Developing RSB indicators for Queensland, Australia

The Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection has commissioned the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials to develop regional indicators for the RSB Principles and Criteria based on Queensland’s regulatory framework.

This demonstrates the importance of the RSB standard for policy makers who want a streamlined process that is easy to implement offering assurance to producers, investors and demand generators with an interest in the potential of Queensland. It also demonstrates to the RSB’s stakeholders an example of how a risk based approach can reduce the costs and effort to implement a sustainability standard by taking the regional jurisdiction into account.

The RSB is also engaged with representatives in the US and South Africa on developing contextual regional indicators to assist in policy development.

Global sustainability standards often duplicate existing laws and regulations that are already monitored by government, especially in those economies with strong social and environmental legislation. The development of regional indicators helps auditors and farmers alike, identify which criteria are already covered by national law, thus making the access to a sustainability certification quicker and easier.