# What is a VVB, and how do I choose one for my carbon project?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/what-is-a-vvb-and-how-to-choose-one

A VVB (validation and verification body) is an independent auditor approved by a carbon programme such as Verra or Gold Standard. It validates your project design before registration and later verifies the reductions you claim. Choose one on the programme's approved list, accredited for your sector, with no conflict of interest.

## Validation and verification are different jobs

- Validation happens once, before registration. The VVB checks your project design document against the methodology: baseline, additionality, boundary and monitoring plan.
- Verification happens after each monitoring period. The VVB checks the monitored data and calculations behind the reductions you claim, often with a site visit. Credits are issued only after verification.
- Both follow ISO 14064-3 for the audit process. VVBs are accredited to ISO 14065 by an accreditation body, or approved under the UN's CDM, as each programme requires.

## How to choose

1. Start from the programme's current approved VVB list on the Verra or Gold Standard site.
2. Check the VVB is approved for the sectoral scope your methodology falls in, such as energy industries or waste.
3. Ask how many projects it has validated or verified under your methodology, in India.
4. Confirm independence: it must not have helped design your project or write your documents.
5. Get two or three quotes covering fee, site visit costs, timeline and how many rounds of findings are included.
6. Check the auditors' availability for your monitoring period dates.

## What to have ready before you call

A draft project design document, the methodology and version, a monitoring plan, and the evidence behind each baseline figure: bills, meter logs, invoices and commissioning certificates. Missing evidence is the most common reason for long rounds of findings and extra fees.

## VVB verification is not an internal check

A software flag that says data is verified, or a consultant's review, does not replace a VVB. Only the programme-approved VVB's report counts towards issuance.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible can export the document trail behind your energy and fuel figures, each linked to its source file, which a VVB may sample. It is not a VVB, and its Verified status means internal rule checks passed, not validation or verification by a programme-approved body.

- [Is Senseible a certifier?](https://senseible.earth/answers/is-senseible-a-certifier)
- [Carbon project validation cost](https://senseible.earth/answers/carbon-project-validation-cost)
- [Verra or Gold Standard: which to choose](https://senseible.earth/answers/verra-or-gold-standard-which-to-choose)

Sources: [Verra, VCS Program Guide and approved validation/verification bodies (verra.org)](https://verra.org), [Gold Standard, approved VVB list (goldstandard.org)](https://www.goldstandard.org), [ISO 14064-3:2019 and ISO 14065:2020 (iso.org)](https://www.iso.org)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15.