Our Sustainability Efforts

We make every effort to adhere to best practice to protect the environment and long term well-being to the planet. Below you can see where and how the industry is regulated.

PEFC™ and FSC®

JCK Joinery supply FSC® doors and PEFC™ door which are certified through Chain of Custody.

What is Chain of Custody?

Certification is provided through Chain of Custody management. This system is a way of tracking the timber from the forest through to the finished product, so that any end product can be traced back to the original forest in which it was grown. These forests are carefully managed to ensure that they provide sustainability, which  in basic terms means that as trees are cut down more are planted.

What is certification?

It is a system which provides evidence that wood has come from managed sources and can be provided through a regularly audited paper trail which follows the wood from its source to the end user.

There are two forms of Certification for Chain of Custody which is part of, the first is PEFC™ and the second is FSC® .

What is PEFC™ ?

PEFC™ stands for Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.

The PEFC™ is an independent council, which is a non profit making and non governmental organisation that promotes the independent certification of forests in a managed way,  worldwide through third party certification. Covering over 20 national independent schemes internationally to combat the serious problem of  illegal logging.

Forest certification is a way of proving that an enterprise has a system to track the wood flow in the production process all the way from the certified forests to a workshop or factory and from there onto the retailer. Together these certificates provide proof to customers of the origin of the wood used in the wood-processing industry. To be credible, the certification in both cases must be undertaken by independent third parties.

Within the wood flow verification system, information can be recorded detailing the percentage of verified wood within a product. A standard percentage model is used for companies to work this out and when a product is labeled over 70% from Chain of Custody then it can have the PEFC™ Logo.

What is FSC®?

FSC® stands for Forest Stewardship Council®.

The FSC® was formed in 1993 with 130 representatives from a range of businesses and environmental and social groups. It aims to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the worlds forests. This non-profit making organisation was borne out of concern for the worlds diminishing forests. The Organisation became operational within a year and was divided into three chambers which represented the environmental, social and economic interests which is governed by an international board.

FSC® Principles and Criteria

• Harvest of the forest is NOT allowed to exceed growth.
• Natural forest is NOT allowed to be converted to plantation or non-forest land.
• The restoration of a proportional amount of existing plantation is to be returned to natural forest.
• Maintain the Protection of conservation and value forests.
• Maintain the protection of workers and indigenous peoples rights.
• The planting or use of GM Trees is strictly forbidden.

Why do we need Chain of Custody?

This is a growing requirement and it is likely that in the future all wood will have to come from sustainable sources. You can only sell FSC® certified products if you are FSC® registered in order to maintain Chain of Custody. Gain access to tender markets and meet government procurement requirements.

Benefits of a certified Chain of Custody

Benefit to the company – improves access to markets. Customers are increasingly specifying timber from certified sources. Marketing Benefit to company – demonstrates responsibility for and commitment to sustainable development. Improve image for timber industry – create a wood flow accounting system to improve the image of the wood processing sector. Opens up other markets – public authorities and enterprise procurement polices increasingly demand that timber that is used comes from sustainable sources, but they also require documented evidence to prove this.

REFERENCES

www.fsc.org www.pefc.org Forest Management (FM) Certificate PEFC™ Information CD PEFC™ Council Information CD PEFC™ – The responsible choice for – leaflet PEFC™ stands for the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification FSC – Forest Stewardship Council Guide to responsible timber purchasing – booklet