Sustainability: concrete measures

For Alcosuisse, sustainable development in not just a slogan. The biofuel label must be based on very strict criteria. Even if each situation is unique, certain general rules must be respected during the different production phases:

• feedstocks should not be imported from regions which practise deforestation
• measures should be implemented to combat soil erosion and soil depletion on farmland
• fertilizers and phytosanitary products should be used sparingly (e.g. no transgenic crops with associated higher pesticide treatments)
• the emphasis should be on plants that require little human intervention (typically those that do not need to be sowed each year and which do not require large quantities of fertilizer or phytosanitary products)
• irrigation should be managed on a sustainable basis.

Added to the environmental aspects are criteria for social development:

• independent farmers should be favoured over large domains (latifundias)
• satisfactory working conditions and adequate wages should be guaranteed for all farm workers
• local subsistence agriculture should not be replaced by fuel crops.

In the conversion phase, production units must keep a tight rein on energy and water demands, and limit effluents to a minimum. Effluents should only be returned to the land after proper treatment.

We would mention in passing that no other energy supply chains have such demanding social and environmental constraints.

Thanks to measures contained in the new Swiss Law on Taxation of Mineral Oils, investigations into sustainability criteria currently under way in Europe, and the project to establish a global label for sustainable development (piloted by EPFL), biofuels could well mark a turning point in the management of world trade. They could also serve as innovators by establishing rules of conduct aimed at a more responsible, fairer and safer world. In order to ensure that development is ethically acceptable, politicians must pursue their efforts to link support for biofuels (tax relief) to sustainable production. For its part, Alcosuisse already applies such rules to all of its imports.