Sustainability Summit at Printing United

SCA has filed a formal complaint against ASI, and has also informed FSC about the consequences for SCA due to the fact that important parts in a recent report from ASI is misleading and also was published on their website. SCA has been certified according to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC©) forest management standard since 1999. To confirm that the forest operations meet the FSC-standard, SCA is audited by a third-party certification company, SGS. In August 2017, Accreditation Services International (ASI) evaluated SGS performance during a surveillance audit of SCA forest operations. The report from ASI was finalized and distributed to SGS in July 2018. Click read more below for additional detail.

“While a number of uniquely different forest certification systems are used around the world they: 1- have much in common; 2- share many basic objectives; 3- provide an additional measure of commitment to sustainable forestry; and, 4- are effective tools for supporting a responsible marketplace.” Two Sides, the initiative exploding the myths and setting out the facts about print media's sustainability in a clear and concise manner, has brought together facts from a variety of sources illustrate just these points. See below for a snapshot of some of their findings: “There are dozens of forest certification programs around the world. Two programs – the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) - account for the vast majority of certified forests and chain-of-custody certificates. These two programs operate around the world.”

The ongoing war in Ukraine has contaminated certified forests with explosive objects. As a result, substantial areas have had to be excised from the scope of certification. To achieve this goal, the current Forest Stewardship Standard (FSS) for Ukraine has been updated (FSC-STD-UKR-01.1-2024) to include criteria for excising contaminated areas as well as specific, nationally adapted indicators and verifiers. Those requirements are based on the scenario presented in Clause 2.2 of the FSC Policy on the Excision of Areas from the Scope of Certification. After the initial registration of the process by the Performance and Standards Unit of FSC (PSU) in March 2023, the Standard Development Group developed an updated draft in consultation with forestry authorities, the Ministry of Defense, the State Emergency Service, and other relevant bodies. The Policy Steering Group approved the updated FSS in June 2024.