The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has partnered with Water Ledger to launch SWaN, a new type of digital marketplace for environmental credits that leverages Hedera.
This platform aims to modernize Virginia’s approach to wetland and stream restoration by increasing the efficiency of purchasing and selling environmental credits.
SWaN leverages Hedera to provide real-time views of credit availability and pricing, allowing transactions to occur directly on the platform while ensuring security and auditability.
Virginia’s “no net loss” policy requires that any new construction that removes a wetland or stream within the state requires an appropriate replacement within the same watershed.
Although relief banks can typically be used to generate replacement credit, traditional tracking systems may not provide accurate information in a timely manner, leading to delays and inefficiencies.
SWaN solves these problems by providing a Hedera-based ledger solution that provides access to credit to authorized persons while ensuring preservation of the completed bank. The result is a more predictable and efficient environmental compliance process.
The Virginia government’s adoption of Hedera represents a milestone for the HBAR network heading into 2026. By supporting SWaN, Hedera can demonstrate its ability to support large-scale public sector applications by combining distributed ledger technology with enterprise security and transparency.
Hedera’s powerful network ensures smooth and reliable transactions between buyers and sellers of environmental credits. The platform’s ability to reduce delays, increase public trust, and standardize credit transactions could serve as a model for other U.S. states looking to leverage the ledger for environmental work.
Platforms like SWaN can validate Hedera’s technical capabilities. Most recently, Neuron announced that it would participate in NATO’s Project DIANA, leveraging Hedera Hashgraph for real-time network use cases.