Business value of FSC certification to be assessed

Tetra Pak has joined Kingfisher and IKEA in an initiative which aims to develop a methodology to analyse the impact of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, enabling businesses to understand what value they derive from specifying FSC certified timber and paper through their procurement policies.

Established in 1993, FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that promotes responsible management of the world’s forests. However, it has often been a challenge for businesses producing FSC-certified products to quantify and demonstrate the value the system brings to the better management of the world’s forests.

Dennis Jönsson, president and CEO of Tetra Pak, said: “On average, our package contains 70% paper derived from wood fibre. Certification is important to us as it gives us the opportunity to make sure that we source from responsibly managed forests. This, of course, requires a certification standard that lives up to its promises. As a long-standing supporter of FSC, we are proud to be one of the founding partners of this initiative.”

The initiative is supported by the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH) and coordinated by the International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Alliance (ISEAL). It is independent from the FSC but is designed to be useful to the organisation by providing a tool that shows the contribution it makes to the social, environmental and economic values of the world’s forests. The learning from the initiative will be shared with other certification schemes as well other sectors beyond forestry that are covered by more than 20 certification schemes that are members of ISEAL.