FSC claims go digital

From 2014, FSC certificate holders at all levels of the supply chain will begin to use the FSC Online Claims Platform (OCP) when trading certified products and wishing to make an FSC invoice claim. The OCP is being designed to provide several benefits to FSC certificate holders. These include automatically checking the certification status of supplying companies, support for demonstrating due diligence under the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), and tools to record volume summaries.

A news story in TTJ discussing the development of the OCP highlighted one of the many meetings FSC has convened with chain of custody certificate holders to introduce this cloud-based software platform. Since this story was published, FSC has taken several steps to respond to stakeholders regarding the OCP.

As background, the OCP is a simple online service that allows customers to declare details of the FSC goods they received from their suppliers. The declaration will be shared with the supplier and with the relevant certification body, allowing efficient verification everywhere in the network and simplifying FSC processes. FSC is working in partnership with UK supply chain traceability specialist Historic Futures Ltd.

"We're not asking for any new information that certificate holders are not already recording," said Tim Wilson of Historic Futures. "We're just asking them to do what they are already doing, just doing it differently. Instead of documenting it on paper, they'll need to record it online."

The move from a paper-based system will yield huge benefits critical to FSC's credibility and improve the integrity of the FSC certification system. The goal of the OCP is to provide assurance of the veracity of any FSC claim made on a given product, in a timely manner. For the FSC system as a whole, the OCP provides an innovative and efficient solution to maintain and increase trust in the FSC brand, while positioning the FSC as a world leader in sustainability certification.

"Using 21st century technology, the OCP will bring accounting within FSC's chain of custody completely up to date," said Charles Thwaites, executive director, FSC UK. "FSC has thus immeasurably improved its ability to detect and then pinpoint irregularities within the supply chain. This is surely in the interests of all traders who expect others to play by the rules. But it does require all certificate holders to participate in the platform; any break in the information thread considerably weakens our analytical capability."

Historic Futures began its work by adapting traceability platforms, which the company had previously developed for other international clients and for non-timber products. When the conceptual model of the OCP was released for general scrutiny last summer, members of the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) and some companies raised concerns about its design and expressed fear that FSC was developing the system without input from those that would eventually be required to use the platform.

Over the summer and autumn further rounds of consultation ensued, resulting in additional refinements aimed at making the platform yet more appropriate to FSC's chain of custody. To allow FSC to reach the widest possible audience, in November last year the TTF organised a meeting attended by the new director-general of FSC International, Kim Carstensen, Charles Thwaites and staff from Historic Futures to explain the aims and objectives of the OCP, and to listen to the concerns of all attending.

The forum also allowed FSC and Historic Futures staff to highlight the design changes that had been made to the platform as a result of feedback from stakeholders, including important simplifications. In addition, tools to calculate volume summaries have now been incorporated into the platform. Participants at the meeting welcomed the changes.

"Any commercial organisation these days, even with rudimentary IT or manual systems, should be able to cope with the requirements demanded by the OCP," said Timbmet's Chris Cox. "Especially if they can already satisfy an accredited FSC auditor that they have a system in place robust enough to merit a chain of custody certificate. On the basis of discussions so far, we believe that initial concerns around the OCP were unfounded. We are happy to continue to work with Historic Futures as it develops the OCP systems to ensure that this remains the case."

Consultation on design and capabilities has continued. As part of this process, pilot testing of the platform will take place early this year and a demo site is being developed. This will give interested parties a chance to see how the OCP functions and how it can be integrated into their current business systems. "The world is changing and having better systems and using the latest technology will be critical to the integrity of the FSC system," said Kim Carstensen