Graanul Invest welcomes UK government´s strong support for sustainable biomass in country´s energy transition.

Graanul Invest, the world’s leading sustainable biomass and bioenergy producer, welcomes the publication of the UK Biomass Strategy document that states that biomass has ‘extraordinary’ potential in UK´s future energy transition and path to net zero.

The Strategy document restates the UK´s firm commitment to biomass sustainability and evaluates how this resource could be prioritized strategically across the economy to help achieve the government’s wider environmental and energy security commitments. In addition, the Biomass Strategy sets ambitious targets in using sustainable biofuels to achieve the net zero targets in energy production, aviation, and transport sectors.

Importantly, the UK recognizes in the Strategy document that sustainably produced biomass is a renewable, low-carbon energy source and material. Biomass has played a prominent role in decarbonizing the power, heat, and transport sectors, and its role in substituting fossil fuels is expected to rise.

As a more forward-looking highlight, the Biomass Strategy also mentions the great potential of biomass for achieving net zero aviation for UK domestic airlines by 2050.

Graanul Invest fully supports UK´s clear vision for biomass use

Graanul Invest fully supports UK´s clear policy pathway and vision for the continued use of biomass, as well as encourages the increased ambition for GHG thresholds. We see great alignment between our core principles and the Strategy’s priority use principles addressing sustainability, air quality, net zero, and the circular economy & resource efficiency.  

“Graanul Invest’s global ambitions fully support the main goals described in the Biomass Strategy document, and the biomass we use is already fully compatible with the strictest sustainability criteria. It is encouraging that the UK government continues to push towards the best available sustainability practices and inspiring that the role of sustainable biomass for net zero is now a policy,” commented Mihkel Jugaste, Chief Sustainability Officer of Graanul Invest.

“We welcome the initiatives to increase the role of local stakeholders, NGOs, and communities towards recognizing biomass as the most efficient, immediately available, and economically reasonable substitute for fossil fuels and materials used in industries.

Besides being one of the best green fuels for the energy sector, there is truly great potential for wood pellets to become the best CO2-neutral raw material for resiliently substituting crude-oil in producing aviation and transport fuels, as well as chemistry products and plastics,” said Nicholas B. Dottino, Chief Executive Officer of Graanul Invest.

About Graanul Invest

Graanul Invest is the world’s leading producer of biomass and bioenergy. The group operates 12 modern wood pellet plants in the Baltics and the USA and six CHP-s in Estonia and Latvia.

• The lifecycle footprint of our product in 2022, based on the RED II methodology, was 6.83 g CO2eq/MJ, with best performing plants at 4.4 g CO2eq/MJ. Our production environmental footprint stands well below the lowest GHG thresholds considered in the UK today.
• Our factories operate with minimal waste, following circular economy principles. As an example, even the ash leftover from our cogeneration plants is repurposed as a valuable mineral fertilizer and returned to the surrounding farmland as part of the natural cycle.
• We have a fully transparent and local supply chain with an average raw material sourcing distance of only 37 km.

Read more about our Sustainability principles from our Sustainability Report 2022.