Final Thoughts Canadian pellet producers show strong support for SBP SBP-certified biomass grew 80 per cent in 2018 By Carsten Huljus -Chief Executive Officer, SBP C ountries worldwide are significant-ly reducing carbon emissions by re-placing traditional fossil fuels with renewable, low-carbon sources of energy, such as wind, solar and biomass. When sourced from sustainably managed for-ests, woody biomass is widely recognized as an environmentally-friendly alterna-tive to fossil fuels and is helping many countries meet renewable energy goals and legal requirements. Consequently, the growth of Sustain-able Biomass Program (SBP)-certified biomass in the global, industrial biomass market was significant in 2018, some 80 per cent on the year before. In total, 9.05 million tonnes of SBP-certified bio-mass were produced in 2018, with pellets making up the vast majority (8.4 million tonnes) and the remainder being wood-chips. Canada contributed just over 10 per cent of the volume of SBP-certified pellets, and now, with 21 certificate holders in its own right, that volume is set to increase. Such growth is to be expected for a cer-tification system in its infancy, particularly one that was established to meet strong market demand for a mechanism that al-lows end-users of biomass for energy to demonstrate compliance with regulatory requirements for biomass sustainability. Since the SBP standards launched in 2015, it has been a steep learning curve for certificate holders, certification bodies and for SBP itself. Four years on, SBP boasts 172 certificate holders across 22 countries. In Canada, B.C., Alberta, New Bruns-wick, Nova Scotia and Quebec are re-sponsible for the majority of wood pellet exports. The growth in the country’s cer-tificate holders has been steady, with the first pellet mill certified in October 2016 and the twenty-first in April 2019. From its industry-led beginnings in 2013, SBP has recently transformed itself into a multi-stakeholder organisation, with representation from biomass pro-ducers, biomass end-users and civil soci-ety throughout its governance structure. As a major pellet-producing country, Canada is well represented at the board and committee levels with Vaughan Bas-sett, senior vice-president of sales and logistics at Pinnacle Renewable Energy, and Arnie Bercov, former president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada, both serving on the board. Gordon Mur-ray, executive director of the Wood Pel-let Association of Canada (WPAC), and Brenda Hopkin, an independent natural resource consultant, serve on the Stan-dards Committee and Technical Commit-tee, respectively. All bring valuable practi-tioner and technical expertise to assist in and enhance the running of SBP. We are fortunate to have the full sup-port of WPAC, the voice of Canada’s growing pellet sector. As a strong advo-cate of multi-stakeholder governance, WPAC has been instrumental in steering change at SBP. Such engagement with our many diverse stakeholders is an essential part of our operations. At the operational level, we are keen to promote the benefits of a risk-based approach for the evaluation of feedstock. Whereas feedstock certified to FSC, PEFC and PEFC-endorsed schemes is automati-cally compliant with our feedstock require-ments, all other feedstock must be evaluat-ed through a supply base evaluation. The evaluation, carried out by the bio-mass producer and independently audited by an accredited certification body, iden-tifies the risk of compliance with a com-prehensive set of indicators detailed in our feedstock compliance standard, rating each indicator as either ‘low’ or ‘specified’ risk. A key element of SBP’s focus on iden-tifying and mitigating risks associated with sourcing feedstock is the development of regional risk assessments (RRAs). The RRA evaluation process covers an entire geographic region, thereby avoid-ing the need for individual biomass pro-ducers to conduct risk assessments. The process also ensures active engagement with stakeholders in the region. SBP’s RRA procedure is available for any orga-nization or initiative to use. WPAC has adopted the approach and is committed to carrying out RRAs for the five main pellet-producing provinces. The project began in December 2017. To date, WPAC has made significant progress on the RRAs for B.C. and Quebec. Those for Alberta, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia will follow. All RRAs are subject to public consultation and, upon completion, will be submitted to SBP for endorsement. The RRAs will bring major benefits to Canadian biomass producers by stream-lining the supply base evaluation process and the re-certification process, which SBP certificate holders must undergo ev-ery five years. For SBP, our immediate focus is embed-ding the new governance arrangements. We are reliant on our board and commit-tee members to uphold good governance through a mixture of oversight, insight and foresight. The strong support demon-strated by the pellet-producing industry of Canada is most welcome and we look forward to continuing the good working relationship already established. • SUMMER 2019 30 Canadian BIOMASS
Canadian Biomass Summer 2019: Page 30
