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8 essential tips for procuring sustainable biomass

Blog
The YPO Team
16 Oct 2025

One of the ways YPO helps public sector organisations with energy procurement is with renewable biomass products: from woodchip to wood pellets.

As a not-for-profit, we can help you reduce carbon emissions while enhancing energy sustainability through an efficient and cost-effective procurement process. It’s from that process that we’ve compiled a range of tips for you – all about the things you’ll need to think about when you’re procuring biomass for your organisation.

And if you’d like some support, you can take a look at our framework for renewable energy procurement – our Renewable Biomass and Related Services Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) Framework.

Here are some of the best practices we follow at YPO:

1. Make sure you comply with the regulations

An obvious place to start, perhaps, but YPO can help you get up to speed with things like:

• The Procurement Act
• Emissions standards
• Fuel quality
• Building codes
• Health and safety
• Fair labour practices
• Reporting

Your biomass procurement will need to meet all the local, national and international regulations (and there are plenty of them to consider).

Organisations we help with biomass procurement

• Local government organisations
• Educational institutions
• Emergency services
• Housing associations
• Charities
• Social enterprises
• And more

biomass forest

2. Find sustainable biomass sources

You’ll want to be sure your biomass comes from renewable and sustainable sources – like forestry and agricultural residues – so you won’t be harming ecosystems or contributing to deforestation.

Look out for certifications like these:

• FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)
• PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification)

And make sure the way you source biomass doesn’t harm local ecosystems or biodiversity – particularly avoiding protected areas or regions with high conservation value.

3. See if there’s any funding you can apply for

You may be able to apply for some of the grants, subsidies and low-interest loans that are available for renewable energy projects. One of those programmes is the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which provides financial support for biomass installations in the UK.

To successfully gain funding, you’ll often need to meet environmental conditions, with the funds secured helping you to meet your sustainability goals affordably.

4. Minimise your carbon footprint

It’s important to think through the entire life-cycle of the biomass:

• Harvesting
• Transportation
• Combustion

By aiming to reduce the carbon footprint at each stage, you can be sure you’re not undoing any of the other sustainability priorities you’ve taken.

Also, make sure your project won’t have a knock-on-effect elsewhere – for example, inadvertently disrupt local markets for agricultural or forestry products.

5. See if you can make operational savings

As part of an organisation’s health check when we onboard them, we carry out a price comparison. Make sure you compare the ongoing costs of harvesting, processing and transporting the biomass with the costs of your current energy system, such as:

• Fuel
• Labour
• Utilities

You’ve also got consider how you’ll integrate the biomass into your current heating and energy systems. And, critically, will the biomass system will be able to scale up to meet your future energy demands?

6. Look into supplier reputations

When you go out to tender for suppliers, you’ll also want to make sure the supply chain is fully transparent, so you can ensure traceability and accountability.

Plus, if your supplier has a good reputation, this can help to alleviate concerns the local community might have.

7. Be transparent with local communities

We recommend communicating openly and consistently with local communities and stakeholders. By providing clear information about the benefits and potential impacts of the biomass project, you’ll get ahead of some of the concerns locals may have.

Being proactive is a great way to address these worries – for example about the impact of emissions, noise or increased traffic from fuel deliveries.

Hosting public meetings and providing detailed project plans can build support too, as well as offering reassurance.

biomass boiler system

8. Have a robust maintenance plan

This is an important bit of housekeeping to plan for – make sure your staff are trained to run the biomass system efficiently.

As part of this, you’ll need to plan regular inspections, cleaning and repairs.

A biomass procurement case study: Wiltshire Council

‘Wiltshire Council was looking for an assisted mechanism to procure a new contract to deliver wood pellet at a range of its sites, where biomass boilers are the main source of heating.

‘By using the YPO Renewable Biomass DPS the council, with YPO’s support, was able to speed up the tender process, while remaining assured that all compliance requirements were adhered to.

‘The further competition returned a choice of suppliers that were able to match the strict criteria the council had specified, and it was able to ensure that it had full control of the criteria that the tender was being assessed on.

‘In doing so, the council is confident that the new contract will deliver the exact outcomes that were required in terms of flexibility, responsiveness, responsibility, and cost.’

Read the full case study here.

wood pellet fuel with plant

Would you like help with sourcing biomass?

By following our best practices, you can make sure your biomass sourcing is sustainable, environmentally friendly and socially responsible.

Explore our Renewable Biomass and Related Services DPS framework to find out more. You’ll get support every step of the way, with experienced customer service and bespoke biomass procurement solutions.

The framework also provides related services that your organisation can access:

• Boiler maintenance and servicing
• RHI applications
• Supply of heat
• Hopper/storage vessel housekeeping training
• Wood cracking and wood chipping
• Fuel level management

Would you like help with other kinds of energy procurement?

YPO offers frameworks for public sector electricity, renewable biomass and gas supply, which include strategies to avoid the peaks and troughs of the energy markets.

Author

The YPO Team

YPO supplies products and services to a wide range of customers including schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. YPO are 100% publicly owned, by 13 local authorities, which means the profits made are returned to public sector customers, delivering even better value for money.