We have been getting A LOT questions recently about the revision of the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) procedure for assessing annual fees from certified companies.  The Annual Administration Fee (AAF) is a long-standing mechanism that was updated last year.  The details are fairly simple, but communications have been complex and confusing. Created this "Quick and Dirty (QuAD)" guide that we hope you will find helpful.  Feel free to download and share with others who may be interested....

Another New Year brings the familiar tradition of reflection.  A bit of looking back and a lot of looking forward.  The view out our office window looks like January usually does:  stark, cold, and stimulating. Turning the calendar to begin 2022, we find ourselves facing several important changes in the business of Chain of Custody certification.  Here is a collection of some things that we are following, things that we think will make 2022 an interesting year. Three New Standards For the...

Last week was a bit of a milestone for the staff here at MixedWood.  After 15 months of remote-only business, we made our first client visit since the start of the pandemic.  Working face-to-face has always been our preferred way of doing business.  We are consultants.  Our specialty is solving problems for our clients.  Finding simple solutions to complex business challenges.  This can be done at a distance, with documents, telephone calls, or video links.  But we have always done our best...

When our third-party certification programs for forestry and forest-based products were invented about 25 years ago, they tested a promising and new idea.  The idea was to employ and leverage the powerful influence of markets and commerce for promoting and encouraging the responsible, sustainable use of the world’s forests.  In the beginning, it wasn’t clear whether this idea was any good or not.  We know now, of course.  It turned out to be a terrific idea.  Today FSC, PEFC, SFI are...

We received another email from FSC-US' Policy and Standards forum, with information on a pair of webinars scheduled for late this month.  The webinars will be (we think) presented by staff from FSC-International in Bonn and are likely to provide an eye-opening perspective on the challenging ahead.  Please make time to attend, and share with others who might also have an interest. [pdf-embedder url="https://mxwood.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/FSC-US-CoC-Labor-Webinars.pdf" title="FSC-US CoC...

The US affiliate of FSC maintains a Policy and Standards Forum to facilitate communication within the community of active practitioners and certifiers.  They posted a very well-written summary of the new CoC Labor Requirements that we wrote about last week.  It provides a good, brief, and objective view of the situation that we think deserves wider circulation.  We've posted a copy here. [pdf-embedder...