Advanced BioFuels USA

(Better Sugar Cane Initiative, Ltd.)  July was an historic month for the Better Sugar Cane Initiative. After three years of hard work involving literally dozens of people, we submitted our application to the EU for our certification system which includes our core Standard,to be recognised as a voluntary scheme. If we are successful then ethanol importers into the EU will be able to satisfy the EU environmental requirements against Better Sugar Cane Initiative certification. The certification system consists of five documents:

1. Standards: There are two standards 

• • The Production Standard’ contains principles and criteria for achieving sustainable production of sugarcane and all sugarcane derived products in respect of economic, social and environmental respects.
  • The  ”Chain of Custody Standard’ contains a set of technical and administrative requirements to enable the tracking of claims on the sustainable production of BSI sugarcane and all sugarcane derived products along the entire supply chain after the mill and its cane supply; through conversion, processing, manufacturing, transformation and trade to use of all sugarcane derived products.

1. Audit Guidance: The Better Sugar Cane Initiative has developed guidance and clarification documents for members and auditors on how to become compliant with the Production Standard and/or Chain of Custody Standard. This includes: 1.) description of how to interpret the principles and criteria from the standards, 2.) audit instructions to verify compliance through indicators and verifiers, 3.) information related to exceptional situations, 4.) objective criteria for critical limits, and 5.) Tools and calculations for audit purposes.  
2. Certification Protocol: The Better Sugar  has developed a Certification Protocol for members and auditors that lists the process and procedures for certification against the BSI standards. This includes: 1.) Rules and requirements for Certification Bodies to audit against the standards, 2.) certification requirements for economic operators to demonstrate compliance to the BSI standards, and 3.) audit procedures for Certification Bodies to verify compliance with the standards. 
    
3. BSI is an associate member of ISEAL and as such follows its code of conduct. Following completion of the first public consultation phase, a stakeholders outreach programme was run in Brazil, East and Southern Africa, India, Caribbean, and Australia.  In November 2009, the Better Sugar Cane Initiative general assembly reached agreement on Version 2 of the standard that was submitted to a second public consultation held in early 2010. Finally, the 2010 Standard was formally adopted on July 27, 2010.

Please note: Only the production Standard will be publicly available.  READ MORE