SBP has today announced that following approval by the Standards Committee, the Board has formally endorsed the revised SBP Standards (v2).
Approval of the revised Standards concludes the Standards Development Process that was launched in May 2020. Amounting to a significant effort, the Process was designed to encourage and realise a wide-ranging review and, where necessary, revision of the Standards with full stakeholder participation.
Advances in the understanding of sustainability issues, market requirements and international best practice for effective and credible certification schemes were key considerations during the review and revision.
Our revised Standards underpin our promise of good biomass, requiring that SBP-certified biomass is deforestation-free, that biodiversity is maintained or enhanced through protecting key species, habitats and ecosystems, that water quality and soil quality are maintained or enhanced, and that carbon stocks are stable or increasing.
Martin Junginger and Mike Williams, Co-Chairs of the Standards Committee, commented: “With responsibility for the approval recommendation, we devised guiding principles for the review and revision, and evaluation criteria against which to test the revised Standards. With equal representation of civil society and commercial interests we were able to bring balance to the Standards Committee’s decision-making. We are confident that a strengthened and credible set of Standards has been delivered, serving the interests of SBP’s wide-ranging stakeholders”.
In the early stages of the Process, three multi-stakeholder Working Groups and various topic-specific Sub-groups delved into the detail of the Standards and made proposals and recommendations for revision. Public consultations and pilot testing supplemented development of a suite of draft Standards that were then subject to intense scrutiny by the Technical Committee and Standards Committee.
Carsten Huljus, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We have called upon our many and varied stakeholders throughout the review and revision, amassing several thousands of stakeholder hours. I am extremely grateful to all those who have contributed to version 2 of our Standards. What we now have is better than before and provides a solid foundation for future growth”.
The next steps are shown in the timeline below. The pre-release version of the approved Standards is available at: https://sbp-cert.org/standards-development/pre-release-version/
The pre-release version of the Standards has been released to facilitate the development of new, and the revision of existing, Regional Risk Assessments, and for submission to regulatory authorities to maintain our current approvals.
Please note that the ‘Pre-release publication date’ does not start the clock as far as the ‘Effective date’ and ‘Retirement of SBP Standards (v1)’ are concerned. The ‘Publication date’ (see timeline) marks the formal publication of our revised Standards and is the key anchor date for the steps that follow.
