FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 2006-06-27

From forests to final products: Ensuring environmentally-sound business practices

OTTAWA - From the felling of timber in northern British Columbia to its transformation to the latest in furniture design, a new accreditation program by the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) ensures that the timber used in wood-based products comes from sustainable forests.

The Accreditation for Chain of Custody for Forest-based Products program is an extension of SCC’s existing Certification Body Accreditation program, and is based on international standards developed by industry stakeholders and environmental organizations. Under the new program, SCC will accredit organizations to assess wood flow from certified forests to workshops or factories, and from there, on to retailers.

“The ability to demonstrate that the goods they are buying are the products of well-managed forests is essential to satisfying the growing demands of environmentally-conscious consumers,” noted Pat Paladino, Director of Conformity Assessment with the SCC.

Certification to international standards plays an important role in the marketing of Canada’s forest products. Increasingly governments, retailers and consumers are demanding evidence of environmentally-sound business practices. A certified chain of custody provides reassurance from the wood processing industries that the wood they are using comes from sustainably-managed sources and serves as evidence of their commitment to responsible development.

The Standards Council of Canada is a Crown corporation with the mandate to coordinate and promote efficient and effective voluntary standardization in Canada. The SCC is involved in coordinating Canada's participation in the development of international standards and, as Canada's national standardization body, oversees the efforts of the National Standard System.  Its program for the accreditation of certification bodies ensures the consistency of third-party certification schemes, assessing organizations for their competence to make certification decisions in areas covered by their scopes of accreditation. For more information on the Standard Council's accreditation programs, visit www.scc.ca, or email [email protected].

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