The two revised standards are:
1) FSC-STD-40-004 V3-0 Chain of Custody Certification (applicable to organizations that manufacture and trade FSC-certified products)
2) FSC-STD-20-011 V4-0 Chain of Custody Evaluations (applicable to certification bodies evaluating organizations against FSC-STD-40-004)
The main purposes of this revision process were to simplify and streamline the chain-of-custody certification. Requirements have been simplified, including the addition of illustrative examples, tables, and graphics to clarify key concepts.
Content changes
The main content changes are the following:
New transaction verification requirements: A new clause has been added requiring businesses to support transaction verification conducted by its certification body and Accreditation Services International (ASI), by providing samples of FSC transaction data as requested by the certification body. Further information on this will be communicated in the first quarter of 2017.
Permitted application of percentage and credit systems at multiple site level, under certain conditions (also called “cross-site methods”): FSC will monitor the implementation of these requirements and re-evaluate them after two years.
Refined credit system and product group requirements, including clarifying credit accounting for assembled wood products, and an extension of the credit accounting period from 12 to 24 months.
Reduce the threshold for FSC-labelled recycled wood products from 85 per cent to 70 per cent (same threshold as required for FSC Mix products).
A merger of advice notes and standard interpretations is incorporated into the standard.
All FSC chain-of-custody certificate holders will have been evaluated against the new standards by 31 March 2018.
If you have any questions, please contact project coordinator, Lucia Massaroth (l.massaroth@fsc.org).