Stephen Mitchell Associates

Last month we provided some tips to help our clients tidy up loose ends before the end of the soft start compliance period. Here are a few more tips to guide your compliance. Again, we need to emphasise that just because a supplier (or a sub-supplier) is FSC COC certified does not mean that the wood or paper product you are buying from them is FSC certified. Risk assessments have to be done by the importer – not the supplier – before the regulated timber products enter Austra

Principal Stephen Mitchell has 12 years’ experience in assisting importers of timber, plywood, paper and wood furniture understand and minimise the risk that they are importing illegally logged wood in their products. He has developed a range of tools, risk assessment templates, and checklists as well as a timber due diligence manual which can all be tailored to suit an individual business needs. Formerly with the Australian Timber Development Association, Stephen has consult

SMA has co-authored six Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for Australian timber products for WoodSolutions. These EPDs provide independently verified data on a range of environmental impacts (including the carbon footprint) of Australian softwood, hardwood, particleboard, MDF and glulam products across their life cycle. Environmental Product Declarations are being used by many Australian businesses including BlueScope, Dulux, Vinidex and Kingspan to provide credible e

The NSW EPA has opened round 3 of its $2.5M Circulate Industrial Ecology grants program. The new grants provide an opportunity for the establishment of viable industrial ecology relationships to divert valuable resources from landfill. The program supports projects that will recover materials (otherwise sent to landfill) to be used as feedstock for other commercial, industrial or construction processes. Waste to energy projects are not eligible for funding with the exception

The UK Environment Minister has said the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) will continue after the UK exits the European Union. The EUTR prohibits the selling of illegally logged timber in the EU, including within the UK, and requires importers into the EU to undertake due diligence for illegally logged wood. More information here The Government Department enforcing the EUTR in the UK has released the latest guidance produced by the EU on mitigating measures. This guidance may be u

The US Government has stopped shipments of timber into the USA from the Peruvian company Inversiones Oroza (Oroza) for a period of three years or until it is determined they have complied with relevant laws. The action is based on illegally harvested timber found in its supply chain. The action has been taken using a provision of the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) not the Lacey Act which imposes obligations on importing business into the USA. More informa

Transparency International has released the results of their 2017 rating of perceived corruption of countries around the world – the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). CPI’s values are provided between 0 and 100 with a higher score indicating a lower level of corruption. A CPI value lower than 50 is used by some companies as an indicator of “high” risk of illegally logged wood at the country of harvest level. Some companies also use this value as an indicator to apply special

I conducted Illegal Logging Due Diligence training seminars in 2016 and am thinking of running more this year. If you are interested, please email me. Include which city, how many from your company would be interested and what aspect of the illegal logging due diligence process you would like the training to focus on. Email me here

An update of the Country Specific Guideline (CSG) for Malaysia Sarawak is on its way after we worked with a client and the Department on clarifying whether or not a Forestry Officials signature needed to be on a permit cited in the CSG. Turns out the procedure for issuing the permit within Sarawak was changed in June 2017. Regarding CSGs the Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources provides this important caveat in their guidance for Importers: “While every ef

While the “deemed to satisfy” amendments to the Regulation were rejected the addition of a requirement that any conclusion of low risk must be “reasonable” was not rejected.