PEFC Webinar: Collaboration for Forest Positive actions

Packaging event

The Consumer Goods Forum’s Forest Positive Coalition released their Pulp, Paper and Fibre-based Packaging (PPP) Roadmap earlier this year. The document aims to guide Coalition members in their efforts to remove deforestation and conversion from PPP supply chains.

Certification will continue to play an important role in the Coalition’s push to tackle deforestation, forest conversion and degradation, as well as traceability of materials and improved management of forests, and to ensure all stakeholders with an interest in the forest are involved in its management.

We invited brand owners and retailers looking to understand the full pathway between the Roadmap, certification requirements, and on the ground audits, to join our PEFC webinar on Thursday 4 November 2021.

We were joined by an expert panel to discuss the Roadmap ambition and KPIs, how PEFC traceability certification requirements are aligned with the guidelines, and how those are audited on the ground.

Stewart Begg, Global Sourcing Director Sustainable Fibre at Essity, also co-chair of and representing the CGF Forest Positive Coalition PPP working group, introduced the roadmap, highlighting its ambition, priorities and KPIs that they are recommending to their members. This member driven roadmap underlines the importance of transparency and collective actions. 

Marta Martinez Pardo, Technical Manager at PEFC International, focused on traceability and how PEFC certification can help companies meet the Roadmap KPIs. She explained what PEFC chain of custody certification requires of suppliers and buyers, and present an overview of the management system requirements.

Finally, Rob Shaw, Technical Manager, Forestry and Chain of Custody from Soil Association provided a certification body’s point of view, explaining their role in third party certification. He explained how certification audits work on the ground, before looking at the opportunities for improvement in traceability.