FSC® Chain of Custody (CoC) Certification Overview

• The customer agrees to voluntary assessment (audit) according to defined criteria (certification standard).
• A certificate is only issued if the assessment (audit) does not reveal nonconformities with the requirements of the certification standard.
• The certificates are valid for maximum five years. Interested parties can check the validity of individual certificates in the standard owner's certificate database (https://search.fsc.org/).
• To maintain certificate validity, an annual audit is conducted at the certificate holder.
• The certified holders are entitled to use the FSC trademarks logo on their products or in their advertising or communications, following the rules of the FSC standards for the use of their trademark.

The audit is carried out by independent and qualified experts (auditors) appointed according to the criteria of the FSC standard. Accredited certification body is TÜV SÜD Czech sro.

The audit is based on document review, employee interviews, on-site inspections and random checks of individual documents, records and receipts.

During the audit, the audit team checks whether the organisation has correctly implemented and applied the requirements of the standard. In particular, the auditors verify whether the organisation:

• holds training courses to ensure correct implementation of the requirements of the standard;
• correctly evaluates its suppliers in terms of the requirements of the standard (e.g. valid certificate, correct FSC claims on invoice and delivery documentation);
• correctly verifies upon receipt of goods whether the purchased material is actually identified by the required FSC claim;
• effectively keeps FSC certified goods segregated from non-certified goods in storage and processing to avoid confusion;
• uses correct FSC claims and uses the FSC label correctly on goods and sales documents (invoices and delivery notes);
• keeps a correct FSC mass balance (balance sheet of certified goods purchased and sold) and has ensured that the conversion of certified input materials to claims on sold FSC certified products is correct.
• Follows and respects the FSC "core labour requirements".

• FSC Chain of Custody certification does not mean that the organisation produces and/or sells exclusively products in conformity with the FSC standard. Certification only authorises the organisation to sell products with FSC label. Only the products sold with an FSC claim actually fulfil the requirements of the FSC standard.
• The FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) standard does not make or imply any statement about the quality or sustainability of a product or service provided by the certified customer. The certificate only covers the origin of the resources used for products or services identified with the label.
• Certification according to the FSC Chain of Custody (CoC) standard is based on random samples and the assessment of the processes in the organisation. Given this, it is impossible to inspect every single product or every single production. TÜV SÜD certification thus cannot give a 100% guarantee that all products of a certified company and their labelling are free from nonconformities and that the organisation meets the criteria of the standard at all times, even though this is one of the key objectives of the FSC Chain of Custody (COC) standard.