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FSC
The Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) is an international forest certification program.
FSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-profit organisation, registered in Mexico as an association of members (‘Associación Civil’, abbreviated ‘A.C.’). The membership consists of a diverse group of over 800 representatives from environmental and social groups, the timber trade and the forestry profession, indigenous people's organisations, community forestry groups and forest product certification organisations from around the world.
FSC certified forests meet FSC approved national or regional forest management standards, assessed against the FSC ‘Principles and Criteria’ for responsible forest management. FSC Chain of Custody serves as a credible guarantee that suppliers, manufacturers and merchants are selling at least one or more timber and wood derived products that come from certified forests.
It is now possible for a building project to gain FSC project certification, which covers all contractors and enables a verifiable claim that at least 50% FSC timber, or alternatively certain named components, have been used. It is administered by FSC accredited certification bodies.
Contact
Tallulah Chapman
Email: tallulah@fsc-uk.org or info@fsc-uk.org
Tel: 01686 413 916
Websites: FSC UK: http://www.fsc-uk.info
FSC International: http://www.fsc.org/
FSC Databases: http://www.fsc-uk.org/?page_id=87
Sample certificates
Chain of custody and product labelling
FSC has seven marking options.
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Products carrying this label contain 100% FSC certified material. Products come entirely from forests certified as meeting the environmental and social standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). It is achieved by marking and/or separating certified from uncertified timber through all processing stages from the forest to the retail shelf. It can include solid wood products and assembled solid wood products as well as chip and fibre products and solid wood, chip and fibre assembled products.
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Products carrying this label contain 100% verified recycled material, a minimum of 85% must be post-consumer reclaimed. Products with an FSC Recycled label support re-use of forest resources and contain only wood or wood fibre that has been verified as recycled in accordance with FSC standards.
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This label denotes products containing a mixture of FSC certified material and/or verified reclaimed material and/or material from other controlled sources. FSC controlled sources (known as controlled wood) are risk-assessed in accordance with FSC standards, to exclude for illegal harvested timber, forests where high conservation values are threatened or there is violation of people's civil and traditional rights, wood from areas which have been converted from natural forest to plantations or non-forest uses and genetically modified organisms. Products with an FSC Mix label support responsible forest management. Companies have the option to include a mobiüs loop recycling symbol on the label to identify the post-consumer content. Manufacturers can use the FSC Transfer System, Percentage System of Credit System to produce FSC Mix labelled products. If using the Percentage System, a company must guarantee that at least 70% of content of the product is being brought in as either FSC certified (100% or Mix) and/or verified post-consumer reclaimed. This can be calculated over a setlabelling period of up to 12 months. Any other wood or paper materials in the product must meet FSC’s controlled wood standards. Material produced under this system will be identified as ‘FSC Mix x%’ on invoices. Under the Credit System there is no minimum FSC/reclaimed input but only a relevant proportion of outputs can be sold as FSC Mix. For instance, a company finds that they can only source 50% of the inputs for a product from an FSC certified forest, as long as they can source the other 50% as controlled wood they can label and/or promote 50% of their outputs as FSC certified, the remaining 50% may be sold B2B as controlled wood for further processing but cannot be labelled or promoted as FSC certified. Material produced under this system will be identified as ‘FSC Mix Credit’ on invoices.
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If you purchase a product that has one of these labels, it is Category A Evidence and is considered to be both legal and sustainable by the UK Government’s definition, provided that a minimum of 70% of the material is from a certified source. However, if you purchase it from a non-certified supplier, the product’s form or packaging cannot have changed from the time that it left the certified supplier.
Further Information on FSC
FSC UK provides a number of services to support companies and the public sector using the FSC system. They have a free basic advisory service able to provide information on the FSC system and details of suppliers of FSC certified products and services. They also have a subscription service for those needing more ongoing support. FSC offers training courses including open training days. Representatives speak at events and seminars by arrangement, and they also offer consultancy services where they work with companies and specifiers on particular projects where necessary.
