Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®): Unlocking the Power of FSC® & Chain of Custody Certification

Join us for an insightful discussion on the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) and Chain of Custody certification with Catherine Beare and Ciara McCarthy from Intertek. In this episode, we explore the significance of FSC® in responsible forest management, its impact on businesses and consumers, and how certification ensures trust, transparency, and sustainability across industries.

In this podcast, we also uncover surprising industries that rely on FSC® certification, from furniture and packaging to textiles and even car tires! Tune in to learn how FSC® certification works, who needs it, and the challenges and solutions in maintaining sustainable supply chains. Stay tuned for more in-depth discussions in our upcoming episodes of the FSC® series!

To find out more about our FSC® and associated certification services in the sustainable forestry area, visit FSC® and PEFC® Certification | Sustainable Forestry or get in touch by emailing business.assurance@intertek.com.

About The Speaker: 

With nearly 20 years of expertise in forestry auditing, Ciara McCarthy shares valuable insights into FSC's role in environmental protection, ethical labor practices, and market advantages. 

Follow us on- Intertek's Assurance In Action || Twitter || LinkedIn.

Transcript

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   0:09
 Hello and welcome to our podcast series focusing in on a number of EU legislations affecting the world of sustainability. And today I am delighted to introduce you and take you through our podcast on Intertext introduction to the world of FSC® and Chain of custody. I'm delighted to be joined today by Ciara McCarthy.
 Who is Intertek's global directory of forestry services here?
 At Intertek, now Ciara has been a auditor in the world of forestry audits for many years and has been in this space for almost 20 years. In addition to her auditing experience, she has also worked with a number of forestry companies.
 Other compliance and certification experts.
 And generally the wood industry at large.
 And interestingly, recently, Ciara has been involved in tropical forestry and EUDR requirements, so Kira, thank you so much for joining us today to talk a bit more about FSC® and chain of custody. Now we do love our acronyms in the world of certification. So why don't you start us off Ciara with telling us a little bit more, first of all, with what FSC® stands for and an introduction to FSC® and chain of custody, please.

 Ciara McCarthy  Intertek   1:46
 Absolutely. Thank you, Catherine. And I'm always delighted to have the opportunity to talk all things forestry and sustainability and that's a great first question. What is FSC®? So FSC® stands for the Forest Stewardship Council and it's a globally recognized organization that set the standards for responsible forest management.
 It's one of our oldest standards. It's in its 30th year, which is a fantastic achievement.
 And today there are about 65,000 certificates globally for FSC®. So it's been around a long time and it is a well-known name in some areas, but not so much in others. And we'll see later where we can see FSC® products and it's not always where we expect, but the mission for FSC® is to ensure forests are managed and environmentally appropriate.
 Socially beneficial and economically viable.
 Please and one of the types of certification that is most common is actually chain of custody certification or FSC® and this is a system that will track certified materials through the entire supply chain from the forest to the final product and.
 What it is ensuring is that the products that are labelled with FSC® as FFS FFSC® certified.
 Actually come from responsibly managed forests.

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   3:29
 Fantastic. And 60,000 certificates. Wow. Bigger than most would imagine. So why does FSC® chain of custody matter? Keira, talk, talk us through why? This is important given it's in its 30th year. It clearly has importance. But why?

 Ciara McCarthy  Intertek   3:47
 Companies will have an FSC® chain of custody for several different reasons.
 Often it comes down to trust and transparency, so it helps a business and the consumers. The likes of you and me buying wood type products to be really confident that the wood paper or other forest based products come from legally and sustainable sources.
 We are now in an age of social media, where malpractice does get exposed very quickly in a supply chain, so having the likes of FSC®, chain of custody.
 Provides that trust and transparency and hopefully would prevent damage to brands.
 Another reason would be Environmental Protection. So prevents deforestation, it's protecting biodiversity and ensures responsible harvesting practices, and that is a big aspect of FSC®.
 An additional side might be the social impact, so it is ensuring that there are ethical labor practices.
 It's protecting indigenous rights to land and forests.
 And that it benefits local communities.
 And lastly, market advantage I think would be another aspect that organizations would look at and many companies and governments will require FSC® certification in their sourcing policies. 

