Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain of Custody (CoC) Certifications
The consumer demands in the environmental responsibility of business brought the creation of third party certifications focusing on credible forest management and operations. Several quality standards in the chain-of-custody in regulating and implementing socially responsible forest operations were published in the 1990s and proved to be effective in balancing demands and environmental preservation.
Several independent groups developed such standards, issuing certifications, in order to verify the proper management of forest products such as wood and paper, from processing up to the point these products reach the consumers. Companies involved in the industry where such products are the main value proposition are highly encouraged go through these certifications in order to promote their organization’s credibility to comply to environmental regulations, specifically in conducting sustainable and responsible forest operations.
One of these certifying bodies is the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was incorporated in 1993 in order to respond to the growing problems of illegal exploitation of forests all over the world. The Chain-of-Custody system of FSC allows tracing the origins of wood and paper products and the methods used from processing, to transforming up to manufacturing of forest products. Companies who obtained the FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certification are allowed to use FSC’s trademark on their products in order to promote credibility to the market and the industry.
FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) certification is voluntary and accredited FSC bodies can evaluate and monitor businesses in order to grant certification based on FSC standards. Several types of certifications under FSC can be requested. The standard certification is applicable to individual companies. A cost effective option is also available to several operations called Group Chain-of-Custody certification. This means multiple business entities can join or form a group of operations and apply for the Group Chain-of-Custody certification. Multi-site Chain-of-Custody certification is for companies with several operations in different locations. As long as the processes and systems of all sites are centralized, they can definitely reduce the auditing cost and therefore become beneficial to the organization. The FSC Project Certification is another option to gain certification focused in a specific project without the hassle of certifying each participant. Building projects are a successful example of having this FSC Chain-of-Custody certification such as the ones done in Australia.
Certification Training and Consultation
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards have proven to help companies establish themselves as credible and responsible producers, manufacturers and distributors of forest products. Given this, consultants who have the expertise and experience in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Chain-of-Custody certification, such as QSE Consultants, are undeniably beneficial in the process of certification. They add value to your company through proper consulting, training and auditing, and the simplicity of our approach provides superior benefits such as reduced documentation, sustainable implementation, real world application, improved quality, better efficiency, increased productivity and bottom line improvement. Contact QSE Consultant through their website or call 770 – 518 – 9967 now.
