Welcome to The Wood Shop Consultancy, the timber consultancy division of The Wood Shop Limited (see www.thewoodshop.biz). We offer Chain of Custody auditing and consultancy services to a wide range of clients involved in, or interested in pursuing Chain of Custody Certification to meet the requirements of schemes such as FSC and PEFC.

What is Chain of Custody Certification?

CoC certification provides evidence that a certified product such as paper or wood, originates from certified, well managed forests, and verifies that these products are not mixed with those from uncertified forests at any point in the supply chain from forest to the consumer.

The demand for certified forest products has grown dramatically in recent years, and companies that wish to trade in them need to attain their own CoC certification and be independently audited by an accredited Certification Body to allow them to do so.  Part of this process requires them to keep detailed records of their purchases and sales in order that the certified goods can be traced back to source.

Who are FSC and PEFC?

FSC is an acronym for The Forest Stewardship Council whose mission is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's forests. 

It is an international organisation founded in 1993 that brings people together to find solutions which promote responsible stewardship of the world’s forests.  For example:

• It sets international standards for responsible forest management.
• It accredits independent third party organisations who can certify forest managers and forest product producers to FSC standards.
• Its “tick-tree” logo provides international recognition to organisations that support the growth of responsible forest management and allow consumers to identify products that support the growth of responsible forest management worldwide.

FSC also enjoys the full support of the environmental NGOs, in particular Greenpeace and WWF. It is the only certification system that is currently recognised by the WWF-UK Forest and Trade Network and is regarded as the benchmark for all forest management standards.

For more information, see the Links towards the foot of this page.

PEFC

PEFC stands for the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes and is an independent, non-profit organisation that was founded in 1999. PEFC shares some common aims with FSC in that it promotes sustainably managed forests through independent third party certification and provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are promoting the sustainable management of forests.

PEFC operates on the basis of mutual recognition of independent national forest certification standards that effectively operate under a single brand.  However, no such recognition exists between FSC and PEFC.  There is no doubt that significant differences exist between the FSC forest management process and the various schemes that make up the PEFC process. These are mainly differences in emphasis and interpretation of forest management criteria, but there are some philosophical differences as well, which make it difficult for FSC and their supporters to recognise PEFC as a credible process.

What CoC Does The Wood Shop Consultancy offer?

We provide auditing and consultancy services for companies involved in, or pursuing FSC and PEFC CoC Certification.

We are an established auditor for BM TRADA Certification Ltd in East Anglia and the South East.

In our consultancy work over the years, we have found the following approach to be the most effective in guiding companies towards successful registration:-

Five Steps to Certification

1. Scoping Visit - We conduct an initial scoping visit to your company to learn about your business, your existing procedures and processes and deal with any queries that you may have. 
2. Document Procedures - We then develop a draft set of Procedures based on information gained during our scoping visit.  This will be as complete as possible, addressing all the main requirements of the CoC schemes and highlighting areas where some input from you is required. 
3. Develop Procedures - We are then on hand to assist you complete the procedures, which we can often do remotely, though are happy to visit again to go through the detail if required.
4. Implement Procedures - We then conduct a follow up visit to review the implementation of the procedures.  We often take this opportunity to deliver An Introduction to Chain of Custody presentation to key staff to satisfy the CoC training requirement and ensure that staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities under CoC.
5. Become Certified! - Following a successful audit by your chosen Certification Body, you will be awarded your CoC Certification.  Some clients wish to engage us to be present during their first audit which we are happy to do.

Some of our clients whom we have helped to achieve certification are shown here.

Ongoing Consultancy

Due to the fluid nature of the CoC schemes we now have an increasing number of Clients that have engaged us to provide ongoing consultancy following certification to ensure that their procedures and systems are kept up to date. 

Free Downloads

Our Download Centre contains useful documents that are free to download to help companies maintain their CoC procedures.

The FSC and PEFC scheme documents are freely available from the relevant websites but for convenience you can also download the core documents from our Download Centre.  Alternatively, visit the FSC and PEFC websites on the links below:

www.fsc.org

www.pefc.org

Other Useful Links

SFI – Sustainable Forestry Initiative is a non-profit organization devoted to improving sustainable forest management in the US and Canada through the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program.

CSA - The Canadian Standard Association’s Sustainable Forest Management Programme has been developed to promote the use and acceptance of internationally recognized sustainable forest management certification standards in Canada in order for Canadian producers to continually move towards sustainable forest management, secure a sustainable supply of raw material, and to ensure marketplace acceptance of Canadian forest products

CPET - The Central Point of Expertise on Timber Procurement's (CPET) website provides detailed information and advice on how public sector buyers and their suppliers can meet the UK Government’s timber procurement policy requirements in practice

WWF UK Forest and Trade Network - Formerly known as the WWF 95+ Group, the WWF UK Forest and Trade Network is a group of approximately 100 large purchasers of timber and wood-based products. This Group is pledged to source all their timber needs from sustainable sources. 

BM TRADA Certification – Leading certification body that operates UKAS Accredited FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody Schemes, as well as their own TRADA-TRAK Forest Products CoC Scheme

www.thewoodshop.biz – An online directory of suppliers of Certified Wood Products

Verify CoC Certificates by visiting the FSC, PEFC, CSA and SFI certificate checker links below:

FSC Certificate Checker

PEFC Certificate Checker

CSA Certificate Checker