Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels Forging Ahead

If renewable biofuel production is to grow to the scale needed to displace a significant portion of the world’s fossil petroleum dependence, establishing rigorous standards and third party certification systems to assure the environmental, social and economic sustainability of biofuels production will be critical. The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels is trying to do just that.

What is the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels (RSB)? From the RSB web site :

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) is an international initiative coordinated by the Energy Center at EPFL in Lausanne that brings together farmers, companies, non-governmental organizations, experts, governments, and inter-governmental agencies concerned with ensuring the sustainability of biofuels production and processing. . . . The RSB has developed a third-party certification system for biofuels sustainability standards, encompassing environmental, social and economic principles and criteria through an open, transparent, and multi-stakeholder process. . . . RSB Certificates are recognised by the European Union under the Renewable Energy Directive.

The RSB has been engaged in developing its standards and certification system over the past five years. The effort remains a work in progress. The RSB is currently inviting public comment on whether and how the RSB standards should address indirect impacts of biofuel production. The RSB has provided an excellent background paper on the subject. Public comments are due by May 15.

In January 2012, the RSB issued its first certificate to a biofuel producer in Australia. Applications for certification from two U.S. biofuel producers (SkyNRG and Piedmont Biofuels) are currently pending review and public comment.