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.

Contents

Latest news and announcement

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

Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels - First Stakeholder Meeting

28 November 2006, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Agenda

Documents

Presentations

Publications

Contacts

Opal Charlotte: RSB Coordinator; e-mail:charlotte.opal"at"epfl.ch

Annie Sugrue: Social Impacts Working Group Coordinator; e-mail: annie.sugrue"at"epfl.ch

Sébastien Haye: ENV Working Group Coordinator; e-mail:sebastien.haye"at"epfl.ch

Georgios Sarantakos; GHG Working Group Coordinator; e-mail:georgios.sarantakos"at"epfl.ch

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 [1]


                        Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels edit
RSB sustainability criteria: RSB comments process - (General discussion page)
RSB draft principles - wiki version for public editing (Discussion, Follow the edit history)
RSB working groups: Greenhouse Gases (GHG WG) Environment (ENV WG) | Implementation (IMP WG)
Social Impacts (SOC WG)
RSB launch press release | RSB Intro to Feedback Mechanisms | Commenting on RSB Drafts Using the BioenergyWiki (PDF)
RSB Current Debate on Land Use
Recent changes to BioenergyWiki related to the RSB
Sustainability standards edit
Organizations/Initiatives: Better Sugarcane Initiative | Forest Stewardship Council | Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels | Responsible Commodities Initiative | EU: GAVE | LowCVP

Policy proposals: Green Biofuels Index
Key terms: Ecological Footprint | Life-cycle analysis | Eco-labelling


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