Saturday, 31 July 2010
Transitory Requirements
The FSC Board of Directors recently approved changes to the timelines for strengthened the requirements for Chain of Custody (CoC) certification with the Chain of Custody standard (FSC-STD-40-004 (Version 2): FSC Standard for Chain of Custody Certification) in November 2007. A transitory period for compliance was granted for two exemptions: co-products from uncertified virgin material input to be exempt from Controlled Wood requirements, and a labeling threshold of 50% for chip and fiber based products under the percentage system.
In order to fully assess the impact of the new requirements on certificate holders, FSC extended the deadline of the exemptions from December 31, 2009 to December 31, 2010. During the extension time FSC has conducted a full market and policy analysis. After careful consideration by the FSC Board of Directors, the results of the analysis have supported implementation of the standard in a manner that will uphold the new requirements while encouraging tactical procurement strategies throughout the FSC supply chain.
As long as the certificate holder is FSC certified for the intended products by December 31, 2010, the minimum percentage of FSC certified fiber to label a chip and fiber product will remain at 50% up to December 31, 2015. All chip and fiber products must meet the 70% threshold no later than December 31, 2015. New certificate holders as of January 1, 2011 forward must meet the 70% threshold.
Currently, co-products are not required to meet the FSC Controlled Wood standard. As long as the certificate holder is FSC certified for the intended products by December 31, 2010, related co-products will not be required to meet the Controlled Wood standard until December 31, 2012. New certificate holders as of January 1, 2011 must ensure that co-products meet the FSC Controlled Wood standard in order to be mixed into FSC certified products.
See the FSC-STA-2010-06-09 CoC exemptions transitory period document for details.