Chep certified sustainable in all european operations

CHEP, the world’s leading provider of pallet and container pooling solutions, has earned sustainable forest certification in all European countries in which it operates, achieving one of its key sustainability objectives for the first six months of 2012. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), two of the world’s most respected forest management organisations, have certified CHEP’s strict adherence to sustainable sourcing of timber for pallets inEurope.

CHEP Group President for EMEA & Asia-Pacific, Dolph Westerbos, said: “Previously, CHEP’s certification covered theUK,Spain,FranceandBelgium. Now we have reached full certification for the rest of the 23 European countries in which we operate. CHEP was the first pallet pooler in the world to achieve FSC and PEFC multisite certification. It means we can guarantee our customers that all our timber comes from legal and sustainable sources.

“Both the FSC and PEFC adhere to Chain of Custody (CoC) Certification, which provides evidence that certified products originate from certified, well-managed forests. Our sustainable purchasing policy ensures we buy 100% of the timber we use in our service centres from certified sources. CHEP is committed to quantifying and monitoring the impact of our business and that of our suppliers and business partners. Our intent is to provide the best supply-chain solutions that meet our customers’ needs and minimise their and our impact on the environment.”

FSC Director, Bart Holvoet, said: “Demand for certified forest products has grown dramatically in recent years, and companies that wish to trade in them need to attain their own FSC Chain of Custody certification and be independently audited by an accredited certification body. Part of this process requires keeping detailed records of purchases and sales so that the certified goods can be traced back to the source. We would like to congratulate CHEP for achieving FSC multi-site Chain of Custody certification. We hope to see CHEP FSC timber volumes increasing over the next few months.”

PEFC Belgium National Secretary, Vanessa Biebel, said: “PEFC is the largest forest certification system in the world and is accepted worldwide. As certification is becoming more and more important, already 243 million hectares of forests are PEFC certified and 8,886 companies have their own PEFC Chain of Custody certification. Well done to CHEP for all the work completed to get the PEFC certification. We look forward to continuing to working together in the future.”