Source credibly certified wood

Insurance for you against controversial timber landing in your stores

Currently the most effective way to guarantee that the timber you sell comes from legal and non-controversial sources is through credibly certified timber.

Forest certification is a system of forest inspection combined with the tracking of timber and paper through a Chain of Custody (CoC) - following the raw material through to the finished product.

Timber has to be tracked from the forest through all the steps of the production process until it reaches the end user.

The key to improving the way forests are managed through forest certification is the credibility and quality of a certification system.

In the last decade inflation in the number of certification systems of dubious quality is making it difficult for companies and consumers to judge the effectiveness of these tools.

Chain of Custody and Credible Certification provide important insurance for all parties against controversial timbers being traded and landing in your stores.

Avoid purchasing timber from unknown sources

Demand verification from your supplier that the wood you buy is legal and non-controversial. Where possible ensure timber does not come from high conservation value forests (HCVF).

Key questions

• Do you know the origin of timbers and forest products in your store?
• Do you know the species of all your timbers and forest products?
  

When the alarm bells should ring:

• Your supplier cannot trace the source of the forest product. Does your supplier have systems that prove where their wood is coming from?
• The supplier is unwilling to disclose the source of the forest product
• The supplier can trace to agent, secondary or tertiary processor only
• The supplier lacks credibility
  

Retailers are often not aware just how much effort is required of suppliers to become certification compliant. It is therefore important that suppliers receive the support of retailers in order for the system to work.

Work for transparency in the supply chain

In order to marginalise the trade with illegal and controversial timber it is important to communicate your environmental policies widely:

• to colleagues and staff
• to suppliers of forest products who will potentially be affected by your policies
  

To communicate your environmental policy you could consider:

• training sessions for all who will be affected by changes an environmental policy may require, in particular staff responsible for procurement and customer contact
• producing communications materials such as leaflets and booklets
• providing online information on your website
• promoting your activities in your annual report
• making customers aware that they can be part of the solution