After two years of meticulous preparation, SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES Verifications Scheme (SURE) has begun operation by providing a practical solution to all economic operators within the bioenergy sector to demonstrate the sustainability of electricity and heat production from biomass. The aim of SURE is to enable all economic operators to show compliance with the legal requirements of RED II.
Under the recast Renewable Energy Directive (EU) 2018/2001, mandatory sustainability criteria have been introduced for economic operators receiving support for the production of electricity or heating and cooling from biomass and biogas. The new rules come into force on July 1, 2021. However, economic operators are well advised to identify potential weaknesses in the company at an early stage and to check compliance in good time. Bioenergy Europe expects that bottlenecks may occur when thousands of economic operators simultaneously seek certification in order to fulfill their legal obligations in due time.
"The implementation of RED II means that all economic operators in the supply chain must provide proof of sustainability. We foresee a huge demand and therefore, it is our strong recommendation to the companies to start the certification process as soon as possible,” advises Peter Jürgens, General Manager SURE. For this, SURE is now available as a well-balanced and practical certification system. As a full scope system, SURE provides certification for the entire supply chain and is open to agricultural and forest biomass producers, producers of biomass fuel from waste and residues, pellet producers, logistic operators, biomass fuel traders, biomass and biogas plants. This broad spectrum enables certification from a single source even for different material flows. Thereby SURE guarantees transparency and objectivity through regular checks by independent and neutral auditors.
In the next months, until SURE is recognized by the EU Commission to verify compliance with RED II, the verification scheme will run operational business on a voluntary basis to prove feasibility and to prepare the bioenergy industry for the RED II implementation. All certification bodies interested to join the scheme are invited to submit their application. First applicants among the economic operators are also expected.
