Digital MRV stands for Digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification. It is a modern way of collecting evidence that a carbon project is achieving the emissions reductions it claims.
Since 2016 we relied heavily on field staff visiting schools, interviewing cooks, checking logbooks, and estimating how much firewood was being saved. This approach is accepted by carbon standards, and it is expensive, time-consuming, because we do a CENSUS approach, meaning all the institutional improved cook stoves (IICS) are inspected 6 times every year.
With heat sensors installed in all of the IICS, the project can now automatically record information such as:
When a stove is used.
How long it is used.
How frequently it is used.
Whether the stove is actually operating throughout the school term, and on holiday periods.
They do not directly measure carbon emissions or firewood consumption. Instead, they support the existing hard data collected in the field and provide reliable evidence that the IICS are being used consistently. This information can then be combined with other data from the physical visits, such as firewood consumption measurements and the project’s approved carbon methodology, to calculate emissions reductions more accurately.
For Simoshi, this represents an important step towards digital MRV.
Simoshi can now build a continuous digital record showing that each installed IICS is actively being used. This increases confidence in the project’s data because the information comes directly from the equipment rather than only from interviews and manual records.
For our carbon finance project, digital MRV can have several benefits:
It improves the quality and credibility of the monitoring data submitted during carbon credit verification.
It helps identify schools where IICS are not being used as expected, allowing Simoshi to provide maintenance or additional training before problems affect carbon credit generation.
It provides stronger evidence to carbon standards, verifiers, and carbon credit buyers that the project is delivering real and measurable climate benefits.
