Industrial and process efficiency projects are an emissions-reduction project type within the energy & industry segment of the carbon market. They are designed to lower the emissions intensity of industrial output or recover wasted energy. The carbon benefit comes from reduced process emissions and/or reduced energy use versus a baseline plant configuration. Common project configurations include Waste heat recovery; process optimization; equipment upgrades in industrial facilities.

In industry, a relatively small process change can produce material emissions gains when deployed at high throughput. These credits are typically valued as decarbonization pathways rather than storage claims, so the core questions are whether the baseline is still credible and whether the project is driving emissions lower than business as usual. For buyers and program designers, the most important diligence questions are: Are plant boundaries complete? Is production shifting creating leakage? Is the baseline process credible?