First edition of the RSB Bulletin

RSB Bulletin - 12 May 2010

Welcome to the first edition of the RSB Bulletin, sent to members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. These bulletins will be sent out on a regular basis at least once a month, based on information from the RSB Secretariat team meetings.  The purpose of these bulletins is to help keep members up-to-date about progress of the RSB.  We hope that you find the information contained herein useful, and please feel free to provide us with feedback on how these news briefings can be most useful to you.

The RSB Secretariat held an internal technical workshop to further develop the Compliance Indicators in February 2010. The purpose of the workshop was to initiate a process to streamline the indicators. The revised indicators were recently released as a technical draft for pilot testing, and are now more functional and practical and will be evaluated in pilot projects and integrated into the RSB EMPA tool. The indicators have been improved, though more changes are expected based on feedback from the pilot tests.

Pilots

Pilot projects continue to move forward. Several pilot projects have submitted GHG data to the Secretariat for the GHG Study 2 (see the relevant decision of the Steering Board on the path forward with regard to GHG, published on the RSB webpage) data and are now working using the Principles & Criteria and the revised Indicators. The United Nations Foundation has secured funds for two pilot tests in Mozambique, and the Inter-American Development Bank has agreed to provide financing for the Latin American pilot projects.  The RSB Secretariat is excited to take these pilots one step further into pilot auditing.

Summary of ongoing or potential pilot projects
    
Africa – The UN Foundation has agreed to finance two projects in Mozambique; one project on sugarcane and the other includes both sugarcane and sweet sorghum.

Asia – RSB is continuing to work on developing pilot projects in this area.

Latin America – The Inter-American Development Bank has approved funds for pilot auditing of three projects in the region: one on sunflower, one with Jatropha, and one on sugarcane.

Australia – There is a pilot project under development involving wheat to ethanol.

Europe – One pilot on chain of custody was successfully concluded.

Benchmarking

The RSB is working in collaboration with ISEAL and GTZ on a project to foster collaboration with and between other sustainability standards. One central element of this project will be to develop a joint benchmarking methodology. The purpose of benchmarking is to coordinate efforts and create trust among different certification schemes. The benchmarking rules will be developed in collaboration with these other certification bodies.  In addition, the RSB is looking at conducting joint pilot projects with the other standards groups, to test and compare the respective certification schemes and to inform the development of the benchmarking system. The Rainforest Alliance has agreed to join this effort and to collaborate with the RSB on this project.

GHG Studies

EMPA is performing GHG calculations for 15 biofuel pathways as part of the requirements for Study 1. Study 2 will use data from 4 pilot projects to examine changes needed to attain specific reductions. The RSB Secretariat and EMPA are finalizing the details for Study 2. EMPA is also developing a report on the RSB GHG methodology, which will provide greater transparency on the GHG methodology. The draft methodology was discussed in the GHG expert group meeting of May 11. The results of these two studies will be submitted to the RSB Chambers for consideration. For further information on these two studies see the relevant decision of the Steering Board on the path forward with regard to GHG, published on the RSB webpage.

Indirect Impact Studies

The latest draft of the Indirect Impacts methodology was discussed in the indirect impacts expert group meeting on May 10, 2010.  The updated methodology will be sent to the chambers for discussion in chamber calls in the beginning of June.

There will be a Workshop on indirect impacts on June 2nd in Rio de Janeiro; this is a collaboration between Michelin, UNEP and the RSB, to be held during Michelin’s “Challenge Bibendum” event from the 30 May - 3 June. This will be a 1 day workshop where invited participants will discuss indirect impacts approaches. Invitations were sent out to all RSB Chamber members and the experts of the RSB Expert Groups.

Terms of Reference and new Board Members

The Terms of Reference continue to be revised. An updated version should be available shortly, pending some final discussions on the details of the chamber consolidation.

Once the new Terms of Reference are approved, they will be sent out and nominations for new chamber leadership will begin. Following a week of nominations, chambers will be given another week to elect board members. The RSB Secretariat sincerely hopes that the new Steering Board will be officially inaugurated during the next in-person Steering Board meeting on June 15th.

Until the new board members are inaugurated, it is planned that the chairs of original chambers will become co-chairs of merged chambers.

Other activities of interest

•    Matt Rudolf gave a presentation about the RSB at the annual BIO Conference in Chicago, where there was some interest in the certification process.
•    NRDC has contacted us to speak about potential collaboration with the Hawaii Biofuels Foundation, on which they serve on the Board of Directors.
Upcoming Events
•    June 2, 2010 - RSB Workshop on Biofuels & Indirect Impacts, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
•    Week of May 31, 2010 – Chamber consultations on GHG and Indirect Impacts
•    June 9/10, 2010 – participation of the RSB at the RTRS Conference
•    June 15-17, 2010 – In-person Steering Board Meeting, Lausanne, Switzerland

More information click here.