Certification Bodies

CBs audit organsiations and are responsible for issuing them with certificates to our standards. To ensure independence and impartiality, Responsible Wood requires CBs to be independent of the standards development and management process, as well as the organisation they are certifying.

Once organisation’s are certified surveillance audits take place annually (every 9 months for Sustainable Forest Management and every 12 months for Chain of Custody). This includes visiting the organisation’s site, inspecting documentation and records, as well as interviewing workers, contractors, and other stakeholders. The goal of the audit is to look for objective evidence that the organisation is conforming with the requirements of our standards.

Forest management certificates are valid for 3 years and chain of custody certificates are valid for 5 years. Certification bodies perform periodic re-certification audits when certificates are due to expire, or changes have been made to our standards. These audits assess all requirements of our standards in detail to verify that organisations continue to conform with Responsible Wood requirements.