Sustainability & Certification made simple

The Preliminary List of approved RED II schemes are as follows:

The Commission has made a preliminary positive assessment of the following voluntary schemes:

2BSvs, Better Biomass, Bonsucro EU, ISCC EU, KZR INiG, REDcert, Red Tractor, RSB EU RED, RTRS EU RED, SQC, TASCC, UFAS and SURE

Wood/Forest based

 

For woody/forestry fuels globally, FSC and PEFC are the certificates that matter. These are chain of custody certificates. Every member of the chain has been independently audited by the likes of SGS, Bureau Veritas, etc. Every member is on the public database. If a supplier claims to be certified and is not on the list they are fraudulent.

Agricultural residues

 

For agricultural wastes the most recognised sustainability certificate is ISCC. The public database has all members listed. This certificate is used by agricultural producers, transformers, traders, and end-users globally. This is another chain of custody certificate. Every step is certified and auditable.

What is SBP and do you need it?

 

Utilities in some form may receive state subsidies, either directly or indirectly. The largest users of forestry biomass are the Northern European utilities. While each respective government has its own strict sustainability criteria, this caused fragmentation in the market for wood pellets. To address this inefficiency the leading utilities created a new standard for ensuring Green House Gas (GHG) savings, sustainability, and traceability could be addressed uniformly across each member’s national requirements.

The SBP certificate is placed on top of an existing FSC or PEFC certificate. 

Why is this necessary?

 

If you pay tax you should care. These schemes deal with products that may benefit from a lower tax or subsidy. Guaranteeing the origin, GHG savings, and sustainability of the fuel your taxes go towards seems fairly self evident.  

These certificates address the very real issue of legality, proper management of resources, labour issues, best practice, and with SBP and ISCC, the additional GHG savings from forest/farm to the doorstep of the user. These go into every detail – energy use at collection, processing, transport. These numbers are audited by independent bodies.

Is there a lot of work involved?

 

As the fuel user there is extremely little effort that goes into certification. The reason is simple: you are buying certified product from a certified body.

The producer has another reality. It is a lot of work and effort, a lot of paperwork and compliance. However, certification allows the producer a larger market and their own positive marketing.

Never forget!

 

Use this as your compass and always speak with your legal, compliance, and marketing departments, while not forgetting your conscience, before buying any new fuel.

Liability & Risk

 

The complete limitation of risk is impossible. These globally recognised certificates limit your risks to fraud. Always do your homework.