Wood Energy Catalogue

Woody Biomass Certification - Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP)

2013
Region
Global

The Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP) is a certification system designed for woody biomass, mostly in the form of wood pellets and woodchips, used in industrial, large-scale energy production. SBP aims at enabling users and producers of solid biomass for energy production to demonstrate compliance with regulatory, including sustainability, requirements.

Different from the forest-level certification schemes, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and national standards endorsed by the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), SBP claims also addressing some special mandatory compliance issues, such as cascading use of wood, indirect land use change and carbon accounting.  

SBP was set up in 2013 by seven major European energy producers that use biomass in their power plants to continue the work of the former Initiative of Wood Pellet Buyers, which developed a standard biomass trading agreement with a focus on wood pellet specifications, trading terms and sustainability criteria.

Keywords
Sustainable biomass, certification, woody biomass, wood pellets, woodchips, industrial energy production, wood sourcing, sustainability criteria
Type of initiatives
Law or Regulations
Level of intervention
Global
Responsible agencies
Independent certification bodies accredited by Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP)