COC training visit to Howarth Timber HQ
Attendees of the ‘Responsible Forest Management and Sustainable Forest Product Supply Chain’ course attended a site visit at Howarth Timber Engineered Solutions Ltd HQ in Bury St Edmunds, hosted by Chain of Custody Manager, Peter Kelly. The visit gave participants a fantastic opportunity to see chain of custody requirements in practise in a professional setting – Peter also did a great job of explaining the benefits of chain of custody for the Howarth Timber Group.
The ‘Responsible Forest Management and Sustainable Forest Product Supply Chain’ course is one of the Soil Association Certification’s Excellence for Forest Certification training courses, providing a 2-week residential opportunity to really get to grips with both policy and practice. The programme includes the international context of responsible forest management, forest-based ecosystem services, supply chain and market development issues for responsibly produced products, and environmental and social impacts. The courses are of broad interest to policy-makers, forestry trainers, private sector organisations, NGO’s and supply chain professionals, including people working in the most challenging regions of forestry across the world.
The inaugural course ran from Monday 23rd October to Friday 3rd November, based at Shuttleworth House in Bedfordshire, and had 15 attendees from 7 different countries across 4 continents. The feedback from those who participated has been very good so far and the trip to Howarth Timber Engineered Solutions Ltd was a particular highlight. One course participant commented that:
“This [setting] was a perfect choice. It provided a fitting case study to understand chain of custody systems, and to see them in practice. The presentation by Peter Kelly was particularly helpful in explaining the whole process.”
Howarth Timber Group – ‘Much more than just timber’ – has a network of 31 timber and builders merchants across the UK, with dedicated manufacturing divisions supplying windows, doors and specialist timber engineering products and services. The company recently celebrated their 175th anniversary, having been started by Lancashire-born John Howarth in 1842.
Howarth Timber Group has been a Soil Association Certification Chain of Custody licensee for 6 years and they hold certificates for four different companies within the group. In total, they have held Chain of Custody certification for 11 years for both FSC and PEFC.
The next ‘Responsible Forest Management and Sustainable Forest Product Supply Chain’ course dates are Monday 12th to Friday 23rd March and Monday 8th to Friday 19th October 2018, respectively. For more information, please contact Course Director, Clive Thomas here.