BWF responds to assessment criteria for responsible sourcing schemes in BREEAM

BWF has responded to the consultation on the latest draft criteria from BRE for assessing responsible sourcing schemes within BREEAM 2011. The draft set out a structure for assessing different responsible sourcing schemes, including timber schemes such as FSC and PEFC, in addition to BRE’s own BES6001 and any other responsible sourcing schemes that get established.

There have been concerns raised by the industry that the way in which BREEAM 2011 assesses products certified to different responsible sourcing schemes was not clear and that no transparent criteria were available.  This has led to some accusations of BRE favouring their own responsible sourcing scheme BES 6001 in the BREEAM credits.

We welcomed the latest attempt to draft more transparent evaluation criteria and process for the assessment of responsible sourcing schemes within BREEAM. Much improvement has been made in the criteria since the first round of consultation in Summer/Autumn 2013, but there were a number of issues with the criteria and the evaluation methodology that failed to adequately reward some of the more crucial elements of responsible sourcing. You can read the complete BWF response to the consultation here. Points raised in the response included:
 

• The largest environmental damage in a supply chain is more often than not caused right at the start, where extraction of raw materials occurs. Therefore responsible sourcing schemes that identify and manage sustainability issues at this point in the supply chain should be considered superior to those that can only consider sustainability issues at various processing points in the supply chain.
   
• Without having traceability back to source of raw materials it is impossible to know whether the actual raw/ input materials used have come from a responsibly managed source, whether this is a forest, mine, quarry etc. Therefore schemes that are based on providing traceability back to such a source should, first and foremost receive extra recognition.
   
• The broader Timber Industry has already invested heavily in developing an infrastructure that allows traceability back to a responsibly managed forest/plantation. It is a best practice model that other sectors are also adopting. Allowing some material sectors to stop short of this level of traceability is unjustly discriminatory and does not create a level playing field.
   
• It is important, that in order to meet BREEAM’s stated aim to ‘Encourage the specification and procurement of responsibly sourced materials’, the criteria must be achievable for all sizes of business and reward genuine responsible sourcing where the high and medium risk areas applicable to the different material sectors have been satisfactorily addressed.