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| 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 organization founded in 1993 that brings people together to find solutions which promote responsible stewardship of the world’s forests. For example:
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. Our Services We offer CoC auditing and consultancy services for companies involved in, or pursuing CoC Certification. Our Philosophy We believe that the best systems are those where the client has been involved in the development of the procedures and has a real understanding of the process. Therefore, we are keen for the client to do as much of the work as possible in developing their CoC procedures. Not only does this provide cost savings for the client, but we believe it results in a better understanding by the company who, after all, has to operate the system once we have left. Typically, we would conduct an initial scoping visit to learn about the client’s business, existing procedures and processes, and deal with any queries that they may have. We then provide guidance as necessary which often includes the provision of a draft set of Procedures that is tailored to the client’s business. This is as complete as possible, addressing all the main requirements of the CoC Schemes and highlighting any areas where input from the client is required. We are then on hand as required to assist the client through their initial implementation of their CoC Procedures. For example, we are often requested to conduct further visits, staff training, “dummy” audits ahead of the Assessment by the Certification Body, as well as be in attendance for the Assessment itself. To Get You Started The first step to achieving CoC certification is to download the Scheme Documents, which are freely available from the FSC and PEFC websites as follows: www.fsc.org - follow links for Resource Centre; then Certification Documents; then Standards, and download FSC STD 40-004; FSC TMK 50-201 and FSC STD 40-201 www.pefc.org - follow links for Documentation; PEFC Technical Documentation and Technical Document and download: Annex 4 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 SFI Certificate Checker As qualified wood technologists with close industry links, The Wood Shop Consultancy also offers a range of wood product and timber consultancy services. Please visit the relevant pages on our website for further information. | ||||||||
