RSB Tools & Guidelines

castor plant

RSB Principles & Criteria (Version 2)

On November 5, 2010, four years after a first exploratory multi-stakeholder meeting was held at the EPFL in Switzerland, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials released Version 2.0 of its international standard for better biomaterial production and processing. Prior to the publication of Version 2.0 several months of field testing in pilot projects, and a 2 months consultation period of RSB members and of the public took place. These documents are in use for certification since 2011!

The standard includes the RSB Principles & Criteria, an associated guidance document, detailed compliance indicators, and the use of terms (see also table below).

The Principles & Criteria and other RSB standards may be reviewed anytime upon request and pending approval of the RSB Steering Board. Without such request, the P&Cs will be reviewed in 2016. For more details, please consult the RSB Standard for Modification or RSB P&Cs and Indicators (RSB-STD-15-004).

 

Document name Download
EU-RED Global
RSB Principles & Criteria RSB-STD-11-001-01-011 RSB-STD-01-001
RSB List of Documents RSB-DOC-11-001-10-001 RSB-DOC-10-001
Compliance Indicators RSB-IND-11-001-20-001 RSB-IND-01-001
Guidance on P&Cs RSB-GUI-11-001-01-000 RSB-GUI-01-000
Use of Terms RSB-DOC-11-001-01-001 RSB-DOC-01-001

 

Guidelines (Version 2)

Reference Name of the Document Related Principle
RSB-GUI-01-002-01 RSB Impact Assessment Guidelines Principle 2
RSB-GUI-01-002-02 RSB Screening Tool Principle 2
RSB-GUI-01-002-05 RSB ESMP Guidelines Principle 2
RSB-GUI-01-005-02 RSB Rural and Social Development Guidelines Principle 5
RSB-GUI-01-006-01 RSB Food Security Assessment Guidelines Principle 6
RSB-GUI-01-007-01 RSB Conservation Impact Assessment Guidelines Principle 7
RSB-GUI-01-008-01 RSB Soil Impact Assessment Guidelines Principle 8
RSB-GUI-01-009-01 RSB Water Assessment Guidelines Principle 9
RSB-GUI-01-009-02 RSB Guidelines on Water Rights and Social Impacts Principle 9
RSB-GUI-01-012-01 RSB Land Rights Guidelines Principle 12

 

GHG Calculation and Tool

The RSB GHG Tool, which is freely available here, is a lifecycle GHG calculator for biofuels developed by the RSB Secretariat at EPFL, in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Materials Testing (EMPA). We have worked on the tool since early 2010 and it now incorporates several features that make it more user-friendly. For example, users are now able to export inputs and results into a spreadsheet. In addition, the Secretariat has developed a User’s Manual which provides a step-by-step guide to the tool.

Please see also the standards on the RSB methodology for GHG calculation and the fossil fuel baseline:

We hope you enjoy using the GHG Tool! For any questions please contact victoria.junquera[at]epfl.ch

Previous Drafts of the RSB Standard

To view the previous versions of the RSB Principles and Criteria (Version Zero and intermediary versions towards Version One), please visit our archives!

Here you find a summary of changes from Version One to Version 2 + a synopsis of consultation on Version 1.1.