Sustainable Forestry Initiative logo

Sustainable Forestry Initiative

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is a sustainability Organisation operating in the U.S. and Canada that works across four pillars: standards, conservation, community, and education.

Website

Summary

Region / Country

  • Canada
  • United States

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

Where in supply chain?

  • Paper

Key stakeholders?

  • Publisher
  • Mill
  • Printer
  • Finisher
  • Distributors

What type of entity is the badge certifying?

  • Pulp products

Organisation/management procedures & outcomes?

SFI applies only in US & Canada. Represents 25% of total global area of certified forest. Comparing-SFI-and-FSC-Certification-Standards. Labels are globally recognized and show customers products are responsibly sourced. Organisations in forest products supply chain. All forest products, including pulp, paper and paper products e.g. books and magazines. FSC offers project certification. Project certification is most often applied to buildings and other temporary or permanent construction projects. Project Certification.

Environmental Attributes

Identifying the key elements

  1. What are the applicable environmental attributes?

Sustainability

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

Yes

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

Not defined at this time.

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

Canada & USA

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

Yes, with PEFC

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

Not defined at this time.

  1. a) Cost 

Varies by country & turnover

  1. b) Time to achieve certification 

Not defined at this time.

  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 

Depends on grading

  1. Is the accreditation tiered?

No

Assessment criteria

Governance Quality

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

Sustainability of forests

  1. a) How is the badge verified? 

Companies pay auditors not SFI

  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 

Various including sustainability & legality

  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? 

Every 5 years

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

Not defined at this time.

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

Not defined at this time.

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

Not defined at this time.

Governance effectiveness

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

Sustainability, conservation

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

Not defined at this time.

  1. b) How are these benchmarked? 

Not defined at this time.

  1. c) What is the scoring system used? 

Not defined at this time.

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

Registered certification

  1. Are clear, actionable recommendations delivered and implemented? 

Yes

  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? 

Not defined at this time.

Social Responsibility Attributes

Key elements

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

Community, Indigenous relationships and Education

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

Not defined at this time.

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

No

Governance Effectiveness

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

Assessment

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

Third party independent certification

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

Not defined at this time.