Product Certification

Customers worldwide are taking a greater interest in understanding the origin of the forest products they purchase.

In Canada, Canfor and Canfor Pulp carry chain-of-custody certification on our facilities so customers can be confident they are buying products from well-managed forests. Chain-of-custody certification requires tracking of forest products through all stages of production to the consumer. Our WynnWood mill in BC is certified to SFI chain of custody and fibre sourcing. 

In the United States, all but three of our Canfor Southern Pine mills are certified to SFI 2015-2019 Fibre Sourcing Standards and Rules. Our mills in Thomasville, GA; Moultrie, GA, and Hermanville, MS, will seek certification in 2017.

Audit reports for our mills in North and South Carolina (Camden, Conway, Darlington and Graham) and Alabama (Fulton, Mobile and Jackson) found all met SFI fibre sourcing requirements. The audits were conducted by NSF Sustainability. One of the audits identified a minor non-conformance related to a label and an area for improvement related to best management practices. Both are being addressed. 

Three Anthony Forest Products mills we recently acquired meet SFI 2015-2019 fibre sourcing requirements. The certification for the El Dorado, AR, and Washington, GA, operations is conditional pending corrective actions in response to non-conformances – a major one due to the lack of an internal audit/management review and a minor one because three uncertified suppliers had not provided letters regarding material from controversial sources. The Urbana, AR mill had two non-conformances related to the failure to provide information for the SFI progress report in a timely manner and use of the SFI logo without approval.

Canfor’s Forest Stewardship Council chain-of-custody certification includes a multi-site chain of custody and controlled wood certificate and a chain-of-custody documented control system for our mills in British Columbia’s east Kootenays region. The rest of our Canadian facilities are chain-of-custody certified to the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

The Rainforest Alliance conducted an FSC risk assessment of our BC and Alberta operations, and found there was low risk of wood harvested illegally, in violation of traditional and civil rights, from forests where high conservation values threatened by management activities, from areas being converted from forests or from forests in which genetically modified trees have been planted.

All of the fibre used by Canfor Pulp’s pulp and paper originates within British Columbia, and all the forest operations we source from are in full legal compliance with provincial forest laws. In 2016, 83% of this fibre supply was certified to the CSA, SFI or FSC standard.

All Canfor Pulp fibre sources have been subject to a chain-of-custody audit to both PEFC and FSC standards, and all of the products we make are eligible to be treated as FSC-controlled wood if the customer purchasing them has FSC chain-of-custody certification. Sawmill residuals, which we treat as basic raw materials, are covered by our chain of custody. We can also provide customers with pulp and paper certified to FSC or PEFC standards. Both FSC and PEFC require that we have in place audited risk assessments on all the locations where we source our fibre. These are publicly available through the FSC website’s public certificate search function.