Witnessing & visiting partners in China

In May, two members of the Soil Association Certification forestry team, Certification Officers, Sonia Nayar and Becky Henson, travelled to China to witness some audits, and to meet with our partner agency in Beijing to provide training to local auditors and conduct their annual agent office audit.

Becky first went to a cardboard packaging factory in Danyang City and witnessed Gao Wei (Celine) carry out the FSC Chain of Custody audit. Although the company did not have any FSC material on site during the audit, it was a well organised company that produces cardboard packaging for many well-known brands.

On the same day, Sonia visited a brush-handle factory in Zhenjiang and witnessed Angel Lee.

The next day, Becky travelled to Paodugang Village in Zhejiang, which was a 2.5 hour train journey away, to witness Xinglong Lan (Nancy) - she was accompanied by Angel, who acted as a translator. The company produces wooden mirrors and completed all production from start to finish in the factory, with workers manually assembling each piece individually!

 

Sonia then went to local wood-plastic composite processing company in Shanghai and witnessed Bruce.

On Saturday, Becky, Sonia and Angel travelled 6 hours by train to Beijing. The next day, Senior Certification Manager, John Rogers arrived - they were able to explore Beijing and visited Jingshan Park, which has amazing views of the Forbidden City:

The rest of week in Beijing was spent at BCC’s Head Office on the 11th floor of this building:

Becky and Sonia successfully delivered FSC Trademark training so that BCC can approve client’s trademark use. They also provided training updates on new Woody database improvements to the 'Change of Scope' and certificate transfer processes. As well as this, they conducted BCC’s annual agent office audit.

In the picture below is: Sonia Nayar, Grace Zhao, Gaby Song, Angel Lee and Wei He (Where).