Green Charging Explained: How Guarantees of Origin Can Power the Next Wave of Sustainable Mobility
By Pauline Gain, Head of Public Affairs and CSR, and Théodore Monziès, Senior Program Manager E-Mobility, Edenred Mobility
What is a Guarantee of Origin?
As Europe rolls out millions of new charging points, a simple but often overlooked question arises: where do the electrons flowing into a car battery actually come from? There is no such thing as one plug for green electricity and another for non-green electricity, since all electrons are distributed through the same grid.
Guarantees of Origin (GoOs) are the instrument that makes them traceable. Technically, one Guarantee of Origin certifies that one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity has been produced from a specific source. An organization can purchase them, independently from its electricity supply, to claim it used renewable electricity.
The system operates on a so-called "book-and-claim" logic: the physical electron and its environmental attribute are decoupled. A wind farm in Spain can sell its green attribute to a charge point operator in Belgium, even though the physical electricity remains on the Iberian grid. The scheme works as long both grids are somehow interconnected, which is the case in this example as both Belgian and Spanish grids are connected through the French network. This separation is what makes the market liquid, but it is also what raises legitimate questions about how meaningful a GoO claim really is.
The mechanism was introduced by the European Directive 2009/28/EC and has since been reinforced by RED (Renewable Energy Directive) II and RED III, which made traceability a core pillar of the European energy transition. GoOs are issued, traded and cancelled through national registries, most of which are federated under the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) and its European Energy Certificate System (EECS).
Why green charging matters for businesses
For any organisation operating EV fleets or charging infrastructure, the case for green charging goes well beyond communication. First and foremost, it directly reduces Scope 2 emissions under the GHG Protocol market-based method. Rather than using the emission factor of the local grid - the so-called location-based method, which averages around 187 gCO₂e/kWh across Europei and reflects a mix of renewable and non-renewable sources - organisations can bring this figure down to zero for scope 2 emissions. Largest Edenred UTA clients, with thousands of corporate cars, can typically expect to reduce their scope 2 emissions by 500 to 1000 tons of CO2e per year.
Second, green charging is a tangible decarbonization lever for companies committed to RE100 or Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) goals. Charging sessions become measurable contributions to a corporate climate strategy rather than untracked operational electricity consumption. For charge point operators (CPOs), mobility service providers (MSPs) and fleet managers, this also opens the door to a credible commercial differentiator with corporate clients who are themselves under decarbonization pressure.
Third, the cost is competitive. GoOs typically trade at around €2/MWh for European GoOs, as of February 2026. In EV charging terms, this means a full charge of 50 kWh can be sourced from green energy for just €0.10, a negligible share of the total electricity cost. At Edenred UTA, this allows us to propose green energy charging for free, with RE100 eligible GoOs.
Do GoOs really drive renewable deployment?
The honest answer is: partially. On the positive side, GoOs send a market signal of demand for clean electricity. They generate an additional revenue stream for producers, which improves the bankability of new wind, solar and hydro projects. They also enable corporates to measure and report their decarbonisation progress in a standardised way.
On the critical side, standard GoOs are frequently issued by assets that were fully amortised decades ago, such as large hydropower plants. This raises an additionality concern: the revenue these certificates generate is too marginal to bring new renewable capacity online. Second, the scheme certifies renewable origin rather than low-carbon origin: a low-emission source such as nuclear cannot be used to substantiate a green-electricity claim. Third, the GoOs framework still lacks temporal matching: one MWh produced at midday in summer, when renewable supply is abundant, can be used to offset consumption occurring in winter, when renewable electricity is scarce. Lastly, the framework does not encourage local sourcing, even though geographic proximity is good practice given that cross-border interconnections may be underused or congested..
To address these criticisms, organisations may opt for more premium GoOs, such as those meeting RE100 criteria, which exclude facilities commissioned more than 15 years ago. Ecolabels such as EKOenergy go further by assessing projects for their impact on wildlife and channelling a portion of their revenue toward renewable energy projects in developing countries - thereby adding a new dimension to the GoO framework. Finally, to prepare for temporal matching - part of the latest GHG Protocol scope 2 emissions consultation - organisations will need to consolidate their electricity consumption data at an hourly granularity, a capability offered by CPMS platforms such as Spirii.
From compliance to credibility
Guarantees of Origin are not a silver bullet. Used as a tick-the-box exercise, they can dilute the meaning of green claims and fuel legitimate scepticism. But used strategically - focused on newer assets - they turn green charging into a genuine decarbonisation tool rather than a marketing argument.
As Europe scales up its charging infrastructure, the question is no longer whether to go green; it is how we can demonstrate it credibly. The companies that engage seriously with the GoO market today will be best positioned to meet tomorrow's regulatory, investor and customer expectations - and to play their part in building a transport system that is both electric and truly renewable.
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A Guarantee of Origin (GoO) is a European energy certificate that proves 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from a renewable energy source such as wind, solar or hydropower. GoOs allow organisations to verify and report the renewable origin of the electricity associated with their consumption, including EV charging.
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Electricity from different sources mixes on the grid, making it impossible to physically trace individual electrons. Guarantees of Origin solve this through a "book-and-claim" system: when renewable electricity is generated, a corresponding certificate is issued. Companies can purchase and cancel these certificates to demonstrate that an equivalent amount of renewable electricity has been produced on their behalf.
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Yes. Electric vehicles produce lower lifecycle CO₂ emissions than petrol and diesel vehicles in all major studies conducted to date. According to Transport & Environment, even an EV with a battery manufactured in China and charged on Poland's coal-heavy electricity grid emits 37% less CO₂ than an equivalent petrol car over its lifetime. Renewable electricity further increases these emissions savings.
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Green charging helps organisations reduce their Scope 2 emissions under the GHG Protocol's market-based methodology. It also supports corporate sustainability commitments such as RE100 and Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) goals, while providing transparent evidence of renewable electricity use for EV fleets and charging infrastructure.