FSC Logo

FSC – Forest Stewardship Council

FSC-certified products are made with materials that support responsible forestry. They can include forest-based material from FSC-certified forests, verified reclaimed sources and/or which has been risk assessed as meeting FSC’s controlled wood criteria. FSC-certified forests are managed to strict environmental, social and economic standards.

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Summary

Region / Country

  • Global

Environmental standards

Yes

Social and ethical responsibility standards

Yes

Is there a label to put on the product?

Yes

Who can hold accreditation?

  • Distributor
  • Finisher
  • Publisher
  • Printer
  • Mill

Who / what has accreditation

  • Product

Independent verification / audit

Yes

Accreditation information

Key stats

Relevant to book industry?

  • Publishers
  • Distributors/ sellers
  • Printers
  • Shippers
  • Warehousing

Where in supply chain?

  • Paper
  • Pulp
  • Paper products

Key stakeholders?

  • Publisher
  • Mill
  • Printer
  • Finisher
  • Distributors
  • Retailer

What type of entity is the badge certifying?

  • Pulp products

Organisation/management procedures & outcomes?

FSC chain of custody certification required in order to label products as FSC certified or sell with FSC claims. Chain of custody certification aims to ensure that uncertified or uncontrolled material is not mixed with FSC certified material in FSC-certified products. FSC certification includes Health and Safety and Core Labour requirements. The Policy for the Association of Organisations with FSC (FSC-POL-01-004) or FSC Policy for Association, an expression of the values shared by organisations associated with FSC, defines the six unacceptable activities which organisations associated with FSC commit to avoid. It protects the reputation of FSC, and all entities associated with it, by acting as a safeguard against organisations involved in these unacceptable activities.

Environmental Attributes

Identifying the key elements

  1. What are the applicable environmental attributes?

FSC-certified products are made with materials that support responsible forestry (https://uk.fsc.org/what-is-fsc/fsc-labels). They can include forest-based material from FSC-certified forests, verified reclaimed sources (https://uk.fsc.org/what-is-fsc/recycled-materials) and/or which has been risk assessed as meeting FSC’s controlled wood criteria. FSC-certified forests are managed to strict environmental, social and economic standards (https://uk.fsc.org/what-is-fsc/fsc-certified-forests)

  1. Does the badge intend to assess social aspects & how are they related to environmental attributes?

Yes. FSC-certified forests are managed to strict environmental, social and economic standards (https://uk.fsc.org/what-is-fsc/fsc-certified-forests).

  1. Which Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the accreditation aligned to? How would receiving the certification help an organisation to achieve these goals?

FSC certification contributes to 14 of the SDGs. See https://ic.fsc.org/file-download.fscr-a-tool-to-implement-the-sustainable-development-goals.a-1127.pdf

  1. Is it recognised on an international, European or country level?

International

  1. Does the badge have mutual recognition with other labels?

No

  1. What are the benefits and practicalities to the organisation receiving the accreditation? 

FSC certification can help to meet legislative requirements, improve market access and help you to implement and evidence your sustainability policies. It allows you to apply FSC labels to your products and make FSC claims in your sales documents (thereby maintaining the chain of custody for FSC-certified products).

  1. a) Cost 

Varies by country & forest products turnover. Costs are determined by FSC-accredited certification bodies.

  1. b) Time to achieve certification 

Dependent on complexity of certification, existing practices in place and availability of auditors.

  1. c) Do the certified bodies have to publish your progress every year ?

Certification lasts for 5 years, but includes annual checks.

  1. d) Response times for audit outcomes, reports and recommendations 

FSC-accredited certification bodies are accredited by Assurance Services International (ASI) (https://www.asi-assurance.org/s/) and subject to ASI and FSC standards and procedures.

  1. Is the accreditation tiered?

Yes

Assessment criteria

Governance Quality

  1. What is the overarching objective of the accreditation body? 

FSC’s mission is to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

  1. a) How is the badge verified? 

FSC does not issue certificates itself. Independent certification bodies carry out the forest management and chain of custody assessments that lead to FSC certification. FSC sets the standards for forest management and chain of custody certification and defines the procedures that certification bodies should follow in their certification assessments. Certification bodies are accredited by an independent accreditation body. FSC’s accreditation body is Assurance Services International (ASI). FSC is the only global forest certification system with an integrated accreditation programme that systematically checks its certification bodies. These certification bodies are accountable to strict guidelines to ensure their decisions are made impartially without regard to commercial, financial, or other pressures. Both FSC and ASI have a complaints process that can be followed in cases where potential issues are identified with FSC certificate holders or FSC-accredited certification bodies.

  1. a) i. Independent body 

Yes

  1. a) ii. Governing body 

Not defined at this time.

  1. a) iii. Self-regulating 

Not defined at this time.

  1. b) What are the criteria used to be recognized as the above? Considering human resource, technical expertise and financial input 

See https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/280

  1. a) How often are the certified products/organisations/projects re-evaluated? 

