Friday, 25 September 2015
FSC Online Claims Platform now ready for use
September 25, 2015
The FSC has released an updated version of the online claims platform (OCP) – a digital tool that provides timely information about FSC-certified products and the organizations that produce them. The OCP supports administration of the FSC chain of custody, as well as providing information to validate FSC product claims.
FSC has listened to stakeholder feedback and incorporated much of what has been heard. This means that FSC certificate holders can now sign up and use the platform for monitoring the certificate status of their suppliers, recording claims and creating volume summaries.
FSC certificate holders have the flexibility to use any or all of the OCP features. By using the feature to monitor certification status, FSC certificate holders can choose to be notified through the platform or via email when there are changes to the scope or status of their suppliers. This means that businesses now can get real-time notifications if a supplier is suspended or has species or product types added to or deleted from their scope.
If certificate holders wish to use the full potential of the OCP to maintain volume summaries, record claims and monitor suppliers, this is also now possible. A newly added feature in the OCP is the ability to maintain volume summaries of non-certified goods or of goods certified to other systems than FSC. Over time, more features will be added based on stakeholder feedback.
The use of OCP remains completely voluntary, per the input of FSC stakeholders. Pending final approval of the revised FSC Chain-of-Custody standard, the OCP is designed to serve as one way to meet possible upcoming requirements related to transaction verification through a risk-based approach. Other tools are likely to be accepted as well. Both the requirement of Transaction Verification and risk-based approaches are currently being consulted during the revision process of the FSC CoC standard, FSC-STD-40-004.
New terms and conditions
The terms and conditions of use for the OCP have been updated based upon stakeholder feedback and are being released along with the beta live platform. The FSC legal team has revised the OCP terms and conditions to ensure that the OCP complies with data privacy laws, as well as to respond to stakeholder comments.
Related to this article:
- Click here to participate in the Chain of Custody Certification (FSC-STD-40-004) public consultation
- Click here to register for the OCP live version
- Click here to read more about OCP
- Click to read more about transaction verification
- Click here to read the OCP roadmap for implementation