FSC CoC Sales

FSC-STD-40-003 V2-1
FSC-STD-40-004 V3-0
FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1
FSC-STD-40-006 V2-0
FSC-STD-40-007 V2-0

Revision Comment on the changes Review Approval Date

List of standard added – Wood CoC Application form added

1.8 in the field “Templates to be used“ – Project for certification E Gruber S Ter Horst April 20, 2021
added

1.7 Amendment signed if change of FSC standard E Gruber S Ter Horst June 12, 2020

Precision about the process to be implemented in case of

1.6 addition of sites for group and multisite chain of custody E Gruber S Ter Horst December 20, 2019
certificates, timeline to be respected for transfer request

Precision about contract signed during the process transfer,

1.5 E Gruber F Joly February 1, 2019
and management of discrepancies during the offer process
New document designed in order to control the process of
1.4 A Michalecka E Gruber October 18, 2018
transfer
FSC-STD-20-011 V4-0 transition / FSC-STD-40-005 V3-1
transition
1.3 Man-days integrated to the proposal review checklist, AL. Spagnolo E. Gruber November 8, 2017
suppression of an official contract, precision on amendment
contract
Added instructions for transfer of certificate in § 5
1.2 S. Reemers E. Gruber July 27, 2016
Updated references to templates
First revision
1.1 S. Reemers P. Jeanmart December 31, 2015

Templates to be used

 Wood CoC Application Form

 Minimum contents for FSC CoC Certification Contracts
 SF05 part II - FSC Certification Specific Conditions
 GP01 Description of FSC CoC Certification process
 FSC CoC Proposal review checklist
 Certificate Transfer Application Letter
 Amendment to FSC CoC Contract
 FSC CoC Transfer review checklist

The procedure defines instructions for FSC CoC certification services, additional to generic instructions in Sales process.

1 Application form
When an Organization wants to obtain FSC Certification, LO shall send a Wood CoC Application form and require the
organization to fill it in order to analyze the complexity of the CoC operation(s) to be certified.

The application form shall include:

- A definition of the scope in terms of FSC product groups
- The sites to be evaluated

In order to define the type of scheme to be applied on the CoC and which standard to be considered during the audit.
Prior to launch a certification process, the risk of the certification project shall be evaluated. BVC shall not be obliged to enter
into or maintain any commercial or other relationship with any entity, issue or maintain a certificate previously issued to any

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entity whose activities has conflict with BVC obligations as specified in its accreditation agreement with FSC, or which, reflect
badly on the reputation of FSC or BVC.

Therefore BVC has included a specific and legally binding clause to this effect in its contractual conditions of sales SF05 part II
- FSC Certification Specific Conditions with its clients in relation to any services related to FSC Certification.

2 Audit Time
The FSC CoC proposal review checklist is used for each contract to be approved. Man-day allocation directly depends on:
- Activity of Organization;
- Number of employees;
- The type of certification scheme (single / Multisite / Group);
- The applicable standard (sourcing of reclaimed material or controlled wood);
- The use, of outsourcers having an impact in the chain of custody control system, and
- Geographical distribution of the actors intervening within the COC management.

The man-day allocation shall be defined using the spreadsheet “FSC man-days table – Single” or “FSC man days table 40-005
V3-1” contained on Proposal Review Checklist.

Depending of the Organization description on the Application Form, specific requirements related to the following items may be
applied:
- High risk contractor sampling evaluation;
- Group and multi-site participating sites sampling evaluation;
- Evaluation of organization’s Due Diligence System: stakeholder’s consultation, off-site/on-site evaluation, summary
report, risk assessments review.
- Verification of control measures: field verification at forest level or at supplier level, sampling of indicators…
- Suppliers of reclaimed material sampling evaluation

These specific requirements may generate additional man-day or other relevant costs.

3 Proposal Review
FSC LO Sales prepares a proposal package, including:
- Wood CoC Application Form filled and signed by the Organization representative
- A contract with the relevant information included, as defined on the document Minimum content for FSC CoC
certification Contracts
- The General Conditions of Services generic
- SF05 part II Specific Condition of sale for FSC certification
- GP01 Description of FSC CoC Certification process
- FSC COC certificate Annual Administration Fee class table, available on FSC Website (https://ic.fsc.org/en)
- Trademark license agreement (TLA) signed by the Organization representative
- Applicable standards / information about the website where these documents can be downloaded.

For above documents, the latest version shall be used. The proposal package shall be submitted to proposal reviewer via ACTIS
for review and approval before being sent to the Organization. Proposal package shall be in English or bilingual English and
local language, only in local language is not allowed.

