The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) has today published the Standards Development Process Working Groups’ response to the public consultation on Revision Draft v1 of SBP Standards 1 to 6.

In the response document, each of the comments received during the first public consultation is presented along with a response summarising how the comments have been taken into account in the development of Revision Draft v2 of the Standards.

The public consultation on Revision Draft v2 is now open and all stakeholders are invited to participate. All documents are available via the Feedback Platform; please use the platform to submit your comments. The consultation closes on Wednesday, 24 November 2021.

The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) has today launched its public consultation on Revision Draft v2 of Standards 1 to 6.

Our Standards Development Process is designed to facilitate an open, inclusive and constructive sharing of views amongst our stakeholder community. This is the second and final public consultation on proposed revisions to our suite of six Standards and is the outcome of many hours of stakeholder participation.

In this public consultation, SBP is seeking stakeholder feedback on Revision Draft v2 of:

• Standard 1: Feedstock Compliance
• Standard 2: Feedstock Verification
• Standard 3: Certification Body Requirements
• Standard 4: Chain of Custody
• Standard 5: Collection and Communication of Data
• Standard 6: Energy and Carbon Balance Calculation

In addition to Revision Draft v2 of the six Standards, we have also published an updated Glossary. Our Response to Consultation, which sets out the feedback received from the first public consultation and our response, will be published shortly.

All documents are available via the Feedback Platform, please use the platform to provide your feedback and comments. The consultation closes on Wednesday, 24 November 2021.

SBP has today published the updated Regional Risk Assessment (RRA) for Estonia. RRAs are a key part of SBP’s focus on identifying and mitigating risks associated with sourcing feedstock for woody biomass pellet and chip production.

In accordance with the SBP RRA Procedure, SBP-endorsed RRAs remain valid for a period of five years from the approval date. The RRA for Estonia was first published on 22 April 2016 and consequently its validity expired on 22 April 2021. In the light of the ongoing Standards Development Process, it was decided to conduct a minor update of the RRA for Estonia with a focus on those indicators where new data had become available. In line with the RRA Procedure, the original RRA has remained valid up to today’s publication of the minor update.

The Standards Development Process currently underway is reviewing each of the SBP Standards. Standard 1 is the foundation of the SBP RRAs and any revisions to that Standard will trigger the need to update all existing SBP-endorsed RRAs.

Following publication of the revised Standards, scheduled for the end of 2021, there will be a transition period allowing time for Certificate Holders to comply with the revised requirements. From the end of that transition period it will be mandatory for all Certificate Holders to comply with the revised requirements. The RRAs will require updating in line with the revised Standards and that will be undertaken in a timely fashion within the same transition period, such that complying with the requirements of the updated RRAs will also be mandatory from the end of the transition period.

In addition to the minor update, the validity of the RRA for Estonia has been extended to coincide with the end of the transition period for the revised SBP Standards (v2.0).

In June 2021, SBP sought stakeholder feedback on the proposed minor updates and the extension of the validity of the RRA. The updates and the extension were subsequently recommended by the SBP Technical Committee and formally approved by the SBP Chief Executive Officer. A response to consultation has been published alongside the updated RRA; both documents may be viewed at: https://sbp-cert.org/documents/standards-documents/risk-assessments/estonia/.