“Over the years we’ve invested significantly in our field data team - focusing on producing trusted ratings. While this ensures the accuracy of our Ratings, it doesn’t allow the scale across the thousands of projects that buyers are considering.”
For more information on carbon credit procurement trends, read our "Key Takeaways for 2025" article. We share five, data-backed tips to improve your procurement strategy.
One more thing: Connect to Supply customers also get access to the rest of Sylvera's tools. That means you can easily see project ratings and evaluate an individual project's strengths, procure quality carbon credits, and even monitor project activity (particularly if you’ve invested at the pre-issuance stage.)
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Buyer: Tokyo Gas
Industry: Energy & Utilities
Region: Japan
Developer: 3T
Project region: Ghana
Project type: ARR
Use Case: Pre-issuance credibility for forest restoration projects
Sylvera Products Used: Pre-Issuance Solution
Impact: Enhanced confidence in project investability, collaborative project development, and strengthened carbon procurement
Tokyo Gas leverages Sylvera's Pre-Issuance Solution to build a premium carbon credit portfolio, working collaboratively with Three Trees (3T), a high-quality forest restoration and agroforestry project developer, to drive meaningful climate impact.
The challenge
Building trust through independent assessment in early-stage partnerships
Tokyo Gas, a leading company in the Japanese energy industry, had identified Three Trees (3T) as a promising partner for their decarbonization strategy. 3T, a global carbon project developer specializing in high-quality forest restoration and agroforestry projects across Africa, was developing an ambitious reforestation project in Ghana expected to generate approximately 1.2 million tonnes of carbon removal credits over 40 years.
Before committing to co-financing the project, Tokyo Gas needed independent assessment to validate both immediate project quality and long-term scalability. The challenge was multifaceted: ensuring the project met high integrity standards, could deliver the volume of credits required, and aligned with 3T's commitment to community engagement and native species restoration.
"We had identified 3T as a partner aligned with our values—committed to community engagement and ecological integrity. But we needed independent validation of the project's investability before commitment. Could this project deliver the quality and volume of credits we needed, and could it scale beyond the initial phase?"
Tokyo Gas representative.
About 3T and the Ghana project
High-integrity forest restoration built on community partnerships
Three Trees Pte. Ltd. (3T), founded in 2022 and incorporated in Singapore, develops high-quality forest restoration and agroforestry projects across Africa. With local subsidiaries in Ghana, Rwanda, and Tanzania, 3T has built deep relationships with national governments and local communities to ensure scalable, lasting outcomes.
The Ghana reforestation project exemplifies 3T's commitment to combining climate impact with community benefit, restoring degraded land across Ghana through native ecosystem restoration and assisted natural regeneration while creating jobs and infrastructure for local communities.
Currently at 2,800 hectares, the project is designed to scale beyond 50,000 hectares, generating approximately 1.2 million tonnes of carbon removal credits aligned with the ICVCM’s Core Carbon Principles.
With large-scale planting scheduled to begin in March 2026, the project represents the kind of high-integrity, community-centred carbon initiative that investors like Tokyo Gas seek to support.
Why Sylvera
Facilitating transparent collaboration between all stakeholders
Sylvera was chosen for independent evaluation of the Ghana project, seeking trusted third-party validation before major capital commitment. Sylvera's Pre-Issuance Solution offered the comprehensive assessment framework needed for Tokyo Gas to make an informed investment decision.
The decision was driven by the need for objective, expert analysis that could evaluate both current project status and future potential. Sylvera's Pre-Issuance Solution assessment revealed both potential and critical gaps for the Ghana project - across the three core evaluation modules:
Integrity Module: Evaluates fundamental project quality based on additionality, permanence, and carbon accounting accuracy to provide an early indication of the likely rating at issuance.
Delivery Module: Assesses project implementation timelines, capacity, and performance to determine how and when carbon credits are expected to be issued.
Value Module: Estimates price and market potential based on scalability, cost reduction potential, and market acceptance factors using Sylvera's proprietary rating-price correlation models.
Transforming assessment into partnership
Comprehensive assessment driving collaborative improvement
The Pre-Issuance assessment revealed both significant potential and opportunities for enhancement. Rather than simply documenting findings, Sylvera's remedial actions framework provided specific, actionable guidance for strengthening the project.
Over two months, all three parties held collaborative working sessions to address each identified gap:
- Tokyo Gas provided the investor perspective, articulating requirements and asking critical questions about long-term viability
- Sylvera contributed technical expertise on enhancing the project design and ratings outcome
- 3T brought operational knowledge and deep understanding of local context in Ghana
The collaborative process yielded concrete improvements across several areas:
- A detailed action plan for adoption of the latest ARR methodologies in the market
- Alignment on long-term carbon accounting best practices, notably supporting the expected carbon credit delivery claims
- Greater trust between all stakeholders
Each enhancement was designed to be practically implementable while maintaining scientific rigor and 3T's core commitment to community-centered development.
"Tokyo Gas's approach of convening all stakeholders openly was a real opportunity to further strengthen the integrity of our project and was warmly welcomed by our teams. We’re always searching for ways to deepen the climate and community impact of our work, and this offered a well-managed, direct, and collaborative way to do that. The science-backed recommendations will be key in enhancing our project even further in the future.”
3T Spokesperson
The results
Measurable Outcomes Across All Stakeholders
The three-way partnership delivered substantial outcomes benefiting all parties:
1. Enhanced project investability and market value
In September 2025, 3T announced that Tokyo Gas had committed to advancing the Ghana reforestation project following completion of Sylvera's Pre-Issuance assessment. The recommended project upgrades identified through the collaborative process positioned the project to achieve a rating of at least BBB, significantly enhancing its market value and investability.
2. Tokyo Gas positioned as a market-making leader
The partnership positioned Tokyo Gas as a leader in Japan's energy transition and carbon market development. By facilitating transparent collaboration between all parties, Tokyo Gas demonstrated the strategic value of being a market maker rather than simply a credit purchaser.
"We’re helping build the infrastructure for Japan's carbon market by facilitating partnerships with high-quality developers," says the Tokyo Gas representative. "This collaborative model creates stronger projects and accelerates the transition to high-integrity carbon markets."
3. Enhanced developer bankability and standards
For 3T, the collaboration provided value beyond the immediate project improvements. The transparent feedback process allowed 3T to build improved internal standards and market viability for future projects.
"Working with Tokyo Gas and Sylvera elevated our entire approach to project development. We're now applying these enhanced standards and monitoring protocols across our full project pipeline."
3T Spokesperson
4. Ongoing partnership and market development
Sylvera's continued collaboration with Tokyo Gas and 3T ensures continued alignment on the project’s progress, providing all parties with transparent updates as the project advances from planning to implementation to credit issuance.
Tokyo Gas continues to leverage this collaborative model for evaluating additional pre-issuance opportunities, demonstrating the strategic value of upstream project engagement, early-stage due diligence and long-term project partnerships.
