Forestry certification means that the environmental and social effects of a wood producer's operations have been independently verified. As of mid-2003, there were only 150 million hectares of certified forest in the entire world - just over 3% of the total global forest area. Half of this is in Europe and another 40% in North America.

The Forestry Stewardship Council is one of the largest and most credible certifiers of wood producers and has the support of major environmental groups (such as World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, and the Rainforest Action Network) as well as key inter-governmental forestry bodies.

The FSC certification is the only internationally-recognised standard that assures buyers of wood-based products that the timber used results from environmentally and socially responsible forestry management.

Chain of custody certification
For a number of years, SmartPly has received the FSC's chain of custody certification covering not only the supply of raw materials but also its manufacturing and distribution processes. Chain of custody certification provides a guarantee to consumers that the product not only comes from a well managed forest but has passed through a secure environmentally friendly channel from its origin in the forest right through to the time it is installed by the end-user. Only products from FSC-certified forests can be labeled with the 'tick and tree' logo.

• independently verified
• well-managed forests
• environmentally responsible
• socially responsible
• certified from origin to end-use