Sustainability Assurance

Safeguarding the Future of our Forests

Architectural Doorsets Ltd (A.D.L) strongly supports international efforts to improve forest management, as a result we will not trade in timber species prohibited under appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) legislation and will obtain the appropriate documents for trade in all other CITES listed timber species. The concept of forest certification has been developed into a proven effective mechanism for verifying the sourcing of wood from legal and sustainable sources.

Consequently, forest certification has increased exponentially over recent years, with the area of certified forests growing to 241 million hectares worldwide by mid-2005 from less than 25 million hectares in 1999. Almost 60% of the world’s certified forest area is now located in North America and 36% in Western Europe. (Source-UNEC for Europe/FAO – Forest Products Annual Review 2004-2005)

There are more than fifty regional or national forest certification schemes operating throughout the world, therefore association with a single party may limit our sources and material scope. It is Architectural Doorset Limited’s public commitment that ALL of the timber that we purchase will be sourced from carefully selected, fully certified, third party assessed responsible suppliers.

Our timber will generally be approved and supported with chain of custody evidence through to the point of supply to us by one of the following certified bodies; all relevant supporting certification of chain of custody is readily available and will be provided upon request. The certifying body will be dependant on the specific species, availability and origin:                                                                                                                      

FSC – The Forest Stewardship Council was established in 1993. FSC covers a total certified forest area of 74 million hectares in 72 countries, and 4,588 chain of custody certified companies in 73 countries.

The FSC offers a credible timber certification scheme for all forest types and plantations. FSC is supported by major environmental organisations including WWF, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, and with its distinctive label is subsequently recognised as the benchmark for responsible forestry and is generally the most widely specified body.                                                                                                                

SFI – The Sustainable Forestry Initiative of the American Forest & Paper Association, was established in 1995 and currently has 63 million ha enrolled and about 54 million ha independently third party certified forests in the United States and Canada. (More information is available at www.afandpa.org )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

PEFC – The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Scheme is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, which promotes the sustainable management of the world’s forests through independent, third party certification. Since its inception in 1999, PEFC has become the world’s largest international forest certification scheme. (More information is available at www.pefc.org )                                                                       

Additional governing bodies from which our approved timber may be sourced, mainly due to species and specification, include the following:

ATFS - American Tree Farm System www.treefarmsystem.org

CSA - Canadian Standards Association www.csa.ca

FFCS - Finnish Forest Certification System www.ffcs-finland.org

MTCC - Malaysian Timber Certification Council www.mtcc.com.my

UKWAS - UK Woodland Assurance Scheme www.ukwas.org.uk