CarbonSpace Showcases the Business Case for Agricultural Supply Chain Decarbonization at RSPO RT2025
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia — November 4, 2025 — At the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Annual Meeting (RT2025), CarbonSpace, in partnership with SD Guthrie, RSPO, Sarawak TROPI and Control Union, hosted a side event titled “The Business Case for Agricultural Supply Chain Decarbonization: MRV for Scalable and Accurate SBTi FLAG & LSRG Compliance.”
By Geza Toth
Dec 1, 2025
Setting the Stage for Change
The workshop opened with remarks by Dr. Geza Toth, CEO of CarbonSpace, who highlighted the growing demand for transparent and verifiable data in agricultural supply chains. He emphasized how atmospheric MRV — using net ecosystem exchange (NEE) as the core measurement parameter — enables businesses to monitor carbon flows across entire landscapes, ensuring credible and cost-effective climate reporting.
“Decarbonization is no longer a voluntary ambition. It’s becoming a license to operate. Our role is to ensure that sustainability targets are backed by real, verifiable data, not estimates.”
“Our ecosystem-level measurements capture carbon fluxes directly in the atmosphere — where climate change actually happens. This represents a real scientific breakthrough for land-use accounting. Traditional soil and biomass sampling methods leave out much of the carbon cycle, but with Net Ecosystem Exchange monitoring we can finally capture the full picture, enabling true net-zero reporting.”
The workshop opened with remarks by Dr. Geza Toth, CEO of CarbonSpace, who highlighted the growing demand for transparent and verifiable data in agricultural supply chains. He emphasized how atmospheric MRV — using net ecosystem exchange (NEE) as the core measurement parameter — enables businesses to monitor carbon flows across entire landscapes, ensuring credible and cost-effective climate reporting.
“Decarbonization is no longer a voluntary ambition. It’s becoming a license to operate. Our role is to ensure that sustainability targets are backed by real, verifiable data, not estimates.”
“Our ecosystem-level measurements capture carbon fluxes directly in the atmosphere — where climate change actually happens. This represents a real scientific breakthrough for land-use accounting. Traditional soil and biomass sampling methods leave out much of the carbon cycle, but with Net Ecosystem Exchange monitoring we can finally capture the full picture, enabling true net-zero reporting.”
Today, the uncertainty in corporate sustainability and CSR reporting can range from 50 to 150 percent — a result of incomplete, single-pool accounting, estimation errors, and sample-based approaches. Our goal is to achieve greater than 90% agreement with primary measurements, with 95% confidence. That level of precision is a game changer: companies can report more carbon, build credible baselines, and work toward their targets safely and effectively.
"At CarbonSpace, we have built a system that makes carbon monitoring as routine and reliable as financial reporting: automated, auditable, and scientifically sound. And by aligning our technology with the GHG Protocol’s pending Land Sector and Removals Guidance, we are helping companies prepare today for the reporting standards of tomorrow.” — Dr. Geza Toth, CEO of CarbonSpace
Image courtesy of Sarawak TROPI
"At CarbonSpace, we have built a system that makes carbon monitoring as routine and reliable as financial reporting: automated, auditable, and scientifically sound. And by aligning our technology with the GHG Protocol’s pending Land Sector and Removals Guidance, we are helping companies prepare today for the reporting standards of tomorrow.” — Dr. Geza Toth, CEO of CarbonSpace
Image courtesy of Sarawak TROPI
Expert Panel: From Peatlands to SBTi Targets
A distinguished panel featuring Dr. Lulie Melling (Sarawak Tropical Peat Research Institute), Dr. Aloysius Suratin (RSPO), Ms. Elaine Chan (SD Guthrie), and Mr. Supun Sachithra Nigamuni (Control Union Malaysia) discussed the practical and scientific aspects of agricultural decarbonization.
The conversation addressed critical challenges — from peatland restoration to corporate carbon accounting — and explored how digital MRV solutions like CarbonSpace’s ecosystem-based monitoring can support both compliance and commercial resilience.
A distinguished panel featuring Dr. Lulie Melling (Sarawak Tropical Peat Research Institute), Dr. Aloysius Suratin (RSPO), Ms. Elaine Chan (SD Guthrie), and Mr. Supun Sachithra Nigamuni (Control Union Malaysia) discussed the practical and scientific aspects of agricultural decarbonization.
