The AMM, held at ZSL London Zoo on 6th October, gave UK members a chance to hear about the work of FSC UK over the last financial year and our plans for the future.
At the meeting a new Trustee, John Tewson, was appointed to the FSC UK Board. John recently left the Forestry Commission after over 35 years involvement in forest management and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Foresters. You can read his full profile on page 7. Trustees Constance L. McDermott, (Senior Fellow in Ecosystem Governance at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford) and Jon Kirkpatrick, (Ex-Head of Sustainability, Lendlease Europe), were also officially elected to the board. FSC veteran, and social chamber member, Hubert Kwisthout, was re-elected to the Board.
Following the AMM, members enjoyed a presentation about FSC and Climate Change by Mark Kemna of FSC Netherlands, chaired by FSC UK Trustee, Mike Bekin. The session focussed on the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) work being done by FSC Netherlands and provoked discussion of some pertinent issues in the UK context.
Interested in becoming a member of FSC?
If you are interested in becoming a member, please take a look at the Membership section of the FSC UK website or get in touch for more information.
If you are in the print and paper sectors, you may have seen our articles in Print Monthly magazine this year detailing our current specification and procurement campaign and highlighting the benefits of applying the FSC labels (and brandmarks).
The Print Show gave FSC UK an excellent platform to speak with individuals and organisations throughout the print supply chain; from paper manufacturers and merchants to procurers and printers. Being at the show reinforced the validity of our project aims:
- To better link FSC certified and labelled print supply and demand;
- To ensure procurers understand the FSC system and can access FSC certified and labelled materials;
- To ensure FSC certified suppliers have the right tools and support to promote their FSC certified products to their clients and make the most of their certification.
To this end, FSC UK equipped all FSC certified exhibitors with plaques promoting their FSC certified status. We were heartened by the large number of enquiries we had from printers interested in achieving FSC certification.
We left the show having made contact with people from a range of sectors, and we look forward to working with them to develop and achieve our project objectives, whilst better understanding their support and assistance needs.
All FSC certified UK printers are being contacted with project information and resources. If you work in the print and paper industries or are a procurer of print and are interested in finding out more, please get in touch by contacting info@fsc-uk.org
A rushed weekend, a van re-packed and it was off to Timber Expo, part of UK Construction Week. Our current focus on specification and procurement extends not only to print but also to construction - two very different industries perhaps, but with common procurement issues. Again, FSC is seeking to join up the dots between contractors and suppliers, and tendering organisations and those tendering for contracts.
Unfortunately, all too often we find that the right questions haven’t been asked at the right times and organisations have experienced unnecessary difficulties. It is often assumed that it is enough just to use an FSC certified supplier or to specify FSC certified materials from an uncertified supplier - however, as most FSC certified suppliers stock both FSC and non-FSC materials and only FSC certified companies can ensure full chain of custody (providing official evidence of FSC certification in the form of invoice claims), it is essential to ensure both supplier and materials are FSC certified.
At Timber Expo we spoke to a large number of visitors from a range of sectors - both those supplying and those procuring. Our new procurement factsheet and template procurement policies for the private and public sectors were well received, as were the FSC quick-reference infographics and certificate holder welcome packs on display, which are being dispatched to all new and renewing FSC certificate holders in the UK.
As at the Print Show, FSC supplied plaques promoting their certification to all FSC certificate holders. We were also in attendance for the launch of the Confederation of Timber Industries (CTI) manifesto, which confirmed a focus on sustainability. We look forward to working with CTI and others in the future to promote wood as the responsible manufacturing and construction material it can be.
If you would like to learn more about FSC UK’s procurement projects or would like information about FSC certification or FSC in general, please get in touch by emailing info@fsc-uk.org.
Useful resources:
Procurement factsheet
Specifying FSC Certified Timber
FSC and Printed Materials