OjiFS Commitment to Sustainable Fibre
Our commitment to sustainability means we are dedicated to using only sustainable wood fibre to make our products. In an international market where the legality of logging and the issues of deforestation are a growing concern, there is increasing demand for fibre-based products to be independently certified to international standards. We appreciate this certification provides our customers, and in turn their consumers, confidence that the raw wood fibre inputs in their products come from well-managed, legally harvested and sustainable forests.
OjiFS Kinleith and Tasman Mills have been FSC® CoC certified for more than ten years and PEFC CoC certified for five years. In early 2019, we made the decision to extend certification from these mills to our other sites and this work is now complete; Penrose Mill and all 10 packaging sites across New Zealand and Australia are FSC® and PEFC CoC certified as well.
FSC® & PEFC certification provides a third party guarantee to our customers, that our products are legally harvested from responsibly managed forests and contribute to positive environmental, social and economic outcomes. Essentially, this certification provides traceability of products from forest to shelf. This is called Chain of Custody (CoC).
What is Chain of Custody (CoC) certification?
This certification is voluntary and authenticates that a wood fibre product has been manufactured in a manner that supports a broad range of positive social, environmental and economic outcomes. Chain of custody refers to the verification and tracking processes, which guarantee that a fibre product and its components have maintained FSC® PEFC certification standards at each stage, or each 'chain-link' of the journey, from forest to end-consumer. In this way, certification provides for the fibre to be tracked from the point of harvest through to the finished product delivered to our customers.
Social Benefits of CoC Certification
- Safeguarding the social values of forests
- Improving working conditions, health and safety requirements for workers
- Providing jobs, capacity building and training
- Community engagement and wellbeing
Environmental Benefits of CoC Certification
- Contributing to improved management of the world's forests
- Preservation of ecosystem services
- Contribution to water stewardship, clean air and carbon sequestration
Economic Benefits of CoC Certification
- Access to a growing market for certified products
- Third party / independent verification of management practices and product origin
- Risk management through supply chain transparency from forest to the product
What is FSC® and PEFC?
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) are recognised and respected around the world in the traceability and promotion of responsible forest management. These standards are independently audited. For more information visit PEFC.org and ic.FSC.org/en.
Achieving PEFC and FSC© Chain of Custody certification across our manufacturing sites enables us to provide our customers with enhanced product assurances and to further support their own sustainability values.
- Philip Millichamp, Group Manager Environment & External Relations.
