Durabric Bricks Project by 14Trees in Malawi: VPA (01)

Audit Analysis

The Durabric Bricks project in Malawi has confirmed additionality and a conservative fNRB, but is severely undermined by an extraordinary volume of material findings and corrective actions (over 70 combined), a critical VVB independence deficiency (the same team performed validation and verification), unaddressed reversal risk, and multiple cross-document contradictions. The project's claims are broadly supported by monitoring data, but the quality and independence of the verification process raise serious concerns about the reliability of the certified credits.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠The same VVB (Carbon Check) and the same team conducted both validation and verification of the VPA, violating basic independence requirements — flagged explicitly in the verification report's material findings.
• ⚠Over 40 corrective actions and 30+ material findings remain in the record, spanning baseline calculation, additionality demonstration, leakage justification, raw material abundance, and methodology applicability — indicating systemic documentation and methodological weaknesses.
• ⚠Reversal events are listed as 'not addressed' and no buffer pool percentage is stated, leaving permanence risk unquantified for an industrial energy-efficiency project.
• ⚠Four cross-document contradictions exist (additionality test type, lifetime ERR, grid emission factor, and crediting period), reducing confidence in the consistency of the project's reported data.
• ⚠The grid emission factor differs by a factor of 6.5 between the PDD (0.2) and the later verification report (1.3), which materially affects baseline and ER calculations.

Credit Vintages