Friends of the forest
Date: 24th Jul 2008
All of us at Kingfisher Print are proud of our environmentally-friendly policy and we are continually looking at new ways to extend this ethos throughout the company.
ECO LABELLING is a bit of a minefi eld and while there are internal industry standard marks like Nordic Swan, Blue Angel and suchlike, we decided that to provide customers with superior levels of service, we wanted to adopt an easily recognisable label to back up Kingfi sher’s environmental credentials and outlook.
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international organisation that works to promote responsible stewardship of the worlds forests. Part of its remit is to accredit FSC Certifi cation to companies who wish to provide a guarantee to their customers about the chain of production of their goods, from raw materials from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution. The FSC logo is found on over 10,000 product lines in the UK alone, from garden furniture to kitchen utensils.
Kingfisher Print approached the FSC, as certification appeared to be the perfect opportunity to adopt a labelling policy that is accredited across many industries, marketing a professional and responsible image. Certifi cation ensures a certain set of procedures, some of which were already in place, that fully document various working practices and give recommendations when processes aren’t being followed.
When products are given the FSC logo, a full tracking system is in place which means it is possible to fi nd out who the supplying paper mill was and even which hectare of forest was felled to produce the paper or board used. Every company within the process will have had to adhere to FSC stringent levels of care. We think accountability is so important that all our printing is automatically produced on FSC products whether requested or not, unless the client specifies otherwise.
Our clients are now very aware of environmental issues and are demanding products that are sustainable and do as little damage to the earth as possible. Using FSC products is a great way of rubberstamping their ethos and policies and, in a world where an increasing amount of people are shopping ethically, makes sound business sense.
For more information on FSC certifi cation, contact Ian Symons on 01803 867087, email – ian@kingfisherprint.co.uk or go to www.fsc.org/en/
