The companies included in the scorecard are those that WWF considers key to achieving a sustainable timber market in the UK and they are drawn from a number of sectors. Each company included in the scorecard is considered by WWF to represent the public face of their industry and reflective of overall performance in their sector.
The purpose of the scorecard is to understand which sectors and organisations have:
1. Committed to eliminate unsustainable practices in their supply chains
2. Transformed commitments into action
3. Monitored and reported publicly against these commitments and are on track to achieve legal and sustainable supply chains by 2020.
Each company received a ‘tree index’ rating of between zero and three trees according to how they performed against a number of criteria, including:
• Clear, comprehensive timber purchasing policies with time-bound targets.
• The areas of the organisation’s procurement covered by timber purchasing policies e.g. goods-not-for-sale, office paper, furniture etc.
• Content of the organisation’s environmental performance statement, with higher scores awarded depending on the proportion of timber and wood products that are certified and/or from recycled sources.
• Timber and wood product sourcing data which details the procurement breakdown of one or more of the following:
- Recycled material;
- FSC certified;
- Certified under other schemes;
- Legal and traceable.
• Evidence of company engagement with key stakeholders – including suppliers and customers – on the importance of sustainable forest-product sourcing.
• Company statement on commitment to EUTR compliance.
Of the 122 companies rated, 42 received a three tree rating, including the following FSC certificate holders and promotional licence holders:
• B & Q
• Boots
• Brooks Bros (UK)
• BSW Timber Group
• Danzer
• Hachette UK
• Hallmark Cards
• HarperCollins Publishers
• Haymarket Media Group
• Homebase
• IG Design Group
• IKEA
• James Latham
• Kimberly-Clark
• Lend Lease Construction
• Mace Group
• Marks and Spencer
• Mondi
• Nobia UK
• Office Depot UK
• Pan Macmillan
• Pearson Education
• Penguin Random House
• Sainsbury’s
• Saint-Gobain Building Distribution
• Steinbeis Papier
• Tesco
• Tetra Pak
• The Solid Wood Flooring Company
• Travis Perkins
• Woodscape
According to WWF, these companies:
• have public commitments to sourcing timber and paper products sustainably – specifically indicating priority given to using FSC and recycled materials – and put this in context with the role and requirements of the EUTR;
• have set up policies and control systems;
• report openly and accurately about their performance against their policy commitment;
• have a good understanding of the source of all their timber and timber products;
• are sourcing at least 70% of material from certified and/or recycled sources;
• are showing their competitors that it is possible to act responsibly when it comes to forest trade.
On FSC certification, WWF says: “WWF considers FSC to be the most robust certification system to ensure environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of forests. Independent research also confirms that’s FSC certification has positive impacts on the environment, social development and governance.”
See the WWF Timber Scorecard 2019