How to offer certification for the 2020 PEFC standards
You need to ensure your practices are in line with the revised ST 2003:2020, and that you're accredited against both the revised ST 2002:2020 and ST 2001:2020.
How to offer certification for the 2020 PEFC standards
The transition to the 2020 standards is now complete and all currently notified certification bodies should be accredited to the 2020 standards.
Certification bodies can only now offer certification to the 2020 standards and as of 1 January 2024, certificates issued against the 2013 standards are no longer recognised by PEFC and cannot be used to make claims in the PEFC Chain of Custody system.
Certification bodies need to ensure their practices are in line with ST 2003:2020, and that they are accredited against both ST 2002:2020 and ST 2001:2020, before they can offer PEFC chain of custody certification against the 2020 PEFC Chain of Custody standard.
As the three standards are linked, the 2020 versions of these standards must be used together. For example:
- Certification bodies can only certify against the 2020 Chain of Custody and Trademarks standards, if they do so according to the 2020 Certification Body Requirements standard.
- A company can only use the 2020 Trademarks standard if they are certified against the 2020 PEFC Chain of Custody standard and the audit is conducted according to the 2020 Certification Body Requirements standard.
Offering certification for the 2020 PEFC standards
In order to gain accreditation for the 2020 PEFC Chain of Custody (ST 2002) and PEFC Trademarks (ST 2001) standards, your auditors, certification decision makers and reviewers need to attend a chain of custody training recognized by PEFC International.
You also need to ensure your processes are in line with the requirements of the 2020 Certification Body Requirements standard (ST 2003).
You can find the PEFC recognized training schedule on our website. You can receive updates on the latest training opportunities by signing up to our newsletter at the bottom of this page or by following us on X (formally Twitter).
If your internal PEFC chain of custody training programme is recognised by PEFC through the PEFC Training Recognition Programme (TRP), you will need to ensure it remains valid by attending TRP update meetings and revising your procedures as necessary.