PEFC UK Newsletter

February 2020

In February news, new standards have now been published, we will be offering training for these standards. We also have some exciting new promotional materials to share with you, which can be personalised to your own company.

PEFC UK.

New Standards Published!

PEFC’s revised Chain of Custody ST 2002 and PEFC Trademark ST 2001 have now been approved by the General Assembly. Although published on 14th February 2020, there is an 18-month transition period before they have to be implemented.

Certified companies will not be expected to work to the requirements of the revised standards until they have first been assessed by their certification body at the point of annual audit/surveillance visit. UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) will need to ensure that certification bodies are working in line with our new standards before they can audit clients against them.

PEFC Stakeholder Workshops

To train certificate holders on the new standards, we are hosting a series of interactive workshops for those involved in administering Chain of Custody systems.

The first of these were held last month in Sheffield and London. The next ones will be held in:

Newcastle on Tuesday 12 May

Sheffield on Tuesday 23rd June

Bristol on Wednesday 16th September

They are free to attend.

If you’d like to register your interest in any of these workshops, please e-mail hilary.khawam@pefc.co.uk.

Promoting Your PEFC Credentials

Raising awareness of the assurances that PEFC certification brings to forest products remains a key objective for everyone at PEFC UK. This is why our board allocates a third of our annual income to this crucial area of work. It is encourging to see that the PEFC brand is increasingly recognised in the UK marketplace, as this adds value to companies who have invested in certification. However, as a not for profit organisation, our marketing budget is farily modest.

Recognising the importance of helping our members promote their PEFC credentials, we have therefore created a range of new promotional materials, which are available free of charge. If you can supply a high-resolution version of your company logo, we'll even co-brand some of them for you.

Take a look at our online catalogue and complete the order form.

PEFC Sponsors TRADA'S University Challenge

PEFC UK is proud to sponsor TRADA’s 2020 University Challenge for a second year. As the world’s leading forest certification system, we recognise the importance of raising awareness of the need for responsible sourcing to those specifying wood for their projects. As today’s students are tomorrow’s design and construction professionals, our involvement will enable them to promote the importance of specifying responsibly-sourced timber.

The competition is open to students in their final year of engineering, architecture, architectural technology, quantity surveying and landscape architecture studies. Students with an interest in furthering their knowledge of timber as part of a multidisciplinary student team, are invited to compete.

TRADA’s University Challenge 2020 is an incredible opportunity for students to engage with timber industry leaders and gain practical insights into working with timber, and for the design and industry professionals to engage with ‘tomorrow’s timber talent’.

The 2020 event was held in Cardiff University’s School of Engineering. Design professionals and industry members were on-hand throughout the competition to provide information, support and guidance. Student teams were challenged to design sustainable community housing from timber.