Biomass supply chain risk standard becomes an official standard in Canada

The Biomass Supply Chain Risk Standards – published by the CSA Group – have become an official Canadian standard.

The first edition of CSA W209 has been developed in compliance with Standards Council of Canada requirements for National Standards of Canada. It has been published as a National Standard of Canada by CSA Group. It provides requirements, recommendations and guidance for understanding the potential risks to biomass supply chains, including the following risk categories and associated risk factors:

a) supplier risk (including credit-worthiness/problematic future solvency of supplier; supplier contracts; supply inventory; conflicts of interest/vested interest with competing market; supplier control over production and transportation; distance from the proponent; supplier’s experience; supplier harvesting/collection/processing capacity; supplier motivation; human resource impacts);

b) competitor risk (including competitor influence on the feedstock market; competitors’ competitive advantage);

c) supply chain risk (including feedstock availability; historical issues; non-weather based externalities; risks related to feedstock production, harvest, and collection; transportation; supply chain resiliency; climate and natural risks; political and social; sustainability and environmental concern; greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting system);

d) feedstock quality risk (including feedstock quality; specific feedstock quality variables);

e) feedstock scale-up risk (including feedstock scale-up); and

f) internal organizational risk (including feedstock cost margins; on-site inventory; internal feedstock yard operations; management and personnel).

The Standard applies to activities starting at harvest point and ending at plant gate.

1.2

In this Standard, shall is used to express a requirement, i.e., a provision that the user is obliged to satisfy in order to comply with the Standard; should is used to express a recommendation or that which is advised but not required; and may is used to express an option or that which is permissible within the limits of the Standard.

Notes accompanying clauses do not include requirements or alternative requirements; the purpose of a note accompanying a clause is to separate from the text explanatory or informative material.

Notes to tables and figures are considered part of the table or figure and may be written as requirements.

Annexes are designated normative (mandatory) or informative (non-mandatory) to define their application.

The full document can be accessed here.