Fostering transparency: project developer engagement at BeZero

One of the carbon project developers we worked with once told us: “Everyone in the market we talk to is familiar with the BeZero rating. Your ratings educate the market in every corner of the world.” 

The main benefit of a carbon rating is to put projects of all types on a level playing field by distilling their quality into a simple and comparable metric. But to assess project risk, our analysts need the right data.

Transparency and open communication between developers and market participants is essential to driving improvements in carbon credit quality. That’s why at BeZero, we actively engage with carbon project developers as a key part of the ratings process. By establishing a dialogue with developers, we are able to gain an invaluable first-hand insight into projects that may not be evident from the project documentation. This strengthens the quality and accuracy of our ratings, and helps to make public information disclosure a standard market practice.

We are continually improving our approach to developer engagement. As of 2025, our developer engagement process includes new resources, clear feedback milestones, and a streamlined ‘non-public information’ (NPI) protocol. Below, we outline our approach and learnings.

To date, we have engaged with over 500 developers, completed over 300 project information requests, and shared over 800 rating briefs with developers.

The importance of engaging with project developers

Engaging with project developers is key to producing robust ratings. Open communication allows developers to understand our methodology, while also giving us critical insight into the nuances of individual projects. When developers provide information, this can facilitate and materially influence our analysis, particularly when that information is verifiable and public.

At BeZero, we advocate for transparency across the carbon market. We believe that public disclosure of key project data helps to create a fairer, more efficient market. While we accept sensitive information via secure channels, protected by Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) or Data License Agreements (DLAs), we always encourage developers to make as much data public as possible as a standard practice.

A step-by-step guide to BeZero’s engagement process

Pre-rating engagement

When a project enters our rating pipeline, a member of the Developer Engagement team will contact the project developer through outreach emails. If the name of the developer is unclear from public documentation, we investigate registries and other sources to confirm the right point of contact.

If the publicly available project information is insufficient and does not meet the minimum requirements of our rating framework, such as a lack of detail on additionality tests or the emissions calculation methodology, we request further information. Developers can provide this data publicly or, where appropriate,  privately (via our NPI process).

NPI handling

Developers may share sensitive information with BeZero privately under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or a data license agreement (DLA). All NPI is tagged and tracked in BeZero’s internal systems. Before publication, developers receive the wording we plan to use to reference the NPI, and they have five days to approve the text or request edits. This structured process ensures that developers retain control over how their private information is represented in our analysis and allows us to maintain full transparency regarding information that has informed the rating. For an example of how we’ve handled non-public information in the past, read about our public rating of Indigo Ag’s regenerative agriculture project.

Post-rating engagement

Once a rating has been published, we provide the developer with a tailored rating brief containing the full analysis from the BeZero Carbon Markets platform. Developers can then submit formal feedback via a structured form.

• If the feedback is non-material, we may initiate a content update, making minor amendments to the report while keeping the headline rating unchanged.

• If the feedback is material, it may trigger a full rating review, which could result in a change to the headline letter rating.

Learnings and successes from our engagement efforts

Developer identification challenges

In many cases, registry documentation does not clearly list the developer. In total, the Developer Engagement team has encountered over 25 different terms for ‘project developer’, while some documents do not mention them at all. This can lead to delays; while some responses to outreach arrive within one day, the average response time is 21 days, with some stretching beyond six months.

Barriers to developer identification include outdated contact information, company ownership changes, and low engagement interest if the credits have already been sold. To ease this challenge, we are strongly advocating for greater standardisation in registry disclosure.

Data disclosure limitations

Developers are increasingly recognising the importance of public data disclosure, but concerns remain around intellectual property and commercial risk.

Nonetheless, since launching our engagement process in early 2022, we have successfully encouraged improved disclosure across several sectors, including Cookstoves; Energy Efficiency; and Afforestation, Reforestation, & Restoration. We view this as a positive sign of the carbon market’s maturation.

Conclusion

As the carbon market evolves, BeZero remains committed to engaging with and supporting project developers through our refined engagement process, structured feedback systems, and open dialogue channels. In doing so, we are shaping market norms around transparency and disclosure, in the hopes of increasing the issuance of high-quality carbon credits. 

The benefits of better disclosure for project developers include a fairer assessment of project quality, actionable insight on where improvements can be made, and a higher potential for climate impact. To date, more than 40 developers globally have publicly announced their pre- and post-issuance BeZero ratings to power their go-to-market strategies with investors and buyers, and differentiate their projects from peers. Many have reported how independent ratings facilitate conversations with their stakeholders, and help command higher credit prices. 

Learn more about the team, or explore our resources for project developers, on our Developer Engagement page.