The conversation addressed critical challenges — from peatland restoration to corporate carbon accounting — and explored how digital MRV solutions like CarbonSpace’s ecosystem-based monitoring can support both compliance and commercial resilience.
“While converting peatlands for agriculture — such as oil-palm cultivation on drained tropical peat — inevitably increases greenhouse-gas emissions, the solution is not as simple as ‘stop all peat agriculture’ or ‘just raise the water table.’ Optimising both productivity and emissions requires an integrated agro-environmental approach that considers peat physical structure, water-filled pore space, drainage design, and rooting depth alongside yield. Well-managed peat agriculture can reduce CO₂ flux while maintaining production, but only with site-specific knowledge of peat hydrophysics, soil traits, and carbon-flux dynamics. Regular monitoring of net ecosystem exchange is essential to identify where interventions succeed or fail.” – Dr Lulie Melling
“For me, sustainability is about creating a future where businesses, communities, and the environment can all thrive together. Even in the face of climate change and resource scarcity, we have a responsibility to build systems that can truly sustain themselves.” – Elaine Chan, SD Guthrie
PalmGHG is a tool designed by RSPO to support members in assessing their GHG emissions. With the data, members will be able to develop an emission-reduction plan (Indicator 7.6.1). This indicator clearly shows how the RSPO system has been adjusted and aligned to accommodate the latest and future regulatory changes.
“The standard requirements for an emission reduction plan are versatile enough to accommodate the FLAG and LSRG requirements. FLAG requires an entity to assess and reduce emissions categorised as land-use emissions (LUC), land management (non-land-use emissions), and removals. LSRG – if issued by the GHG Protocol – will require entities to implement natural (biogenic) removal and technological removals. The current PalmGHG has been designed to enable users to include both land-use, non-land-use, and removal emissions. With this new design, RSPO has aligned its system to allow members to meet the requirements of new regulations and standards.” – said Dr Aloisius from RSPO.
“For me, sustainability is about creating a future where businesses, communities, and the environment can all thrive together. Even in the face of climate change and resource scarcity, we have a responsibility to build systems that can truly sustain themselves.” – Elaine Chan, SD Guthrie
PalmGHG is a tool designed by RSPO to support members in assessing their GHG emissions. With the data, members will be able to develop an emission-reduction plan (Indicator 7.6.1). This indicator clearly shows how the RSPO system has been adjusted and aligned to accommodate the latest and future regulatory changes.
“The standard requirements for an emission reduction plan are versatile enough to accommodate the FLAG and LSRG requirements. FLAG requires an entity to assess and reduce emissions categorised as land-use emissions (LUC), land management (non-land-use emissions), and removals. LSRG – if issued by the GHG Protocol – will require entities to implement natural (biogenic) removal and technological removals. The current PalmGHG has been designed to enable users to include both land-use, non-land-use, and removal emissions. With this new design, RSPO has aligned its system to allow members to meet the requirements of new regulations and standards.” – said Dr Aloisius from RSPO.
A New Standard for Scalable MRV
The event highlighted CarbonSpace’s peer-reviewed, third-party verified approach, which integrates satellite, machine learning, and atmospheric flux data to quantify carbon emissions and removals with high precision. This ecosystem-level accounting contrasts traditional sampling-based methods that don't include key carbon pools and carry high uncertainty.
“Our biggest challenge is Scope 3 — supporting suppliers to set and deliver on net-zero targets. Since our SBTi approval in 2023 we’ve reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 23% and strengthened accountability through automated GHG monitoring and KPIs. Now we’re focusing on peat, where 5% of our land drives 10% of emissions, and working with CarbonSpace to measure real peat fluxes for credible reporting.” — Elaine Chan
By aligning with emerging international standards, CarbonSpace offers a pathway for agricultural producers to achieve accurate, low-cost, and verifiable reporting — foundational to meeting upcoming regulatory frameworks under the EU CSRD, CSDDD, and the SBTi FLAG sectoral guidance.
