Insurance carriers in 2026 face ESG disclosure requirements that reach into their claims supply chains in ways that were not anticipated even two years ago. NAIC climate risk disclosure, ISSB S2 adoption timelines, and CSRD obligations for EU-exposed carriers are all converging on a single data problem: restoration contractors generate material Scope 3 emissions that carriers must now account for.
The challenge is data. A carrier writing $500 million in property claims annually has no standardized mechanism to receive per-job emissions data from restoration contractors. They estimate using industry spend-based proxies that overstate actual contractor emissions by two to three times and that will not survive assurance review under emerging disclosure frameworks.
Where Contractor Emissions Appear in a Carrier’s Scope 3 Inventory
For insurance carriers, restoration contractor emissions are Scope 3 Category 1 (purchased services). For carriers with SBTi commitments, Category 1 is frequently within the 67% Scope 3 coverage boundary. For carriers reporting under CSRD or to NAIC climate surveys, contractor-generated emissions are a material and disclosable supply chain category.
The current state: most carriers either exclude contractor emissions with a disclosed exclusion note, or apply a spend-based estimate using EPA USEEIO factors for construction services. Both are acknowledged limitations in carrier sustainability reports. Both are flagged as data quality gaps by institutional investors and ESG rating agencies.
What the Restoration Carbon Protocol Provides
The Restoration Carbon Protocol (RCP) v1.0, published at tygartmedia.com/rcp, is a free, open-source standard for per-job Scope 3 emissions calculation from restoration contractor work. For insurance carriers:
- Per-claim carbon data: Each RCP Job Carbon Report covers one restoration job — actual per-claim data rather than portfolio-level estimates.
- Machine-readable format: The RCP-JCR-1.0 JSON schema is designed for direct intake into ESG data management platforms and carrier sustainability reporting systems.
- Audit-ready methodology: Every RCP record documents calculation methodology, emission factor sources, and data quality tier in a format that satisfies GHG Protocol verification standards under both limited and reasonable assurance.
- Carbon avoidance documentation: The RCP framework also quantifies avoided emissions — carbon not generated when a contractor dries in place rather than demolishes, or diverts debris to recycling rather than landfill. This supports carrier climate action narrative as well as underwriting data on loss severity.
The Carrier Network Effect
The most powerful aspect of an open protocol standard for insurance carriers is the network effect it creates in the contractor supply chain. When a carrier requires RCP-certified contractors as a preferred vendor condition, every contractor in their preferred network is simultaneously incentivized to implement the standard.
EcoClaim, a Canadian company, has built a proprietary version of this concept for Canadian P&C carriers — closed platform, subscription model, carrier-specific data. The Restoration Carbon Protocol offers the open-standard alternative: any carrier can require RCP compliance, any contractor can implement it at zero cost, and the data flows in a standardized format that every carrier’s ESG system can ingest identically.
The full framework is at tygartmedia.com/rcp. Carrier partnership and industry governance inquiries: rcp@tygartmedia.com.