4 Trademark License Agreement

The Organization shall obtain a Trademark License Agreement (TLA) for the FSC Certification Scheme before signing a
certification contract with Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC).

The TLA is an enforced contractual document between FSC and the Organization applying for FSC COC certification. The
Organization shall sign and return the TLA to get the applicant status. Without a signed license agreement, the FSC LO Sales
shall not send the proposal package to the Organization.

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5 Contract review
The local office shall submit the contracts and the TLA signed for validation in Actis. SSC completes on the FSC CoC checklist
the part “Contract review”. The man-days indicated on the contract can be reduced by the local office, but this must be formally
documented and approved by the Hub.

If the applicant was FSC CoC certified in the last five (5) years, the organization shall send to Bureau Veritas Certification the
last FSC CoC audit reports. If one of these documents is missing, the contract will be rejected.

By revising these documents, the contract reviewer shall evaluate whether:

- The applicant is eligible for FSC certification according to the scope defined
- Any known differences in understanding between the certification body and the applicant is resolved, including
agreements on the applicable normative documents. All the discrepancies detected has to be recorded in Actis and
Siebel.
- The local office has the competence, capability and resources to perform the required certification activities

The contract has to be refused if the client is suspended. In case of transfer see § 7.

6 Contract Amendment
Contract shall be amended for following situations:
- Address change
- Extension/Reduction of scope (and if an audit is requested)
- Change of name of Organization
- Additional man-days if the scope is extended to Controlled Wood certification
- Additional man-days for high risk subcontractors / suppliers of reclaimed material
- Standard listed on document Minimum content for FSC CoC Certification contracts updated by FSC (*)

The template “Amendment to FSC CoC Contract” can be used.

The client shall make a written request to BVC for a scope extension. Upon receipt of client’s request, the FSC LO Sales shall
contact Local FSC Coordinator or HUB FSC CoC Product Manager for the man-day allocation and audit type (on-site or desk)
in order to prepare amendment of the contract.

The process to approve those amendments are similar to the process described on § 3 and 5.

(*) BV will send a specific amendment using an e-mailing tool. This amendment signed will be recorded in our operating system.

7 Transfer of Certificate
7.1 Transfer package
When a Certificate Holder (CH) applies for the transfer of its certificate from another Certification Body to BVC, the transferred
certificate shall keep the same expiration date. If BVC needs to issue a new 5-year certificate, main audit process shall be
followed.

The LO must define the date of the transfer with the CH and the preceding CB.

In order to complete the document FSC CoC Transfer review checklist, BVC LO shall collect:
- Certificate Transfer Application Letter;
- Last audit report or list of pending non-conformities,

The request for transfer with all the relevant documents are submitted to the SSC via ACTIS for approval.

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7.2 Verification by the SSC
The SSC shall verify the following items listed on the document FSC CoC Transfer review checklist.
Only one transfer can occur during a 5 year certificate. If a CH wishes to change certification body more than once within the 5
year period, main audit process shall be followed.

If the certificate has expired or terminated less than 12 months ago, BVC shall consider major or minor non-conformities.

7.3 Approval
When transfer conditions are met, prior to the date of transfer, SSC submit a request on Salesforce (https://login.salesforce.com)
indicating the date of the transfer and the new BV certificate code allocated to the transferred certificate holder. Because this
request shall be submitted to FSC no later than 10 business days prior to the scheduled transfer date, the FSC CoC transfer
review checklist has to be submitted to SSC maximum 2 weeks before the audit date transfer.

Then the LO can start the offer process. The process is then the same as described on § 3 to 5.

8 Addition of participating sites on group and multi-sites certificates

(without an audit to be performed)
If a client requests BV to add participating sites, BV analyze if an audit has to be performed or not. If yes, the contract has to be
amended (see §6).

No audit has to be performed if:

- The scope of the new sites are the same as the existing one indicated on the certificate (same activity, same control of
FSC claim: transfer, %, credit) and
- The number of sites to be added are not above the annual growth defined during the last audit.

The FSC coordinator requests the central office to provide their internal audit reports of the sites to be added.

The FSC coordinator has also to consider the annual growth limit, calculated as 100% of the sites already on the certificate.
- If this number is less than 20, the Central office of the Certificate holder must demonstrate his capacity to manage a
higher number of participating sites.
- If this number is more than 20, but less than the annual growth limit, the FSC coordinator requests SSC to add those
sites on FSC database.
- If the number is beyond the approved annual growth rate, an amendment to the existing contract is requested, in order
to audit the central office and a sample of new sites to be audited.

When they received the document requested, they transfer this information to SSC.

SSC will add the new sites into the database within one week of the date of receipt of the central office’s audit report.

