NSF International awarded SBP approval

Sustainable Biomass Partners (SBP), an industry-led initiative formed by major European renewable energy utilities, has announced that NSF International (NSF) has become an SBP-approved certification body.

NSF has provided evidence that it meets the SBP requirements regarding its existing accreditations and has demonstrated sufficient resource and competence to manage the SBP certification programme under the SBP framework.

The SBP framework of standards and processes enables biomass producers, typically pellet and wood chip mills, to demonstrate that they source their feedstock responsibly and that it complies with the regulatory, including sustainability, requirements applicable to power generators burning woody biomass to produce energy.

To become SBP-approved certification bodies, agencies are required
to demonstrate their capacity to implement the SBP requirements and auditors have to successfully complete an SBP-approved training course.

The performance of certification bodies will be monitored on an ongoing basis, including the review of all audit reports by the SBP prior to the certification of biomass producers.

Peter Wilson, executive director of SBP says the approval of NFS marks the establishment of the first SBP-approved certification body in North America.