Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels

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Bioenergy > Sustainability standards > Initiatives > Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB)

**Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels**
Secretariat webpage	Steering Board

Sustainability Criteria:	Global principles for sustainable biofuels production (2nd version) October 23, 2007
Working groups	GHG - Greenhouse gas lifecycle efficiency analysis ENV - Environmental impacts SOC - Social impacts IMP - Implementation
Current debates:	Land Use and GHG- GHG emissions from indirect land use changes Soil Management Water Management Air quality Biodiversity Offsets.
Documents:	-RSB launch press release -RSB Flyer (pdf) -RSB Intro to Feedback Mechanisms -Commenting on RSB Drafts Using the BioenergyWiki (PDF File) -RSB Draft Principles - June 5, 2007 (PDF File)

The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) is a key multi-stakeholder initiative to develop standards for the sustainability of biofuels. The Roundtable is an initiative of the Swiss EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) Energy Center. By mid 2008, it aims to have draft standards developed in conjunction with non-governmental organizations, companies, governments and inter-governmental groups from all over the world. Our hope is to create a tool that consumers, policy-makers, companies, banks, and other actors can use to ensure that biofuels deliver on their promise of sustainability.

1 Latest news and announcement
2 Current debates and burning issues
3 Overview
4 Standards
5 Timeline
6 History
7 Events
- 7.1 Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels - First Stakeholder Meeting
8 Publications
9 Contacts
10 Notes

Latest news and announcement

3rd Virtual Meeting of the GHG Working Group: Tuesday the 20th of May; 1.30pm UTC.
4th Virtual Meeting of the IMP Working Group: Monday the 19th of May; 3pm UTC.
The RSB Newsletter (December 2007) is out!
The Second Version of Draft Principles is available and ready for edits!
The RSB has held 2 regional outreaches in October and December; please visit our special pages on Belo Horizonte (Brazil) and Shanghai (China).
You can meet the Roundtable team at the following conferences (please contact us for meeting on site):
- 16th European Biomass Conference & Exhibition, 2-6 June 2008; Valencia Spain.
- Biofuels Market Asia, 11-12 June 2008; New Delhi India.

Current debates and burning issues

Come and share your views on the following topics:

Overview

**Sponsor**
Swiss École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Secretariat

Steering board

**Working Groups**
GHG	ENV	SOC	IMP
Greenhouse gas lifecycle efficiency analysis	Environmental impacts	Social impacts	Implementation

Standards

According to the organizers of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels, this initiative aims to develop standards that are:

Simple - "The standards should be accessible by small producers, inexpensive to measure, and easy to explain."^[1]
Generic - "The standards should be applicable to any crop in any country, and allow comparisons across crops and production systems."^[1]
Adaptable - "The standards should be easy to revise to take into account new technologies and their impacts on relative performance of different biofuels."^[1]
Efficient - EPFL aims "to incorporate other standards and certifications to eliminate duplicative reporting and reduce inspection burdens on producers and processors.^[1]

The organizers state that "All standards development work will be done in an open and transparent way, with ample comment periods according to the ISEAL code of good practice."^[1]

Timeline

By early 2008, EPFL aims to have draft standards developed in conjunction with non-governmental organizations, companies, governments and inter-governmental groups from all over the world.^[1]

History

Events