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Many suppliers are already making valuable progress on decarbonisation. You may already be taking action like working with better-performing farms, improving production, collecting stronger data and developing lower-carbon sourcing routes.
Each improvement has the potential to create more than a better carbon footprint. It can support a differentiated product, strengthen your customer relationships and give you a commercial return on the work you are doing.
The difficulty is carrying that value through a real supply chain. Food, agricultural and ingredient materials are often collected, stored, processed and sold through shared systems. When lower-carbon and conventional materials mix, the strongest performance can disappear into an average.
Mass balance provides you with a practical route forward. It allows materials to keep moving through existing infrastructure, while records preserve the connection between lower-carbon supply and customer demand. This can help suppliers turn decarbonisation into credible offerings that customers can understand, buy and use.
At Segmos, our view is that mass balance is something more than an accounting mechanism. Used effectively, it can help make sustainability commercially valuable and provide you with a stronger incentive to keep investing in your emissions reductions.
What mass balance means in sustainability
In sustainability, mass balance is a way of keeping the value of a lower-carbon, certified or otherwise differentiated input connected to a customer claim, even when that input has been mixed with conventional material.
The physical material may lose its separate identity during storage, transport or processing, but the associated attribute is recorded and managed. That attribute might relate to lower emissions, certified sourcing, recycled content, renewable feedstock or another defined sustainability characteristic.
A simple example is a processor that receives both lower-carbon and conventional agricultural inputs. Once those inputs enter the same processing system, they may be physically mixed. A mass balance system does not pretend that every molecule remains separate. Instead, it records the amount of lower-carbon input entering the system and controls how much lower-carbon output can be claimed from it.
The basic principle is that the claim cannot exceed the eligible input. If 1,000 tonnes of lower-carbon input enter a defined system, the system must not sell more lower-carbon output than that input can credibly support, after processing losses, conversion ratios and co-product allocation have been taken into account.
This is why mass balance is both flexible and demanding. It allows companies to work within real supply-chain constraints, but it also requires strong records, clear boundaries and disciplined allocation.
How mass balance differs from segregation and book and claim
Different chain-of-custody models give companies different ways to connect sustainability improvements to customer claims. The right model depends on the supply chain, the level of physical separation possible, the claim being made and the evidence a buyer needs.
At one end sits identity preserved supply. This keeps material from one specific source separate all the way through the supply chain. It offers the strongest physical link, but it is often expensive and difficult to scale.
Segregation also keeps certified or differentiated material separate from conventional material, but it may allow material from several certified sources to mix with each other. The buyer receives physically differentiated material, although not necessarily from one named source.
Mass balance takes a more flexible approach. Differentiated and conventional materials can mix, but the volumes and attributes are tracked through a defined system. The buyer may not receive the exact physical material that came from the lower-carbon source, but the claim is still connected to material that entered and moved through the supply chain.
Book and claim works differently. It separates the sustainability attribute from the physical product more completely. A company may buy a certificate or credit linked to a sustainability improvement elsewhere, without a direct physical connection to the material it purchases.
This does not mean one model is always right and another is always wrong. Each has a role. The point is that they provide different levels of physical traceability, commercial flexibility and claim confidence. For many complex supply chains, mass balance sits in a useful middle ground: more scalable than segregation, but more connected to physical supply than book and claim.
How mass balance creates a commercial route to Scope 3 progress
Buyers want to make faster progress on Scope 3, but they cannot achieve it through their own operations alone. They need access to lower-carbon ingredients and materials from the suppliers in their value chains.
This is where suppliers can play an essential role. You may already have stronger-performing farms, sourcing regions or production routes within your portfolio. The commercial challenge is making those differences visible. When every source is blended into one average product carbon footprint, the best-performing supply can become difficult for your customers to identify or buy.
Mass balance provides a bridge between your progress and the customer’s ambition. It allows lower-carbon volumes to be identified and allocated to defined customer offerings, even where shared infrastructure makes complete physical separation impractical.
This gives suppliers an opportunity to differentiate their products and build stronger customer propositions. It gives buyers access to lower-carbon supply connected to real production, helping them make more informed procurement decisions and support their Scope 3 goals.
Credibility remains essential. Customers need to know what the offering represents, where the lower-carbon value originated and how it was allocated. A well-designed mass balance system provides that confidence without making the commercial offer unnecessarily difficult to understand or use.
What makes a mass balance offer credible and commercially usable
Customers do not need another technical system they have to decode. They need clear answers about what they are buying, what makes it lower carbon and how the associated value has been connected to the volume they are buying from you.
Five foundations make that possible:
First, your offer needs a clear scope. You should define the sites, sources, materials, products and time period covered by the mass balance system. This provides your customers a clear picture of what sits behind your offer.
Second, input and output volumes need to be recorded accurately. Your system should show how much eligible lower-carbon material entered the supply chain and how much output that input can support.
Third, conversion and allocation must reflect how your production works in practice. Where one input creates several products or co-products, the lower-carbon value needs to be distributed using credible and consistent rules.
Fourth, you need a live view of availability. Your commercial teams should be able to see what is available, what has already been allocated and what remains to sell. This protects the integrity of the offer and helps your teams respond to customers confidently.
Finally, every sale needs a clear transaction record. The customer, product, volume, attribute and transfer method should be recorded so both parties have evidence of what was agreed.
Together, these foundations turn mass balance into a practical commercial system. They ensure you have the confidence to sell differentiated offerings and give your customers the clarity they need to evaluate and use them.
How we make mass balance easier to use and sell
We built Segmos to help suppliers to move from carbon data to commercial opportunity, which in supports you to scale your customers’ decarbonisation.
A product carbon footprint can reveal where strong performance exists, but it does not automatically create an offering a customer can buy. You still need to decide which volumes to offer, how to connect them to real supply and how to present their value clearly.
We bring those steps into one connected system. We help you identify valuable lower-carbon volumes, structure the appropriate transfer method, manage availability and record each customer transaction.
This makes it easier for your commercial teams to show customers what is available and how it can support their needs. Instead of navigating disconnected calculations, spreadsheets and methodology documents, customers receive a clearer offering supported by the relevant evidence.
For suppliers, that creates a route to differentiation, stronger customer conversations and potential new revenue. For buyers, it provides easier access to credible lower-carbon products that can support procurement and Scope 3 decisions.
Technical integrity remains important, but our goal is larger: to make sustainability easier to understand, easier to buy and more valuable for everyone investing in progress.
Turn lower-carbon supply into customer-ready offerings
Mass balance gives suppliers and buyers a practical way to create value together. You can make your best-performing supply visible, build differentiated offerings and offer your customers a clearer reason to support further decarbonisation. Buyers can access lower-carbon products connected to real supply and use better information in procurement and Scope 3 decisions.
Your opportunity to deliver customers value is not limited to achieving the lowest emissions number, as the strongest offerings will combine meaningful reductions with credible evidence, clear availability and a proposition your customers can understand.
We help bring those elements together. From identifying valuable lower-carbon supply to structuring the transfer system and presenting the final offer, Segmos turns complex sustainability work into something commercially usable.
If you are exploring how mass balance could unlock more value from your lower-carbon supply, speak to our team. We would be happy to show you how it works in practice.
