In our busy day-to-day world of work and business, it is natural to take certain things for granted. Things like honesty, fairness, professionalism, and business ethics.  Here at MixedWood – in our strange little world of certification consulting and auditing services – it is no different.  We assume that most of the folks we interact with are “doing the right thing”, and most of the time that’s true.  Once in a while, though, it’s not.  And those exceptions can come as a bit of a shock....

Among the wood product practitioners who gathered at the recent FSC-IC membership meeting in Chicago recently, the most pressing issue – by far - was the ongoing implementation challenge presented by the new National Risk Assessments in the USA and Canada. MixedWood has been deeply engaged in the details of this for months and we shared some of our recent work in our “rubber hits the road” post on November 2.  One thing we were not able to provide (because it wasn’t ready yet) was an update to...

A diverse and highly engaged group of members and stakeholders of the Forest Stewardship Council gathered this week in Chicago for a productive, two-day meeting covering a range of important topics.  MixedWood was pleased to play a small role and we’d like to share of our observations and impressions.   FSC staff deserve lots of credit for organizing this meeting.  It is only the second time (in 20+ years) that an open meeting like this has been organized in North America.  The attendance...

Did you know that the Forest Stewardship Council is holding a meeting this week in Chicago?  We’ve been asking colleagues this question recently and been surprised at how many answered no.  The meeting is aimed at FSC members (yes – that includes MixedWood) but will be attended by non-member certificate holders as well.  It is only the second meeting hosted by FSC-International in the US, which makes it important, we think.   The venue is the Warwick...

When it became clear, over 6 years ago, that the “old way” of Controlled Wood due diligence for FSC-certified companies would be ending, we all understood that the “new way” would include some new challenges.  With the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), nothing is ever easy.  Over the years, when clients and stakeholders asked us what the new challenges would be, our advice was simply to wait and see.  We knew that sooner or later it would become clear. As is often the case, sooner turned into...

We wrote an article about FSC membership in December 2016 in which we outlined and summarized the organization's structure and decision-making processes.  One of our key points was the fact that FSC is a massive and influential organization that is run by a very small group of people. We think this is unhealthy and hope that FSC can find a better way to expand its membership someday.  In the meantime, those of us who are voting members (including MixedWood) have a special responsibility. Show...