by Victoria Jofery | Jun 13, 2022 | General
One of the most common questions we get regularly is to explain the differences between the two most prominent programs in our business of certified wood products, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). It’s a common and...
by Victoria Jofery | May 6, 2022 | General
About a year ago, we received a call from the quality manager at a large, FSC-certified manufacturer of sanitary wipes located in the US Southeast. The caller was new in her position, having replaced the previous manager. She was aware of a Chain of Custody program...
by Victoria Jofery | Jan 28, 2022 | General
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...
by Victoria Jofery | Jan 26, 2022 | General
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...
by Victoria Jofery | Jun 28, 2021 | General
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...
by Victoria Jofery | Jun 18, 2021 | General
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...
by Victoria Jofery | Mar 10, 2021 | General
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...
by Victoria Jofery | Feb 9, 2021 | General
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...
by Victoria Jofery | Feb 2, 2021 | General
After years of confused and dysfunctional debate, FSC seem to have finally reached a resolution to the question of whether to include Social Indicators in its Chain of Custody standard. An announcement was released today by email from the Policy office in Bonn. It...
by Victoria Jofery | Dec 8, 2020 | General
This brief post is to update – one last time, we hope – the story we shared in September and October about FSC’s ill-considered policy decision about species documentation for Chain of Custody (CoC) companies. Click here to read our original post on the subject. ...
