Certification

Meeting International Accepted Standards

The KMPG Quality Registrar Inc. audit team assessed the company's performance against 11 forest management principles and 35 mandatory criteria of internationally accepted standards. Key components were the verification of sustainable forest management, including sustainability of harvest levels and continuous improvement. To maintain our certification, TimberWest is subject to periodic independent audits under both systems.

Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)SM

TimberWest is committed to sustainable forest management in all of its operations and has been independently certified since 2000 under the Sustainable Forestry InitiativeSM (SFI®) on our private lands. We were the first Canadian company to achieve this certification. In 2007 the scope of SFI® certification was extended to include all of TimberWest’s public timberlands and chain of custody compliance.

The SFISM program is a rigorous system of environmental and conservation practices for wildlife and water quality protection, biodiversity conservation, sustainable harvesting practices and a wide range of other forest management goals. The SFISM certification is widely recognized in the North American marketplace by major purchasers of forest products.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001

In 1999, TimberWest was awarded full registration of its Environmental Management System (EMS) for all of its lands under ISO 14001, the only globally recognized standard for a company's EMS. At the time, TimberWest was the first integrated forest products company to have all of its operations simultaneously certified.

ISO 14001 requires companies to proactively assess their operations to:

  • identify environmental risks
  • set goals and objectives for managing those risks
  • continually improve their environmental management system
  • comply with all environmental regulations

SAFE Company Certification

The SAFE Companies program of the B.C. Forest Safety Council is intended to ensure that forest industry companies take specific and concrete measures to make safety an over-riding priority. In order to achieve SAFE Company certification, organizations must undergo a comprehensive external audit of their health and safety programs and processes every three years, supplemented by annual internal audits.

SAFE Company audits measure performance in the following areas:

  1. Management Leadership
  2. Hazard & Risk Assessment
  3. Standards, Procedures & Work Instructions
  4. Training, Education & Certification
  5. Health & Safety Communications Systems
  6. Incident Reporting and Investigation Systems
  7. Contractor Management
  8. Prime Contractor Selection & Management

Companies must pass the overall audit with a score of at least 80%, with a minimum score of 51% in each area.

The Timberland Operations and Corporate Office of TimberWest achieved SAFE Company certification on March 1, 2007 with an overall audit score of 93.9%. This was followed by annual maintenance audit scores of 97.4% in 2008, and 95.7% in 2009. The company is scheduled to undergo its re-certification audit in the first quarter of 2010.