This European Standard sets horizontal sustainability criteria applicable to the bio-based part of all bio-based products, excluding food, feed and energy, covering all three pillars of sustainability; environmental, social and economic aspects. If the product is partly bio-based, this European Standard can only be used for the bio-based part since it does not address non-bio-based (fossil, mineral) parts of a product.

This European Standard can be used for two applications; either to provide sustainability information about the biomass production only or to provide sustainability information in the supply chain for the bio-based part of the bio-based product.

This European Standard sets a framework to provide information on management of sustainability aspects.

This European Standard cannot be used to make claims that operations or products are sustainable since it does not establish thresholds or limits.

This European Standard can however be used for business-to-business (B2B) communication or for developing product specific standards and certification schemes.