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The purpose of this paper is to find out the views, concerns and opinions of stakeholders in Finland about the on‐going EU‐wide development of sustainability criteria for biomass production and utilization.

Interviews were conducted among Finnish stakeholders in the biomass sector which include representatives from government ministries, associations of industries and agricultural producers, research institutions and non‐governmental organizations.

The majority of Finnish stakeholders are in agreement that sustainability criteria for biomass are needed because of the expanding and globalizing nature of the use and trade of biomass. Finnish stakeholders generally agreed that they should actively participate in the development of sustainability criteria both at international and local levels. Administrative/technical, environmental, social and economic aspects were elicited as critical factors for the development of sustainability criteria.

This study emphasizes and puts forward the importance of taking stakeholders' viewpoints and their participation in the planning and development of sustainability criteria. This study affirms how Finnish stakeholders can strongly articulate their views and opinions about the sustainability of biomass. These views and concerns of stakeholders can be significant or critical inputs in top level decision making related to biomass production and utilization in Finland and in the EU.

This paper can be a position paper to highlight the concerns of Finnish stakeholders on sustainability criteria development. It also highlights the special circumstances of Finnish biomass. These concerns and circumstances are valuable information for criteria developers, biomass certifiers, decision makers and regulatory bodies.

The purpose of this paper is to outline a comprehensive picture of the coverage of various certification schemes and sustainability principles relating to the entire value‐added chain of biomass and bioenergy and comparing them accordingly.

A tri‐dimensional approach (sustainability issues; technical biomass conversion routes; physical trade flows) was developed for testing the coverage of various sustainability dimensions in different phases of the value‐added chain with the chosen certification schemes and sustainability principles.

Using the tri‐dimensional approach, a comparison of the chosen schemes and principles demonstrated that the application of existing schemes and the development of new ones have placed a major emphasis on the primary production of biomass. Economic and social dimensions related to biofuels and bioenergy processing and trade were either emphasised less or they were covered inadequately. In view of this, the schemes sometimes seem to ignore that the utilisation of renewable energy as such guarantee no positive or neutral climate impact and may not be economically sustainable, especially when bioenergy can often be more expensive than energy generated from fossil energy sources.

The analysis showed that the tri‐dimensional model is an applicable framework that could facilitate policy makers to formulate policies that comprehensively take into consideration the various sustainability dimensions throughout the entire value‐added chain, now and in the future. It can be applied to the future outlining and completion of certification schemes and sustainability principles for biomass and bioenergy, as well as in the testing of their applicability in the implementation.