Wood Pellet Accreditation

If a company implements effective management systems to supply wood pellets of a suitable specification for its customers in the most effective manner, there is not much more that it could reasonably do to ensure the quality of its service. But how does the customer know that a supplier is doing this? Accreditation (aka certification or assurance) is one answer.

A shortcut to verify quality

Without accreditation, a customer would either have to take on faith that a supplier does what they say they do, or take the time to read their procedures, consider whether they are effective, and check whether they implement them properly.

Experience and relationships as alternatives to accreditation

Experience and relationships may well serve this purpose over time. Customers will come to know by their reputation which suppliers are trustworthy and which not. Good suppliers will take care to manage their activities carefully for fear of spoiling their reputation and losing their customers. But in the absence of that experience, accreditation can provide a shortcut for a customer to trust a supplier (provided that the certification is rigorous).

What accreditation does

Accreditation is a process by which an independent certification body certifies that a wood-pellet supplier (or producer) implements systems suitable for the customer to have confidence that the product meets their requirements. Accreditation does the work that a customer would otherwise have to do to check that a supplier's quality was reliable. The customer assumes that an accredited supplier is a good-quality supplier, and therefore need only ask for evidence of accreditation to place trust in the supplier's claims regarding specifications and quality.

Lack of accreditation does not necessarily mean lack of quality

A company can be operating perfectly effectively without accreditation. Accreditation will make little difference to the operations of a company that has already implemented good management systems. The absence of accreditation does not mean that a supplier does not provide a perfectly adequate offering. Indeed, that is a good thing, as there is no British certification body yet, so only a handful of pellet producers have begun the process of accreditation, using foreign certification bodies.

Quality accreditation schemes for wood pellets

Accreditation schemes typically certify the quality of the product/service. ENplus is a scheme developed in Austria and Germany for this purpose, which is attempting to become the European standard accreditation scheme, although it has yet to be adopted in many countries, including the UK and most of Scandinavia. Moves are afoot to introduce ENplus into the UK, and some British wood-pellet producers are moving ahead with ENplus accreditation through the Germanic bodies before it is officially available in the UK.

HETAS, the British body that approves solid-fuel domestic heating appliances (equivalent to Corgi, as was, for gas), has been looking into establishing a British solid-biomass fuel assurance scheme. However, as a globally-traded, commoditised product that will be mostly used in equipment made outside the UK that is designed to use wood pellets that were made outside the UK, a standalone British scheme does not make much sense. It is more likely that HETAS will have some role in the implementation and adaptation of a European scheme in the British market.

Sustainability accreditation schemes for wood pellets (and other wood products)

Accreditation schemes are not limited to quality issues. FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) accreditation certifies that the biomass used in wood pellets (or for other uses) came from sustainably-managed forests. FSC is not the only such accreditation scheme in the global forestry market. PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) is another. You will often see the phrase "FSC or equivalent" to denote wood pellets from sustainable sources.

Just as lack of quality accreditation does not mean that a product or service lacks quality, simply that its quality has not been verified independently, so lack of FSC or equivalent accreditation does not mean that a wood pellet is from unsustainable sources, just that the sustainability of its sources has not been verified indepedently. Many smaller producers will not be able to manage the cost and bureaucracy of accreditation of one sort or another. They may be using forestry and timber-mill by-products that are the most sustainable inputs to pellet production, as they would otherwise have been wasted, but be unable to provide traceability on these by-products to sustainably- or unsustainably-managed forests. In this context, that should not matter. You should not dismiss wood pellets that are not FSC or equivalent certified, but you may want to ask more questions about their provenance.

Forever Fuels and accreditation

Forever Fuels has implemented most of the systems and standards that would be required by ENplus or an equivalent certification scheme, and is in discussion with a potential certification body. The intention is to become an accredited supplier when there is a suitable British certification body available, or to use a continental body if a British one does not become available soon.

Some of the producers of Forever Fuels' wood pellets are also moving towards ENplus accreditation. Accreditation of the quality of the end-product relies on accrediting the full chain of custody from producer to consumer. Forever Fuels will offer a premium ENplus option for deliveries once we and at least one of our suppliers have gained accreditation. In the meantime, we are operating to a standard that is as close to ENplus as you can get in the UK at the moment.

Forever Fuels' wood pellets are certified sustainable by FSC or equivalent.