Links in the Chain

Rutherford, New Jersey-based SGS Systems & Services Certification is a leading certification body in forest management, with more than 1,500 chain-of-custody (CoC) certifications worldwide. Mike Evers, sales executive, northeast region, discussed available CoC certifications and the audit process. “Green can mean many things; CoC only applies to wood and paper materials,” he said. “It has nothing to do with soy ink or energy conservation or renewable power sources. But, [CoC] is a standard that has a lot of teeth.”

Forest product certification in the United States and Canada is principally being sought under one of two competing standards—Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). “A third international system, Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), is significant in European markets, but not widely recognized in North America. However, it’s important for some international trade—particularly with Europe,” noted Evers. “SFI is actually a member organization of PEFC in the United States.”

He explained FSC was created by a few environmental alliances—chiefly the rainforest alliance—concerned about poor forest management. “They established FSC standards and promoted them to end-users within big public companies, urging paper and wood supplies be FSC certified. The end-users then started bringing the message home to printers and suppliers who essentially never heard of FSC standards before,” he continued.

“It was purely market driven and eventually came down to the owners of the forests; mainly the big paper companies. The environmental groups hadn’t elicited participation of the big companies in creating the standard, even though they would be directly affected. The big paper companies then got together and formed SFI in 1999,” observed Evans. “FSC and SFI are more or less competing organizations, but they’re similar and accomplish the same end result.”

The FSC standard tends to be marketed to specialty and niche markets for wood products of various types, such as paper, lumber and furniture, while SFI has the participation of many of the region’s largest wood-product manufacturers, particularly in the paper sector. “[SGS] has no allegiance to either. We’re the independent third company doing the audit as per their standards and issuing the certificates,” said Evers.

SGS can conduct FSC and SFI/PEFC CoC audits simultaneously, allowing for dual certification at a reduced cost. Only one CoC logo may appear on a printed product at a time, and for the dual certified, the determination is based on the end-user. “However, in cases of a promotional piece telling the world what you are certified for, both logos may appear. But, for something like a pharmaceutical company’s brochure promoting a new drug, only one logo can be used,” added Evers.

The heart of the CoC certification process is basic inventory control procedures. Slight modifications to in-place procedures and training of key personnel are usually sufficient. Companies must either designate an area just for CoC paper or establish an inventory management system that can identify CoC paper from non-CoC paper. A system with written procedures needs to be able to trace all CoC transactions—from the time paper is purchased until it goes out the door to customers.

“[Companies] must [also] address control of any outsourced vendors used on a regular basis for services such as bindery, stitching, printing, laminating and die cutting,” said Evers. “[The vendors] must show us they have a way to handle [the company’s] incoming CoC material such ... that it does not get commingled with any non-CoC papers/wood.”

Companies typically need at least a month to get ready for an audit, estimated Evers, and the certificate is valid for five years, based on SGS coming in once a year to do a follow-up audit.

For more information, visit www.us.sgs.com/forestry_us; www.fscus.org; www.aboutsfi.org; and www.pefc.org.