All Plan Vivo Certificates (PVCs) are issued, transacted and retired on the Markit Registry. By using this third-party registry, PVCs are allocated unique serial numbers, ensuring that there is no double-counting or double-selling of PVCs. It also provides transparency, allowing anyone to view the current stock and retirements made by projects or resellers.

The Markit Registry also lists all Plan Vivo projects and project documentation that is responsible for the issuance of PVCs (PDDs, technical specifications, annual reports and audit reports).

 

What does this mean for buyers?

When buyers purchase PVCs from a poject/reseller, the project/reseller retires a respective number of PVCs on the buyer's hehalf. This "retirement" represents the action of offsetting, and can be viewed by anyone on the Markit Registry. Since each set of retired PVCs has a unique serial number and a reference to whom they have been retired on behalf of (if desired by the buyer), buyers can publicly find their retired credits on the Markit Registry in the relevant project/reseller account.

Visit the Markit Registry

 

Can I get an account on Markit?

Only those with accounts on Markit can hold, transact and retire credits. However, credits can be retired by account holders on behalf of other entities (see "beneficial owner" and the retirement note on the image above as an example). Given this, and that holding a Markit account incurs annual fees (please contact IHS Markit for more information about this), we do not encourage buyers to seek their own account on the registry, except for in exceptional circumstances. Instead, we recommend that buyers purchase credits from projects or resellers and request that the credits are retired on their behalf.

Sustainability agencies, consultancies, resellers or similar organisations wishing to purchase Plan Vivo Certificates on behalf of individuals and clients, may want to manage their own account and PVCs. If this is the case, we encourage the organisations to contact IHS Markit to enquire about the costs of opening and managing an account. Alternatively, if the organisation is planning to purchase only PVCs, and not any credits under any other Standard on Markit, there is scope that it could be offered an account from Plan Vivo under the condition of the payment of an annual fee and the signing of a reseller agreement. However, these accounts are limited in quantity and only provided to those who seem most aligned with the Plan Vivo ethos and have the potential to best support Plan Vivo projects. Please contact the Plan Vivo Secretariat for more information. Once an organisation has chosen its route, it can apply for a Markit Registry account.