The UK’s woodfuel quality assurance scheme, Woodsure, is looking to educate both consumers and industry professionals on the importance of using quality woodfuel.
The Woodsure scheme undertakes rigorous testing and assessment on producers and suppliers of woodfuel to ensure they meet the correct standards in line with ISO, EN and Önorm requirements.
Woodsure approved fuel provides optimum efficiency and ensures the smooth running of appliances, reducing boiler and stove damage. Burning poor quality woodfuel releases harmful emissions into the air and contributes to a sooty build up in chimneys, which in the worst cases can cause chimney fires.
Using Woodsure approved woodfuel minimises the release of emissions through products of combustion and, in turn, improves air quality within the UK. Woodsure also ensures that its suppliers’ woodfuel comes from a sustainable source and that reforestation is enforced in the managed woodlands to maintain and increase the supply of good quality fuel.
In order to achieve its core objective of improving the UK’s woodfuel industry, Woodsure requires that retailers and suppliers both play their part and support the use of quality woodfuel.
Consumer confidence
The Woodsure certification scheme and its universally recognised logo gives those burning woodfuel a brand they can trust. For consumers, this identifies the business they are buying into as conscientious practitioners; seeing the Woodsure logo provides assurance that their appliance will run efficiently and their fuel will be sustainable.
Today’s consumers are becoming more aware of their carbon footprint, leading to a demand for reliable, high quality woodfuel for their biomass boilers and woodfuel stoves. Ultimately, the Woodsure ‘seal of approval’ gives your business credibility and an immediate point of difference against your competitors.
Business support
Woodsure provides woodfuel producers and suppliers with practical support, such as independent fuel tests and assistance to enable them to achieve and maintain the highest standards of quality. Certified quality fuel suppliers can use the Woodsure logo to identify that they have fulfilled the required standards for high quality fuel production and distribution. Being able to feature the Woodsure logo on your website, leaflets and being listed on the Woodsure Certified Suppliers map aligns your business with the consumer confidence that Woodsure instils.
Sustainability
As a country we have just 13% woodland cover (the lowest levels in Europe) and 42% of our woodlands sit unmanaged and neglected. Bringing these neglected woodlands back into management would allow them to be a perfect source to supply the UK woodfuel market – a goal that Woodsure is supporting by working in partnership with Grown in Britain.
A healthy, quality woodfuel market holds the key to getting the UK’s woodlands back into management. Retailers and suppliers can support this cause by ensuring they comply with Woodsure’s quality assurance procedures. By acting responsibly with environment’s best interest at heart, your business will go some way to ensuring the longevity of the woodfuel industry.
There are approximately 800 woodfuel suppliers and producers in the UK, 200 of which are Woodsure certified, and the list is growing.
For more information on the Woodsure assurance scheme, please visit: www.woodsure.co.uk.
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