Public Consultation on the new eligibility criteria for Chain of Custody Group Certification in Canada

FSC Canada is in the process of revising its Group Chain of Custody eligibility criteria to help provide small to medium sized enterprises better access to FSC certification.

In accordance with the ‘Development of National Group Chain of Custody Eligibility Criteria Procedure’ (FSC-PRO-40-001 V1.1), FSC Canada is hosting a public consultation to ensure that these revisions are reflective of a broad range of perspectives.

What are the current criteria and why revise it?
FSC’s group certification was developed to help smaller enterprises achieve FSC certification by joining together to become certified under one certificate and as a result reducing the costs and administrative requirements of certification.

FSC’s current Standard for Chain of Custody of Multiple Sites (FSC-STD-40-003 V2.1) considers small enterprises eligible to be included in a group certificate if they have:

1. No more than 15 employees (full time equivalent); OR
2. No more than 25 employees (full time equivalent) and a maximum total annual turnover of US $1,000,000.

However, there are large variations in economic development between countries that FSC operates in and so FSC allows for the criteria to be revised and adapted to fit local realities. 

Proposed changes include:

1. Increasing the total annual forest products turnover to $5 million CAD.
2. Updating the “OR” statement that would allow businesses with less than 25 employees to be included in the group eligibility criteria.
3. The $5 million in turnover should also be tied to adjustments by FSC to the AAF for COC certificate holders, i.e., when the AAF goes up by a certain percentage, the maximum turnover criterion would be increased by the same percentage.

How to Participate
Stakeholders can participate in the public consultation process by:

1. Reviewing the Proposed Revisions & Rationale: The draft document outlining the proposed revisions and research can be found below.
2. Providing Feedback: Feedback can be submitted through the dedicated online feedback form. 
    

Public Consultation Period
The public consultation period will commence on October 10, 2023 and conclude on November 10, 2023. During this time, stakeholders are invited to review and provide feedback on the proposed revisions.

Next Steps
Following the consultation period, all feedback received will be carefully considered and a summary of the feedback and any resulting changes to the eligibility criteria will be shared with stakeholders.

We encourage all interested parties to participate in this important process, as your input is valuable in shaping the future of FSC Canada's Group Chain of Custody certification.

For questions about the revision process, please contact: Monika Patel, Director of Communications and Marketing at m.patel@ca.fsc.org.