Background

The Environmental Audit Committee, the Sustainable Development Task Force and Ministers have all requested better information to be available on the implementation of the UK Government’s timber procurement policy.

One mechanism for collecting such information which has been suggested is to require all contractors to submit a report on timber usage together with their invoice for any goods or work involving timber products. Following a meeting between industry representatives and the Minister responsible to discuss this approach, a technical discussion involving Defra, CPET, and industry was convened to discuss further progress.

It was agreed that the most constructive next step would be a pilot project looking at approximately 10 large contracts, both current and complete, to examine in practice:

•      The extent to which the policy is already being implemented in each pilot project and what the costs, barriers and incentives are.

•      The feasibility of reporting on timber use in each contract as proposed, including the concerns raised by the industry such as the practicalities of linking reports to invoices, the costs and the risk of inaccurate reporting.

•      The possibility of using existing mechanisms such as BREAM reporting in addition to the newly proposed reporting mechanism

It was decided initially to focus on construction industry as it is the sector where the majority of timber is consumed.  Based on the experiences gained from the study, similar projects will be initiated with other sectors i.e. furniture and paper.

It is also desirable that the information from the project can be used more widely within government to inform the ongoing discussion on sustainable procurement, so that working closely with both the Sustainable Development Unit of Defra and the National Audit Office were identified as key priorities.

 The study was initiated in May 2007.