Some explanation of each certification:
FSC - Forest Stewardship Council - "An independent, non-governmental, not for profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world's forests."
SFI - Sustainable Forestry Initiative - Organization just like FSC but created by a collaboration of paper producers.
PEFC - Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification - "Promotes an internationally credible framework for forest certification schemes and initiatives in European countries."
These non-profit organizations have been around for quite some time. Most started within the 1990's but their popularity have increased with the whole shaping of the economic crisis. With printers competing heavily for a shrinking market these certifications have become a hot item. To acquire these certifications there is a very complex audit that needs to be done in order to insure all standards are met for these certifications. I lead a team at my company for the past 5 months to get this going. Believe you me, this was a chore!
My company, Smith Print Inc., successfully completed the Tri-Certified audit and will be officially certified in the next few weeks. It was a lot of work but we did it and I thank all my co-workers here at Smith Print for making this happen.
This is my first post and I wish to create more, but I thought this would be fitting for this blog to get started. Hope to get more in along the way!
P.S. - I have a website I wish to create for my own personal use and family purposes, I'll post that when it has been completed.
That's great news about the successful chain of custody certification! In the universe of medical research/literature, textbook publishing, medical device instruction manuals, pharmaceutical instruction sheets, and medication guides for patients, the volume of printing and publication is enormous. Although the majority of this information is now available via the Internet, this has not and likely will not replace the equivalent paper publications. There would certainly be great value in seeing these products generated through companies like Smith Print; that is, companies that are committed to working as much as possible with paper generated from sustainable forests.
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