The Directors of Mid-Sussex Timber recognise that the company has a responsibility to the environment, customers, suppliers and staff, to base its commercial activities on well-managed forests.

The company is committed to purchasing all timber from legal sources and seeks evidence of compliance from suppliers that they are operating in accordance with the laws of their country. The company unreservedly condemns illegal practices and keeps informed of processes and changes in international legislation.

The company performs a risk assessment on all suppliers and seeks the clearest practicable information regarding the sources of raw materials. It recognises that the independant certification of the forests and the process chain is the best means of providing assurance that timber comes from legal and well-managed forests and will purchase certified material wherever possible.

Third party audited chain of custody is offered for timber supplied certified by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Scheme (PEFC) and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and this will be extended to other schemes as they become established.

Chain of Custody

Chain of custody (COC) means tracking timber from the tree in the forest, to the processing plant to our depots and to the final customer. It is important that systems are in place at each stage to ensure identification of the material and third party auditing of the supply chain is required to ensure that there is not contamination at any stage.

For the process to work, each company in the supply chain must have their own COC system audited against a set method of working and hold a current COC certificate. FSC and PEFC require audits to their own criteria so we have COC certificates issued by auditors against both.