“For independent verifiers, the real test of any climate or land-use solution is whether it can be transparently traced, challenged, and validated against emerging requirements like the GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Guidance and the EU’s CSRD. We work with CarbonSpace as verification partners because their methodology is open, their data lineage is clear, and —crucially— their uncertainty is measurable. That level of transparency is still rare. When reviewing CarbonSpace’s MRV outputs, we can follow every figure back to explicit assumptions, data sources, and validation steps — exactly the rigor companies will need as FLAG, LSRG, and CSRD move into full compliance.” - Supun Nigamuni, Director Control Union
The event highlighted CarbonSpace’s peer-reviewed, third-party verified approach, which integrates satellite, machine learning, and atmospheric flux data to quantify carbon emissions and removals with high precision. This ecosystem-level accounting contrasts traditional sampling-based methods that don't include key carbon pools and carry high uncertainty.
“Our biggest challenge is Scope 3 — supporting suppliers to set and deliver on net-zero targets. Since our SBTi approval in 2023 we’ve reduced Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 23% and strengthened accountability through automated GHG monitoring and KPIs. Now we’re focusing on peat, where 5% of our land drives 10% of emissions, and working with CarbonSpace to measure real peat fluxes for credible reporting.” — Elaine Chan
By aligning with emerging international standards, CarbonSpace offers a pathway for agricultural producers to achieve accurate, low-cost, and verifiable reporting — foundational to meeting upcoming regulatory frameworks under the EU CSRD, CSDDD, and the SBTi FLAG sectoral guidance.
“For independent verifiers, the real test of any climate or land-use solution is whether it can be transparently traced, challenged, and validated against emerging requirements like the GHG Protocol’s Land Sector and Removals Guidance and the EU’s CSRD. We work with CarbonSpace as verification partners because their methodology is open, their data lineage is clear, and —crucially— their uncertainty is measurable. That level of transparency is still rare. When reviewing CarbonSpace’s MRV outputs, we can follow every figure back to explicit assumptions, data sources, and validation steps — exactly the rigor companies will need as FLAG, LSRG, and CSRD move into full compliance.” - Supun Nigamuni, Director Control Union
Industry Collaboration Toward a Net-Zero Future
As the event concluded, participants agreed on the need for collaboration between producers, verifiers, and regulators to accelerate decarbonization across agricultural supply chains. The discussion underscored the commercial and environmental advantages of early adoption of compliant MRV systems — from lowering reporting costs to unlocking new insetting and carbon market opportunities.
“Over the next year, we need to make GHG accounting a common language. Everyone in the supply chain should understand how to calculate land-use and peat emissions — especially since RSPO, MSPO, and ISPO already provide calculators. Buyers must support their suppliers in this journey. And critically, more companies need to set Net Zero and no-deforestation targets. The tools, the guidance, and the momentum are already here.” – Elaine Chan, SD Guthrie
“Sustainability means feeding people while using our peatlands wisely—with science, care, and long-term vision.” — Dr. Lulie Melling
Looking Ahead
The RSPO RT2025 side event marked a significant milestone in demonstrating how science-based, ecosystem-level MRV can transform sustainability commitments into measurable outcomes. As the palm oil sector prepares for stricter disclosure requirements, technologies like CarbonSpace’s promise to play a defining role in building credible, climate-positive supply chains.
For more information on CarbonSpace’s ecosystem MRV technology, email info@carbonspace.tech
As the event concluded, participants agreed on the need for collaboration between producers, verifiers, and regulators to accelerate decarbonization across agricultural supply chains. The discussion underscored the commercial and environmental advantages of early adoption of compliant MRV systems — from lowering reporting costs to unlocking new insetting and carbon market opportunities.
“Over the next year, we need to make GHG accounting a common language. Everyone in the supply chain should understand how to calculate land-use and peat emissions — especially since RSPO, MSPO, and ISPO already provide calculators. Buyers must support their suppliers in this journey. And critically, more companies need to set Net Zero and no-deforestation targets. The tools, the guidance, and the momentum are already here.” – Elaine Chan, SD Guthrie
“Sustainability means feeding people while using our peatlands wisely—with science, care, and long-term vision.” — Dr. Lulie Melling
Looking Ahead
The RSPO RT2025 side event marked a significant milestone in demonstrating how science-based, ecosystem-level MRV can transform sustainability commitments into measurable outcomes. As the palm oil sector prepares for stricter disclosure requirements, technologies like CarbonSpace’s promise to play a defining role in building credible, climate-positive supply chains.
For more information on CarbonSpace’s ecosystem MRV technology, email info@carbonspace.tech