Show all / Hide all

What is FSC chain of custody certification?

FSC chain of custody (CoC) certification provides information about where the wood or other forest-based material used in a product comes from or does not come from. It requires to identify the origin of raw materials used in FSC-certified products, to keep FSC-certified products separate from other products throughout the production process, and to allow their tracking from one operation to the next - from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution. Only operations covered by an FSC CoC certificate are allowed to label products with the FSC trademarks.

The FSC label thus provides the link between responsible production and consumption and thereby enables the consumer to make socially and environmentally responsible purchasing decisions.

Who needs FSC chain of custody certification?

Any operation making, changing, trading, re-labeling or repackaging FSC-certified products needs to be CoC certified in order to use the FSC trademarks and to enable its customers to make an FSC claim about these products.

Brokers or agents, who neither take physical nor legal possession of the products, and retailers, who sell FSC products to end consumers that do not want to make an FSC claim, usually do not need to become certified.

What are 'controlled sources’?

FSC has developed tools that help FSC certified companies to avoid wood produced in socially and environmentally damaging ways. It specifically helps manufacturers and traders to avoid wood that has been:

1. Illegally harvested
2. Harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights 
3. Harvested in forests that have been identified to be of particular biological and/or cultural value
4. Harvested from conversion of natural forest (or other natural habitat)
5. Harvested from genetically modified trees

Are there different types of chain of custody certification?

Yes.

Small enterprises may form or join a group of operations and apply for group chain of custody certification. FSC has specifically designed Group CoC certification to make CoC certification accessible to small operations for which individual CoC certification may be too costly.

Larger companies operating at multiple locations can, if they comply with certain requirements, choose to apply for multi-site chain of custody certification. This makes use of elements of scale and thus is more economical than to seek a separate certificate for each site.

Both, group and multi-site CoC certification, allows certification bodies to evaluate participating operations or sites based on samples in recognition of existing common, centrally administered and monitored control and reporting systems and thereby reduce the auditing costs.

FSC project certification is a non-bureaucratic way to get one-off and complex products FSC certified without each involved participant having to become individually FSC certified. It has been specifically designed for building projects. In some countries FSC project certification has been a great success with the building industry.

How much does chain of custody certification cost?

The costs and timescale for CoC certification vary depending on the size and complexity of the operation. It also depends on the range of products and processes.

If you are interested in becoming FSC CoC certified, please contact an FSC accredited certification body for a cost estimate. Please also contact an FSC accredited certification body for more information on how to become an FSC certified enterprise.