Our energy-efficiency project started last year. By when must we list and register it with Verra?

One year to list, two to register. VCS Standard v5.0 counts both from the initial crediting period start date of an energy or industry project. If the project applies a new VCS methodology, registration is due within four years of the start date and within two years of that methodology's approval, whichever comes first.

Which date starts the clock

For energy and industry projects, Verra's examples of a start date are the beginning of commercial or functional operation, or distribution of the first units, such as cookstoves. It is not the date you signed the equipment order. The start date also opens your first monitoring period.

The deadlines

• Pipeline listing request: within one year of the start date.
• Initial registration request: within two years of the start date.
• Applying a new VCS methodology: within four years of the start date and within two years of the methodology's approval, whichever comes first.
• "New" covers newly issued VCS methodologies and revisions whose scope was widened to include your activity.

What has to happen inside those two years

1. Write the project description under an active methodology.
2. List the project; validation cannot begin until its 30-day public comment period has started, and cannot finish until it has ended.
3. Complete validation with an eligible VVB, including a site visit.
4. Submit the registration request with the validation report.

If one project is too small

Two years is tight for a single plant that has never been through validation. A grouped project, where one validated design adds new sites over time, is often the practical route for small units with the same technology.

Example: a waste heat retrofit at a forging unit

• Commercial operation begins: 1 April 2026
• Pipeline listing request due: by 1 April 2027
• Registration request due: by 1 April 2028
• If instead it applies a new methodology approved on 1 January 2028: four years from start is April 2030, two years from approval is January 2030, so January 2030 applies

Dates are an example. Confirm your start date against the VCS Program Definitions and your methodology.

What Senseible does here

Senseible keeps dated, fingerprinted fuel and electricity invoices from the first bill, which shows the baseline and the date operation began, and it gives carbon credit eligibility signals. It does not register projects; Verra does.

• Grouped projects in Verra
• How long until credits are issued
• Pooling MSME efficiency projects
• Carbon credits

Sources: Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025): Sections 3.8.1 to 3.8.3, Tables 6 and 7, and 4.1.5

Last reviewed 2026-11-03. Registration deadlines are set in Table 7 of the VCS Standard; check the current version before relying on them.