And FSC® products also appeal to eco conscious consumers and can enhance the brand reputation as well. Yeah.

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   5:36
 Good point.
 Which, let's face it, in this day and age, that is very much so important to every single brand and retailer organization out there is is the drive from the consumer angle. So it's a good point. I'm keen for you to tell me a little bit more about how it works. But before you tell me about how it works, can I actually just so, so we make sure the audience is clear on.
 Who needs FSC®? Chain of custody certification because as you said, it's not necessarily who you think of.
 All the time.

 Ciara McCarthy  Intertek   6:09
 Yes. Yeah, good point.
 So any company that sells or processes or trades FSC® certified products and wants to use the FSC® logo. So that is one element. But the common industries that we work with at Intertek and with FSC® are furniture and wood products.
 Might have printing and paper manufacturing or retail and packaging. So if you think of food packaging.
 Fast food. Any of the packaging around those types of products, coffee cups, et cetera.
 Construction materials. There are a lot of certified construction material retailers, so that could be your B&Q, if you're if you're like me here in the UK, Bunnings in Australia is Australia and you have, I think it's Home Depot in in the states. So it's where you might buy, you might buy lumber or DIY products.
 And to me, the surprising part for FSC® and for most people, is textiles and fashion, as many of wood products now can.
 Be processed into a type of viscose material and also tires on cars. So you have organizations that have FSC® certified rubber, you know, rubber comes from trees and we forget that. So yeah.

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   7:45
 Interesting.
 Of course, of course. Very interesting, pretty good point. Well, look, we're going to deep dive into a different podcast, so stay tuned, everyone on a bit more about how it works and how you get yourself certified and prepared. But maybe just briefly, why don't you give us a couple of the top-level steps on how the chain of custody FSC® works, Ciara.

 Ciara McCarthy  Intertek   8:09
 Or if you think of a forest, the 1st place that gets certified is the forest itself, so the forest must meet strict FSC® standards to become an FSC® certified forest. From there, when there is a responsibly harvested forest that the products will go from Forest Gate and then they enter into what's called the supply chain. It's when the timber starts moving through.
 Through the supply chain and that would be any company that then takes possession of an FSC® certified product. So, if you think of a sawmill, OK, well, they're buying that log directly from a forest. So, the chain of custody comes to them.
 There would be manufacturers in the supply chain, so the log may go from the sawmill to a manufacturer where the timber is turned into furniture. Equally it could go to a pulp and paper.
 Facility where it is turned into paper.
 The paper then might go to a printer and a printer to a retailer, and that's essentially how the chain of custody for forest products works and each.
 Each company or spine I call them in the supply chain would need to be certified. So, you're passing that claim on or every single product as it comes down the supply chain, all the ways to the end consumer.
 And that's where you will see a label on the products. Sometimes if you pick up your books, you might see there's a, especially if they're a Penguin or another brand inside the front cover, you will see the FSC® logo even on your milk, cartoons or alternative milk cartoons, Tetra pack, they will have an FSC® logo on there as well.
 So it is everything from the forest right through the middle of the supply chain where.
 Are turned, are, are developed or and manufactured to the end where the labelling and verification is visible on that end product.

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   10:25
 Great. Fantastic. Well, look, as I said, we'll jump in. I think in another podcast because it's interesting. People want to see that the full way through. So look, if we jump to then some of the common challenges and more importantly the solutions you see around this place, what might put people concerned people around this and what what's the solutions to that care.

