Bonsucro
Bonsucro is an international not for-profit, multistakeholder governance group established in 2008 to promote sustainable sugar cane. Its stated aim is to reduce 'the environmental and social impacts of sugarcane production while recognising the need for economic viability'. It does this through setting sustainability standards and certifying sugar cane products including ethanol, sugar and molasses., 25% of global land planted in sugar cane was Bonsucro certified. Bonsucro has more than 500 members in more than 40 countries around the world including farmers, millers, traders, buyers and support organisations.
Bonsucro is one of the few certifications to have developed measures for greenhouse gas emissions, and consequently the European Commission has stated that the Bonsucro standard can be used to demonstrate compliance with the EU Renewables Directive when importing ethanol fuel, although the standard had to be altered to comply fully. Both Bonsucro and the standards set by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials have been noted as in practise expanding the EU RED guidelines to include other factors, such as land tenure issues as prescribed by national law.
EU market access has been labeled as important by Colombian policy-makers, and described as driving the country's national policy aiming for 40% Bonsucro sugarcane. However, this use of certification in the context of biofuels has caused concern regarding the consequences of intensification in Colombia, although as of November 2014 no mills had yet achieved certification in the country. The first Bonsucro certified ethanol fuel, from Brazil, was first imported into Europe through the Port of Rotterdam in 2012.
