The Independent Forestry group chain of custody scheme has grown incredibly during its first year in operation, with more than 1.25 million m3 of timber now being handled by more than 100 members.
Membership has a wide geographic spread, ranging from the south of France to northern Scotland, from western Wales to eastern England, and with team work expanding into the Netherlands, Belgium and Romania.
Annual volumes of timber handled by members vary from just 1.5m3 to 175,000m3. Members represent every part of the wood chain – round timber merchants, sawn timber merchants, sawmills, fine furniture designers, MDF stockists, shopfitters, timber frame house builders, a wooden pen turner, charcoal burners and even a totem pole designer.
Most member companies are small, with fewer than 10 employees. At the moment, only the certification bodies such as SGS, the Soil Association, SmartWood and TRADA can audit companies that have more than 15 employees.
FSC chain of custody (CoC) is required by all businesses that take ownership of any timber that is purchased with a CoC number and then wish to sell that timber as originating from an FSC-certified forest.
The primary objective is to make chain of custody available to any business in the wood chain, from forest to customer, in both a practical and affordable way.
Providing assurance
Having a CoC number does not mean that you can buy and sell only FSC timber. It simply means you can give assurance that any product bearing an FSC label is produced from material which originates from certified forests.
Independent Forestry was given the go-ahead for group CoC in March 2002. Group CoC certification is a system whereby a group manager carries out the assessments of member organisations, liaises with the certification body directly and so leaves the company to carry on with its business with the minimum of disruption.
Chain of custody is not complicated. It is inherent in every business, as companies have to account for all purchases and sales if they want to continue to operate.
The group manager simply looks to introduce into existing accountancy and timber handling procedures small alterations to ensure that CoC is both transparent and workable. This may be as easy as introducing a new column into a handwritten ledger or suggesting more efficient ways of handling timber through a sawmill.
Simple assessment
The assessment is as ‘pain-free’ as possible. I bring a laptop computer and printer with me and together with the company write down the procedures that the it already has in place. We then set about modifying those procedures to ensure that non-FSC material does not become mixed with FSC timber and that it is fully accounted for.
These procedures are printed out, along with the full assessment checklist and included in a certification file that is left with the client. The file includes everything necessary for the company to maintain its CoC system; guidelines on using the FSC logo, a full list of members, an introduction to CoC, the group rules and the certification of membership.
This approach to CoC means that in 99.9% of cases members can start using their CoC number the day the assessment is completed. Monitoring is then undertaken by certification bodies.
An interesting development since the group scheme launched is the increasing business links between members. I often now see invoices from one member to another during the assessment process.
