The FSC mark on a spruce panel does not certify the forest on its own. It says that every company that has handled that wood, from the sawmill to the reseller, has been audited on how it manages its own flows, and that the starting wood comes from forests with verified management. These are two different certifications, which add up, and telling them apart is the place to start in order to read a certificate correctly.
Forest management and chain of custody
Forest management certification (FM) concerns the forest. An independent body verifies that the owner manages the forest according to a standard: protection of biodiversity, rights of local communities, harvesting not exceeding growth, regeneration of the forest after felling. Chain of custody certification (CoC) concerns instead the companies that process the wood after felling: sawmills, panel and glulam producers, resellers. It serves to guarantee that certified wood is not mixed with uncertified wood and that the declared quantities match those that actually came in. A product may carry the mark only if all the companies in the supply chain hold a valid CoC.
FSC and PEFC
The two most widespread systems in Europe are FSC (Forest Stewardship Council, founded in 1993) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, founded in 1999). FSC has a single international standard, with the same principles and criteria everywhere, adapted at national level. PEFC is instead a system of mutual recognition: it endorses national forest schemes that meet common requirements. On many areas the two systems overlap and owners can hold both certifications. The differences in content, such as requirements on protected areas, community consent or pesticide use, are debated and should be read in the respective standards, not in commercial summaries.
What the labels say
| Claim | What it means |
|---|---|
| FSC 100 per cent | all the wood comes from FSC-certified forests |
| FSC Mix | a mix of FSC-certified material, recycled material and controlled wood (not certified but not from unacceptable sources) |
| FSC Recycled | entirely recycled material |
| PEFC | wood certified in a minimum percentage declared by the scheme, with the rest coming from controlled sources |
| PEFC Recycled | recycled material |
For the designer the difference between 100 per cent and Mix matters a great deal. A Mix product contains a share of controlled wood that is not certified for forest management. If the specification requires certified wood, it should state whether Mix is acceptable or only certified material is required.
How to verify a certificate
The printed mark is not enough, because it can only be used under licence and for the products it covers. Every certified company has a certificate code (for FSC also a trademark licence code, FSC-C followed by six digits) and appears in a public database that can be searched online, for both FSC and PEFC. Three things are checked: that the certificate is valid on the date of supply, that it includes the type of product purchased, and that the supplier's name on the delivery note matches the one on the certificate. For significant supplies the invoice carrying the certification claim is also requested, because it is the document that transfers the claim from the company to the customer.
The regulatory framework
In the European Union the Timber Regulation (EUTR, 995/2010) requires operators placing timber on the market to verify the legality of its origin. The deforestation regulation (EU 2023/1115), which replaces it, introduced broader traceability obligations, and its application dates have been modified several times: check the current status before writing a specification. In Italy the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) for construction, referred to by the Public Contracts Code, require for timber products an origin from sustainable forest management, demonstrated with certifications of the FSC or PEFC type, or alternatively recycled content. The text in force should be read directly, because the thresholds change.
What a certificate does not say
Certification measures neither carbon nor distance travelled. A certified timber arriving from thousands of kilometres away can have a transport footprint higher than that of a local uncertified timber of known and traceable origin. It says nothing about glues, treatments and the energy used in processing. It is a check on forest management and traceability, useful, but to be combined with other data, such as environmental product declarations (EPDs), in order to judge a material.