30 Years of FSC UK: Looking back at 2005-2015

"It is just by chance that my 10-year tenure as Executive Director of FSC UK from 2005 covered almost exactly the second decade of its existence.  Those who had shepherded the organisation through its first 10 years had painstakingly cemented the concept of responsible forest management as being a workable worldwide model. 

Indeed, in the UK context, large forestry players, including the Forestry Commission, were prepared to incorporate FSC standards into their woodland management schemes, whilst the likes of a few large retailers and publishers began to show a germ of interest in our offer as a risk management tool.  Fortunately for us, by 2005 environmental NGOs were beginning to apply pressure on businesses to take traceability more seriously than in the past.

So a wave was building.  A large part of the next 10 years was to keep it rolling by attracting more commercial and public organisations into the fold, as well as insuring that those all-important domestic forestry standards continued to reflect our own. Of equal priority, however, was to put our national office and, for that matter, all national offices worldwide, on a sound financial footing.

FSC UK was a leading light in this endeavour.  It seemed perverse that we relied on charitable donations for almost all our income whilst at the same time offering often very wealthy companies a reasonably cast-iron risk management service. After much debate between us and the International Headquarters it was agreed that FSC UK and FSC Switzerland could trial a scheme to licence the use of the tick-tree logo in return for a very modest administration fee.

The trial was an overnight success, eventually bringing much needed revenue into all national offices and into the International Headquarters itself.  It also proved the maxim that your services are taken much more seriously if you charge for them, rather than give them away for nothing.

May I begin to close with an example of how far the wave had rolled towards the end of those 10 years?  The delivery authority of the 2012 Olympic Park had been embarrassed by using non-certified timber from a threatened tropical forest region in the early stages of construction. Shortly after, a chance meeting between us, PEFC, the Timber Trade Federation and the CEO of the authority led to a commitment that only certified timber would be allowed onto the Park.  It was a two-fold risk management gamble: that there was sufficient certified material to meet the heavy, and specialised, demand and that our certification scheme was robust enough to avoid further embarrassment. The gamble paid off.  So much so that, to my knowledge, the example was followed by both Rio and Tokyo.

My final words must be in praise of my very supportive board of trustees, who allowed their Executive Director from a non-forestry background to follow his instincts, and the staff of the International Headquarters with whom we had an increasing level of mutual trust and friendship. And, of course, in praise of a most loyal and competent staff who, on countless occasions, saved their Executive Director from making a fool of himself!"