Annually

  1. b) How often are the assessment and certification practices re-evaluated? 

Under normal circumstances, each version of a normative document (including FSC policies, standards, procedures etc) is valid for a period of five years. Change Requests can be submitted by any stakeholder at any time during a document’s period of validity and will be considered during the review process for a document or may lead to a proposal by the FSC Policy Director for an extraordinary revision. Interpretations or advice notes regarding specific issues relating to FSC normative documents may also be made publicly available. Not later than four years after the document became effective, the Policy and Standards Unit will routinely review the document to evaluate if there is a need for revision. All FSC normative documents can be found at https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre .

  1. c) What input do stakeholders have to the governance structure and certification processes? 

Stakeholders are invited to respond to consultations regarding new and revised policies and standards etc. Members (membership is separate to certification) can propose and vote on motions to change the way FSC operates.

  1. d) How responsive is the certification body to this feedback? 

Certification bodies are accredited by Assurance Services International (ASI) and must comply with current ASI and FSC requirements.

  1. To what extent are the answers questions 2 and 3 made transparent to consumers, the certified organisations and any other stakeholders? 

See https://fsc.org/en/chain-of-custody-certification and https://consultation-platform.fsc.org/. Currently 211,424,328 ha of forest certified to FSC standards and 53,146 FSC chain of custody certificates globally. Information regarding the certification and accreditation process is available on the websites, see https://uk.fsc.org/integrity . Public consultations on revised normative documents are advertised by FSC and stakeholders are invited to respond via the FSC consultation platform (https://consultation-platform.fsc.org/). News of consultations, technical updates and other FSC news is available via the monthly FSC UK Forest Matters newsletter (subscribe at https://uk.fsc.org).

Governance effectiveness

  1. What environmental performance metrics are used – consumption data, emissions, life cycle analysis etc.? 

Compliance with applicable FSC standards etc

  1. a) How complete and accurate are these assessments? 

All certificate holders independently assessed at least annually. The Policy for the Association of Organisations with FSC (FSC-POL-01-004) or FSC Policy for Association, an expression of the values shared by organisations associated with FSC, defines the six unacceptable activities which organisations associated with FSC commit to avoid. It protects the reputation of FSC, and all entities associated with it, by acting as a safeguard against organisations involved in these unacceptable activities.

  1. b) How are these benchmarked? 

Failure to comply can result in the issuing of corrective action requests, which can lead to suspension or termination

  1. c) What is the scoring system used? 

Any nonconformities detected during audits are transformed into corrective action requests that include a description of the nonconformity, the objective evidence on which the nonconformity is based and a timeline within which the nonconformity must be corrected by the certificate holder. If a certificate holder or promotional licence holder demonstrates a good understanding of the FSC trademark requirements by submitting a sufficient number of consecutive correct approval requests to their certification body, instead of submitting all intended uses of FSC trademarks for approval, they may implement a trademark use management system with an internal control system.

  1. In what form are the outputs of certification delivered? 

FSC certification allows the use of the FSC trademarks on and off product and the use of FSC claims on sales documents. FSC-accredited certification bodies document their evaluation findings and conclusions in a report according to the requirements specified in the FSC Chain of Custody Evaluations Standard (https://connect.fsc.org/document-centre/documents/resource/267), which is sent to the organisation seeking certification or recertification to the FSC standards.

  1. Are clear, actionable recommendations delivered and implemented? 

Yes. Any nonconformities detected during audits are transformed into corrective action requests that include a description of the nonconformity, the objective evidence on which the nonconformity is based and a timeline within which the nonconformity must be corrected by the certificate holder.

  1. To what extent do end-users understand what the badge is certifying? How visible is this on an end-product e.g., through a label? 

FSC label, which includes label type (100%, Mix or Recycled) and normally includes product type (e.g. ‘paper’). 76% of people in the UK recognise the FSC logo.

Social Responsibility Attributes

Key elements

  1. What are the key social performance areas the accreditations assesses? For instance, community involvement and human rights

At a forest level: Comply with all applicable laws; maintain or improve the social and economic well-being of workers; uphold the rights of Indigenous Peoples; maintain or improve the social and economic well-being of local communities; manage their products and services in a way that maintains or improves their long-term economic viability, social benefits and environmental benefits. At a chain of custody level: Health and safety and core labour requirements.

  1. Do the above social performance areas interlink with achieving any positive environmental impacts?

Yes

  1. Does the accreditation have different requirements for SMEs compared with larger organisations?

Yes, see https://uk.fsc.org/chain-of-custody-certification/chain-of-custody-group-schemes and https://uk.fsc.org/forest-management-certification/small-or-low-intensity-managed-forests

Governance Effectiveness

  1. What indicators are used to assess the social impact areas?

FSC-accredited certification bodies audit certificate holders against the relevant standards.

  1. Are the above indicators a complete and accurate reflection of these social impacts?

Independent certification body

  1. How does the certification weight these indicators according to their effect on social value?

FSC certificate holders must comply with all applicable parts of the relevant FSC standards.