Bonn, April 24, 2018. A revised catalog of criteria for the Green Gas Label came into force retroactively as of January 1, 2018. With this, the environmental and consumer associations behind the label are adapting their certification of high-quality biogas products to the current energy industry framework conditions. The revision focused on the criteria for biogas from biogenic residual and waste materials.

"Around five years ago, the first set of criteria for the Green Gas Label came into force. It is the first seal of quality in Germany that presents the ecological assessment of biogas across the entire production chain, i.e. from the raw material to the end customer," explains Dr. Werner Neumann, spokesman for the Energy Working Group at the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUND) and board member of Grüner Strom Label e.V. "This holistic approach guarantees environmentally compatible biogas. Because for a 100 percent renewable energy supply, we also need biogas and we show how it can be produced in an environmentally compatible way."

Until now, the biogas of all certified Green Gas products has come from residual or sewage gas plants. The experience gained from working with Green Gas suppliers, the certifying institute DVGW CERT and other market players has been incorporated into the new list of criteria to enable a smoother certification process. This does not result in a change in the qualitative claim of the Green Gas label.

In the meantime, it has also become apparent that consumers and energy suppliers care about which ingredients are fermented into biogas: Biogas from residual materials, such as kitchen waste or green waste from municipal farming, is rated much more positively than biogas from energy crops grown specifically for this purpose.

This is also confirmed by a non-representative online survey conducted by Grüner Strom Label e.V., in which around 250 people took part. While biogas from biogenic waste materials is seen almost entirely as an environmentally compatible form of renewable energy (95 percent), the approval rate for biogas from energy crops is just under one-third. 47 percent of respondents do not consider biogas from energy crops to be an environmentally compatible form of renewable energy.

The revised Green Gas Criteria Catalog is available online at:
www.gruenerstromlabel.de//gruenes-gas/kriterienkatalog/

About Grüner Strom Label e.V.
The Grüner Strom Label e.V. certifies green energy products. The association awards two seals of approval for this purpose: the Green Electricity Label for green electricity with added value and the Green Gas Label for environmentally compatible biogas. The association is backed by seven non-profit environmental and consumer associations and peace organizations, including NABU, BUND, EUROSOLAR and the Verbraucher Initiative. The Green Electricity and Green Gas labels are the only quality seals for green electricity and biogas in Germany that are supported by leading environmental associations.
www.gruenerstromlabel.de