Use Guarantees of Origin to show your true colours

Like many who work in less-known sectors, I sometimes struggle to explain what I do for a living. I am, nevertheless, happy to explain it. I think everyone should understand Guarantees of Origin (GO), how the system works and what the potential is – at least before they form strong opinions on sustainability communications or marketing.

Grexel Systems works with Energy Certification, which mainly means Guarantees of Origin. The Guarantees of Origin are a European system for tracking energy origin. In essence, they allow energy consumers to be informed about the origin of the energy they consume. For more information on the Guarantees of Origin -system, see Association of Issuing Bodies. Our role at Grexel is to provide consulting services to help take energy tracking into use efficiently, as well as registry services to accomplish it in practice.

Unlike most of my colleagues, my background is not in technology. Instead, I have studied Business and worked on sales, marketing, and consulting with a strong focus on improved efficiency and business results. Building on that, I have been impressed with Guarantees of Origin ever since I started to understand the system.

Before you roll your eyes at yet another piece of corporate jargon, please let me explain.

Marketing today is built on great stories. Those, in their part, are built on values and our perception of ourselves. This has led to the endless flow of green claims with various degrees of legitimacy made by marketers globally.

This is what makes the Guarantees of Origin an unrivaled concept. They are a reliable backbone to any renewable energy claim, supported by robust legislation. The European Renewable Energy Directive II forbids making claims about the origin of sold or consumed energy without having the appropriate Guarantees of Origin cancelled to corroborate these claims. So, to claim a product was produced with wind energy, I need to have acquired and cancelled the correct Guarantees of Origin from the market – or have them from my own wind power production.

As said, storytelling has trended in marketing communications for the past years. The Guarantee of Origin is a golden tool for this. It shows, without a doubt, that the renewable energy used has been produced and has not been claimed by or disclosed to anyone else. It matches the production and consumption of energy within the EU. The tracking is reliable to the exact production technology and even production device. In addition to stories, values are at the core of marketing trends today.

As each Guarantee of Origin that is later cancelled to prove use of the claimed energy source is purchased from the producer of the energy. Each purchased Guarantee of Origin thus increases incentives to invest in renewable energy production.

So. To make green energy -related marketing claims each European company has to also support the production of renewable energy, one way or another. This gives gravitas to the consumer choice. The consumer not only has the right to vote with their wallet, they also have the right to demand proof for the delivery of green energy.

I started this text off by calling the Guarantee of Origin an underused marketing tool for storytellers. At the end of the day, consumers are growing tired of vague claims that lack evidence. This places pressure on us as marketers and storytellers to explain the reliable tools so many companies are already using today. After all, the power and credibility of any good story stem from the reality and facts behind it.