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BioGrace-II target groups

The BioGrace-II project addressed three target groups. These were:

  1. Bioenergy policy makers and the European Commission

    The target group consisted of decision makers and their specialists and advisors within the national governments of the EU member states and within the European Commission. These were responsible for putting sustainability criteria for biofuels and for solid and gaseous biomass into national legislation.

    The BioGrace-II partners stayed in close contact to policy makers to present and discuss the aim and the progress of BioGrace-II.

    Within the project, two EU-wide policy makers workshops were held to discuss the issues in plenary.
  1. Companies

    The BioGrace-II project partners reached out to companies that were going to comply with sustainability criteria  for solid biomass in the following years. This was a diverse target group as it included the entire biomass cycle: farmers/forest owners that produce biomass feedstock, companies that convert feedstock into intermediate and final products (such as wood pellets, wood chips, bioliquids, heat, cooling, electricity, and biofuels) and companies that distribute, sell and use these products. In EU legislation these companies are referred to as “economic operators”.

    Representatives of companies were invited to discuss the GHG calculation tool in ten small feedback sessions. In addition every stakeholder had the opportunity to get to know the tool and give feedback in three public workshops.
  1. Verifiers

    These are verifiers that audit or certify GHG calculations as part of sustainability criteria for solid and gaseous biomass as well as for biofuels, plus their trainers. For biofuels these are specifically the verifiers of the voluntary certification schemes that are accepted by the Commission.

    There were five train-the-trainers sessions to practise the GHG tool into detail. In addition instruction videos were produced and put on the website.