What is FSC certification and how do I get it?
Ecology
21 March 2023
Increased consumer awareness means that customers are increasingly paying attention to the labels they find on products. One of these is the FSC certificate, which they can see on all goods created from wood. What does it mean, how much does it cost and what advantages does it offer?
FSC certification - what is it?
Wondering what FSC certification entails and what it is? Before you know the answers to these questions, it is worth explaining where the acronym comes from. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council, which has been operating since the first half of the 1990s. The organisation is concerned with controlling the quality of forest management. It is the body that awards FSC certificates to companies.
What does FSC certification mean? It is given to any product that is made from wood. This can include paper, floorboards, window frames, crates and many other goods. The fact that a product is labelled with this certificate shows that the wood has been harvested in a completely controlled, ecological and biologically harmless manner for a given part of the environment.
If you see this label on a product, you know that the logging of the wood to create it was done in accordance with ethical forest management principles. For it to be on a product, it is not only the logging process itself that counts, but also the processing of the wood or the production of the product itself.
Types of FSC certificates
Before you find out how to become FSC certified, it is useful to learn about all types of FSC certificates. The first of these is FSC 100%. This designation shows that all the wood used to make a product, such as a door, comes from properly managed forests. This is the best type of certificate that can be on a commodity.
The second type is FSC mixed certification. If you see it on a product, know that the amount of certified wood is at least 70% of the total. However, this does not mean that the rest of the wood comes from unethical sources. It is controlled wood, which is wood that grows in forests that are managed appropriately, but not enough to be certified. The most important thing is that the raw material comes from legal sources.
Then there is the FSC Recycling certificate. Such a sticker on a product suggests that the wood has been recycled from other products. The reuse of raw material is a procedure that is very beneficial to the planet, so it is worth choosing products with this label.
How do you obtain FSC certification?
Certification is a fairly straightforward process, but first it is important to find out who can and should apply for an FSC document at all. It turns out that it is not only the companies involved in sourcing the raw material for production, but also all those companies and subcontractors to which the wood goes in the downstream stages - processing, distribution or packaging.
How do I obtain FSC certification? First of all, it is necessary to familiarise oneself with the FSC rules, i.e. what conditions a company must meet in order to be certified. If it appears that the company is up to the challenge and has a source from which it can source certified product, then it should apply to a certification body. Such can be found on the official FSC website.
Once all procedures have been implemented in the company, an audit is carried out. A positive result will result in a certificate for 5 years. The company will undergo regular annual audits to check that it is operating according to the established rules. The cost of an FSC certificate can vary and depends, among other things, on the size of the company.
The advantages of FSC certification include the fact that it provides customers with a guarantee that they are using companies that produce their goods from ethical raw materials. This strengthens the market position of the brand and makes the price of FSC certification pay off quickly. The quality of the high-end timber products stands out. Annual audits help to maintain high production standards and ensure better working conditions. The certification also ensures that raw materials are sourced from the best sources.
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