 Ciara McCarthy  Intertek   10:52
 Yeah, absolutely. One of the main challenges is maintaining FSC® material integrity.
 It really requires very strict documentation and tracking of material so that that can be a challenge where FSC® comes in is it has a framework, it has a standard in which to follow and it'll talk you through every single step and what all of the requirements are so that auditors can then third party verify.
 To ensure that the material is holding its integrity, some of the other types of challenges we do here are cost concerns and but again, certification certainly is it is an investment, but market demands typically make it worthwhile and you will see that.
 Suppliers or customers of various different products will require.
 FSC® certification on the products coming in to be then put onto the market.
 The other aspect as well are.
 We do see complex supply chains because there are things like wood utilization, so you may have one tree. It could make different types of lumber which become furniture, but also the waste part of the tree can become wood for biomass, for electricity production or MDF or plywood.
 So you will have many different products coming from the same tree and.
 That can be quite complicated to follow. The different supply chains because they all end up in different places.
 And so it's it can be difficult to ensure that there's clear communication with suppliers. But again, with the FSC® system that is set up quite clearly as to what is the type of information that needs to stay with the product. So that material integrity cannot be questioned.

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   13:13
 Interesting. Very interesting.
 I mean the future. What does the future look like in terms of FSC® and sustainable sourcing? I imagine only more prominent as we have consumers demanding more sustainable products, but what what's your thoughts, Ciara?

 Ciara McCarthy  Intertek   13:35
 Yeah, it certainly is and has become a bigger area.
 Originally, when the likes of FSC® were developed and we talked about 30 years ago, it was because there was a lack of regulation for deforestation and that's where certification fit in to try and protect forests. Today, what we're seeing is regulation is actually catching up and, in some cases, surpassing sustainability.
 Certification, so I would expect for sure that there would be growing consumer demand for sustainability products where they're actually labels, they have a logo and they can be tracked right back through the supply chain to their source. And we are seeing with the EUDR.
 This is exactly what is happening, so that's the European Union deforestation regulation.
 When we apply that to timber, it means that any timber or wood-based product must be traced back to exactly the plot that it came from to the actual GPS location of where that came from. So that's where FSC®, the Forest Stewardship Council's certification with the additional regulatory module can actually help with tracing.
 Right from where that tree came from to the coffee cup in your hand.
 Which is a huge undertaking, but it's not insurmountable because we have digital tracking technologies.
 And which really improves the supply chain transparency and ease of information to flow right down through all of the actors in the supply chain. And the other part that we are seeing is there's a real expansion of the FSC® standards into other industries such as textiles and rubber which I mentioned earlier and it's not.
 Usually something we associate with trees, but it is certainly becoming more and more prominent.
 We all might be familiar as well with bamboo products that are, you know, now being turned into garments. And yeah, rubber on the soles of our shoes and in the cars that we drive.

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   16:05
 Yes.
 No, really good point. Well, look, Kira, thank you so much. That's been highly interesting. So look, final comment I guess would be interesting to hear from you. How can consumers support FSC®?

 Ciara McCarthy  Intertek   16:19
 Absolutely. Well, the first thing to do is look for the FSC® logo on paper, wood or packaging products and I gave a great tip a minute ago about checking your milk carton or your alternative milk carton. If you go looking for the Tetra Pak logo right beside that is the FSC® logo. So, you'll know what it looks like and then you will start seeing it on other products. So, if you're if you're making a choice.
 When you're when you're out purchasing a product, please look for that and you will know it has. It has.
 A good sustainability story and try and support those brands as well and spread awareness about the sustainable forestry and responsible sourcing. It's a great thing to point out to other people.

 Catherine Beare  Intertek   17:07
 Kirit, thank you so much for joining me today and that extremely insightful podcast today, where you've informed us a lot on the process and how it applies to companies and why they should be interested. So thank you very much, everyone, for listening today.
 Intertek is indeed a notable player in the FSC® certification.
 Space and we are globally recognized certification body known for providing comprehensive auditing and certification services.
 To find out more about our FSC® and associated certification.
 Services in the sustainable forestry area do visit FSC® and PEFC® Certification | Sustainable Forestry or get in touch by emailing at business.assurance@intertek.com.
 

Thank you all so much and listening for the next podcast. Thank you and goodbye.