What does PEFC mean?
What is PEFC timber?
Wood that is produced in PEFC-certified forests should make its way to the customer with the PEFC mark: The consumers include panel plants, pulp plants, paper plants, printers and publishers. Therefore the harvesting, trading and processing chain and retail trade must be certified in order to ensure the raw wood materials are PEFC in origin: PEFC Chain-of-Custody (CoC) or a product chain certification.
High standards are now placed on the players in the forestry sector. Forestry service companies that are engaged in the harvesting of wood, the delivery of this valuable raw material, forest restoration services and forest management can be certified as per an RAL standard of the "Quality control association of forestry and land conservation e.V.". The legal requirements of the business, technical standards, accident prevention regulations and the quality of work are currently evaluated in 3 test areas. The RAL certificate is a prerequisite in some Federal states for participating in calls for tenders in the state forest and serves as credible proof of the quality of work.
PEFC or FSC®
FSC®
- Certification
- FSC® is a global certification system
- FSC® is a third party certification: certificates are issued by FSC® itself
- Level of commitment
- Sustainable forest management (SFM), Chain of Custody (CoC), project certification and controlled wood
- Purpose
- enables to purchase wood from sustainable forests
- FSC® has been created to promote responsible forest management
- ◦FSC® focuses on three pillars - environmental and social aspects
- Extent
- FSC® covers 210 million hectares in 90 countries
- > 42,000 certificates
- "Top Down"approach
- FSC® is a global standard that ensures sustainable forestry in accordance to certain standards
- FSC® specifies 10 rules of responsible forest management - made for a forest manager/owner
PEFC
- Certification
- PEFC is a global certification scheme
- third party certification: they work together with certification bodies such as TÜV Nord Cert.
- Level of commitment
- Sustainable forest management (SFM), Chain of Custody (CoC), project certification
- Purpose
- PEFC has been created to facilitate certification forestry especially for small scale land owners
- Extent
- PEFC covers 325 million hectares of forest
- 20,000 Chain of Custody certified companies fall under the scope of PEFC
- "Bottom up" approach
- PEFC is a mutual recognition scheme against international criteria for sustainable forestry
What makes the difference?
- PEFC and ◦FSC® have a dedicated focus on an organisation's supply chain
- FSC® forests are mostly in Europe/North America
- PEFC has been developed for forests in Europe and its management is now global
The route to the certificate
- First contact us! Our FSC® specialists are waiting to speak to you.
- We can advise on your specific situation.
- Preliminary audit (optional) and review of the submitted FSC® documentation.
- On-site audit, focusing on the control system, confirmation of the goods receipt/deliveries from vendors, separation and segregation of certified and non-certified products, product labelling, output quantities and output products, company processes, documentation, system efficiency
Following a successful audit and an audit report, TÜV NORD CERT issues the certificate for the part of the product chain that has been inspected. The certificate is valid for five years; there are annual monitoring audits.
Association or group certification is also possible, as is a link to certification of the management system in accordance with ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
With its comprehensive know-how, TÜV NORD CERT covers many different areas of certification. If you need certification according to several systems, this means that synergies can give rise to considerable cost savings. With a comprehensive global network of experienced FSC-auditors TÜV NORD CERT guarantees optimum fulfilment of your requirements at your chosen location. TÜV NORD CERT offers world wide FSC® COC certification.
We are looking forward to your enquiry
Suites 27 - 29, Fifth Floor, Dingwall Road
Croydon, CR0 2LX
Tel.: +44 20 8680-7711
Enquiries.UK@tuv-nord.com