SSC also generates a quick task in Actis in order to start the process of contract review, mainly to verify if the number of sites
to be audited during the next audit will change or not (depending on the list of risk factors indicated in the FSC CoC Proposal
review checklist).

The process will be the same as the one indicated on §2.

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9 Specific rules on multi-site certification
For each audit, the number of sites to be sampled is given by the formula:
𝒀 = 𝑹𝟏 𝑿𝟏 + 𝑹𝟏 𝑿𝟐 + 𝑹𝟐 𝑿𝟑 + 𝑹𝟐 𝑿𝟒
- Y: Number of participating site to be audited (rounded to the next whole number)
- R1: Risk indexes for existing sites
- R2: Risk indexes for new sites added
- X1: Number of normal-risk participating sites
- X2: Number of high-risk participating sites
- X3: Number of new normal-risk participating sites to be added to the certificate scope
- X4: Number of high-risk participating sites to be added to the certificate scope

A high-risk participating site is a participating site operating a controlled wood verification program or due diligence
system according to FSC-STD-40-005, a supplier audit program for reclaimed materials according to FSC-STD-40-
007, or high-risk outsourcing to a non-FSC-certified contractor.
A normal-risk participating site is a participating site that does not conduct any of the activities considered ‘high risk’
above.

The risk index is calculated each year and depends on the performance of Central Desk and following this matrix:

If new participating sites are being added to the scope of a multisite or group certificate at the time of a surveillance
evaluation or re-evaluation, they shall be considered as an independent set for the determination of the sample
size. After inclusion of new participating sites in the certificate scope, the new participating sites shall be added to
the existing ones to determine the sample size for future surveillance evaluations or re-evaluations.
An increase or decrease in the Participating Sites of a group certification is not considered a change of scope
unless, in the opinion of Bureau Veritas Certification, the change requires significant changes to the group
certification holder’s management systems.

10 Specific rule for outsourced subcontractors

Before each audit, the client must inform the local office about any change concerning their subcontractors. Then the local office
shall calculate the sampling number "y" of ‘high risk’ subcontractors "x" to be selected for on-site audit, as follows:
y= √x

"y" is rounded to the upper whole number. ‘High risk’ contractors that did not provide outsourcing services to client since the last
audit do not need to be added to the number of contractors (x) in the formula above.

Note: For group and multisite certificates, the calculation of the outsourcers sample shall be conducted at the participating-site
level.

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11 Specific rule for reclaimed materials
Before each audit, the client must inform the local office about any change concerning their suppliers of reclaimed materials
For organizations or participating sites that have a supplier audit program, the sales team shall calculate, before each audit, the
sampling number of supplier sites “Y” to be selected for on-site audit, as follows:
- Y=0,8√X
- Y is rounded to the upper whole number
- X is the number of suppliers audited by the client in the current evaluation period.

For group and multisite certificates, the calculation of the supplier audit sample shall be conducted at the participating-site level.
It is not required to audit the same sites audited by the certificate holder in the current evaluation period.

12 Specific rule for controlled wood

Before each audit, the client must inform the local office about any change concerning their organization.

12.1 Field verification at the level of the supply unit:

Supply units shall be classified as sets of similar risk category concerned.

For each set of similar risk category Bureau Veritas Certification shall select at least 0.8 times the square root of the number of
high risk supply units (x) for evaluation (i.e. 0.8√x* rounded to the upper whole number).

For each set, the supply units to be audited are defined considering the following indicators by order of priority:
- Supply units concerned by several categories of risk; supply units concerned by 3 or more risk categories shall be
audited each year;
- Supply units concerned by stakeholder remarks or complaints
- Supply unit where non-conformities were raised by the organization or certification body
- Geographical location

The sampling will mix some supply units audited by the organization in order to verify relevance and efficiency of control
measures put in place.
Supply units will have to be selected taking into consideration if they were selected or not during previous audit in order to have
the whole range of supply units audited at the end of the cycle of certification.

12.2 Field verification at the supplier level:

The sampling is calculated for each supply chain.

Length of supply chain Sampling method

>= 5 sub-suppliers 0.8√x
< 5 sub-suppliers 0.6*√x

13 Special audit
A special audit could be requested during the cycle of certification if BVC wants to verify any additional points:
- Complaint received by BVC
- Request from FSC or ASI
- Closure of non-conformities
- Additional time to finish an audit (new organization to be audited, additional information to be collected, …)
- Lifting of suspension, …

An amendment to the existing contract has to be made. The process for the validation of this amendment follows the same rules
as indicated on §3.

14 Project certification
The retroactive certification of projects that have been finalized is not possible

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