can only earn credit up to the end of the project crediting period.
7. None has ever been enrolled in another project registered with the VCS Program, unless Verra authorises it.

If leakage changes

Where a new batch affects the leakage assessment of the existing instances, activity-shifting, market and ecological leakage shall be reassessed for the entire project area. Check whether your methodology has leakage terms at all.

How the verifier treats a batch

The verification body validates new instances against the eligibility criteria, based on the information in the monitoring report, and names which instances meet them. That validation can sit in the verification report or in a separate validation report (section 4.1.29).

Planning an enrolment calendar

• Our reading: a site that starts mid-period can only be counted from its start, since it must have been implemented during the monitoring period being verified.
• A site installed after the period closes waits for the next batch.
• Sign each site's right-to-reductions paper before its batch is submitted.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records that you can keep with your project evidence. Its in-house check is not an accredited third-party verification, and Senseible is not part of Verra's process.

• Five tests to add a site
• How a verifier samples a grouped project
• Right to operate and right to reductions
• Carbon credits

Sources: Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Check the current VCS Standard, Registration and Issuance Process and Program Guide on Verra's site before you rely on this; Verra updates them periodically.