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Chain of Custody Certifications Explained
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The FSC & PEFC CoC Schemes
Aggressive logging to support demand for timber and paper products has drastically reduced the size of the world’s forests, which play a critical role in controlling global warming. To protect the forestland and repair some of the damage already done, organisations have been established to promote responsible forestry management. These groups certify – among other wood based products - paper and the chain of custody for suppliers involved in the paper, printing & packaging markets. Such certifications provide customers who want to make environmentally sound production decisions with assurance that the virgin fibre in the paper stocks they purchase has been harvested in, at the very least, an ecologically responsible manner and, at the most, a socially conscious way.
The certifications to know
There are two major certification schemes that trace wood fibre from sapling through to paper or board products - The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) & The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).
The two main parts to any certification scheme are:
1. Forest Management certification which makes sure that the forest is managed to high standards covering social, environmental and economic issues.
2. Chain of Custody (CoC) certification which traces the wood from those forests through all stages of processing and distribution.
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The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of the world’s forests. It was founded in 1993 in response to public concern about deforestation and demand for a trustworthy wood-labelling scheme. In addition to forest certification, the FSC system includes a certified CoC that tracks timber through every stage in the supply chain from forest to the final user. This is monitored through the invoicing process and the final label on the product has a code that confirms that the item is genuinely FSC. There are three main types of FSC labels you might see in the market:
FSC 100%: All the timber or fibre in the product comes from an FSC-certified forest
FSC Mixed Sources: The timber or fibre in the product is a mixture or some/all of the following: Timber from an FSC certified forest; post-consumer reclaimed material; Controlled sources.
FSC Recycled: All the timber or fibre in the product is post-consumer reclaimed material.
The FSC label is currently found on over 10,000 product lines in the UK. The reason for the popularity of the FSC certification scheme is attributed to its strict environmental, social and economic standards and a highly rigorous chain of custody; tracking timber from the forest to the final user. It is also the only scheme endorsed by major environmental charities including the WWF, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Woodland Trust.
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The Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) was established on the 30th of June, 1999 in Paris by representatives of eleven officially constituted national PEFC governing bodies with the support of associations representing some 15 million woodland owners in Europe and of many international forest industry and trade organisations. Since its launch, is membership has increased to 34 countries and it has become the largest forest certification umbrella organisation in the world, with over 200 million hectares of production forests under independently certified sustainable management. The PEFC scheme is not as popular as its counterpart due to suggested deficiencies in the quality and standard of its certification process and its lack of independence and transparency. Amongst its harshest critics are the FSC scheme’s strongest supporters, including WWF, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. The PEFC CoC scheme does not have any special labelling requirements.
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Key Drivers:
Customer preference plays a pivotal role in the choice of CoC by large companies who are looking to become more sustainable. For example: The retailer Marks & Spencer picked the FSC CoC scheme as it was identified as being most recognisable by its customers. Following this, Sonia Raja, a senior packaging buyer at Tesco announced at the Carton Conference a few months ago that Tesco was also developing a policy for FSC packaging and products. This has a knock-on effect all the way up the value chain as retailers specify materials to their print & design companies, who then do the same to their suppliers, which is where we come in.
As mentioned previously, endorsement by major NGOs also seems to play an important role, as can be seen by the success of FSC over its PEFC counterpart given the strong support the FSC scheme receives from the WWF, Greenpeace, The Rainforest Alliance & Friends of the Earth.
Finally, and most important of all, it is how well a CoC scheme fares against universally accepted international standards, independent third party evaluations and ensures things like traceability, accountability and a high level of transparency in their certification process, that encourage companies choose one scheme over another. This explains why the FSC mark is more popular than the PEFC certification. For example: FSC is based on its own written standards whereas PEFC reviews and adopts national standards which can vary between countries.
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The current market at a glance:
Only a quarter of commercially managed forests have COC certification, of which almost two-thirds are PEFC endorsed and one-third FSC. In early 2007 PIRA published the world’s first COC paper market study, which found that global consumption of FSC-certified paper grew by 128% from 2006-2007, while FSC-certified acreage grew by only 33%. The report also stated that global FSC paper consumption would grow by 48.7% to nearly 6.5 million ones by 2012 and that PEFC paper consumption would grow by 92.7% to almost 2 million tonnes over the same period. While this continued upward demand for certified paper is an encouraging sign that companies are taking their environmental & social responsibility seriously, it does raise the issue of demand outstripping supply, placing in doubt the ability of converters to source sustainable stocks.
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Responsibility of Suppliers:
Any CoC scheme requires compliance from all members within the value chain. FSC products usually do not incur a surcharge of more than 2-3 % and can often be offered at an almost cost-neutral basis. At Smith & McLaurin we try to make the transition to FSC-certified paper as easy as possible for our customers. We also try to demonstrate to our customers that they are receiving the same quality paper as before and the only difference is that now they will be able to clearly tell whether the paper comes from a sustainable certified source.
The rules state that once a company takes ownership of a product and issues invoices to its customers, it is required to be certified and have their unique certification number. Exceptions under the FSC system include:
Companies who pack non-forest products into cartons produced by FSC certified printers, even though they may buy the cartons and sell on the packed products to the retailer.
Companies who are doing work for an FSC certified company under that company’s Outsourcing Policy and who do not take ownership of the products.
Shippers or transport companies handling goods owned by a CoC certified company.
Another school of thought states that “ownership” is too vague a concept to use as a basis for CoC certification and instead states that if at any level the base product (certified) is changed or modified to create the final product, then companies involved at those transformational stages of the value chain are required to have their own CoC certificate.
“Any company making, changing, re-labelling or repackaging products needs to be certified to do so and any company wishing to apply any of the FSC trademarks (our name, our acronym or our logo)to products or their packaging needs to be certified.” - FSCUK-FS-102-COC
For example: Smith & McLaurin purchase FSC certified paper from a certified paper supplier and laminate it with a permanent adhesive to create a new product for a printer. In order to maintain the CoC, Smith & McLaurin HAVE to get their own CoC certificate as they have significantly modified the original FSC stock. The same would go for our printer.
Both these views do not clarify whether retailers are required to have their own CoC certification. While retailers do not modify or change the products they re-sell, it is not clear whether they take owner ship of the products they stock or whether ownership remains with the manufacturer or brand owner. Retailer’s own-label products confuse the matter even further. So far, the certifying bodies issue advice on this matter on a case-by-case basis, so it is best to check with yours before making any decisions.
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Conclusion:
The Pira report predicts that, within five years the inadequacies in both the FSC & PEFC supply chains are likely to cause problems with fibre labelling. In order to avoid this, the two main CoC schemes could consider working together to make a unified stand on issues of CoC certification and sustainability. This is not an impossible task given that the strengths and weaknesses of each scheme complement each other, with FSC being the more robust system but lacking in certified acreage and PEFC having more certified forests but a less robust and arbitrary system of certification. This largely depends on the direction of big retailers who should ideally align their certification choices with their sustainability agenda and not just base it on popular demand. Finally, the need for members within the value chain to be more pro-active and offer support & advice on matters of CoC certification is increasingly important. Research into alternative packaging materials, which are not wood-based, is another under-explored avenue. Overall, an atmosphere of mutual cooperation and not competition is desperately needed. We need to be champions of sustainability and not just certification.
Posted on 09 February, 2009
