FSC Accreditation for Corrosion Management Magazine

As part of our continual investment in Corrosion Management magazine Square One are proud to announce that from this issue onwards we will be using FSC accredited paper.

What is the Forestry Stewardship
Council (FSC)?

FSC is an international, non-government organisation dedicated to promoting responsible management of the world forests. It was foundered in 1993 in response to public concern about deforestation and demand for a trustworthy wood-labelling scheme. Environmental groups including WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Woodland Trust support it.

How des FSC promote responsible forest management?

FSC has developed a system of forest certification and product labelling that allows consumers to identify wood and wood-based products from well-managed forests.

How does the FSC systems work?

Forests are inspected and certified against strict standards based on FSC’s 10 Principles of Forest Stewardship.  These inspections are undertaken by independent organisations such as the Sail Association that are accredited by the FSC.  In order to be given FSC certification a forest must be managed in an environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable manner.  This is what makes the FSC system unique and ensures that a forest is well-managed from the protection of indigenous people’s rights to the methods of felling trees.  Forests that meet these strict standards are given FSC certification and the timber product allowed to carry the FSC label.

What is Chain of Custody?

In addition to forest certification the FSC system includes a certified ‘chain of custody’ (CoC).  This is the means of tracing a paper product up through the supply chain back to the forests where the fibre originated.  It includes all the operations that take physical or legal ownership of the paper or physically after it (with the exception of retailers and the end user).
This means that in practice, a product that bares the Forest Stewardship Council logo can be tracked through every link in the chain, so that buyers can be guaranteed that the fibre originated from a forest managed according to the rules of the FSC.
Only printers that have FSC CoC are allowed to reproduce the FSC logo on jobs in order to get it, a third party assessor will visit and check the printer’s ability to prevent certified paper becoming mixed up with unapproved material.  They will want to look at documentation and records relating to certified material bought and sold and will also examine the handling of incoming material, how it is processed and how it is dispatched.  In particular, they will be investigating ‘critical control points’ where there is the greatest risk of material becoming mixed.

If you would like any further information please do not hesitate to contact 
jonathan@squareone.co.uk