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July 2025
West Fraser in the vanguard for responsible forestry management
Photograph courtesy of Unsplash
As one of the world's largest producers of timber panel products, and a pacesetter in leading the industry towardsFSCcertification,West Fraserviews all official accreditations for its operations as foundation blocks underpinning its long-term strategy on environmental management. Consequently, the company has established a far wider architecture for sustainability goals and associated procedures which now drive all its procurement work.
In harmony with this, West Fraser is making very good progress towards complying with theEuropean Union Deforestation Regulation(EUDR) while the group's UK operations are also ahead of schedule on the journey towards Net Zero. Crucially, its systems and procedures have been significantly strengthened in recent years with the compliance team conducting regular reviews of progress. As part of these continuing efforts, Group Compliance Manager, Julie Turner, plays a key part in overseeing all West Fraser's procurement activities, being responsible for ensuring that due diligence is carried on throughout the purchasing process.
It is a role which sees her liaising with West Fraser's customers as well as its supply chain and meeting with other members of the procurement team ahead of contracts being placed. Monitoring is not only meticulous, but was enhanced last year by the introduction of a new supplier portal which provides dashboards and can trigger alerts in regard of anything which might represent a risk. Julie explains, "I spend a large proportion of my time each day sharing and demonstrating our processes for our customers, who nowadays are consistently seeking to ensure they are buying legal timber from a responsible source. This is now as important ascommercial decisions."
This need for robust analysis and constant vigilance has been highlighted by organisations likeEarthSight,whose "Blood-stained Birch" video showed how, since the start of the Ukraine war, more than€1billion of Russian plywood has been wrongly given FSC accreditation by China and sold in the EU.
Julie continues: "While FSC is a valuable subscription certification which covers all our production in the UK, we go much further. Every single consignment coming into our plants is assessed. Amongst the situations, we are absolutely trying to rule out is any illegal trade - such as the import of timber from say Russia, via a third country - or the purchasing of any endangered species. Early engagement and collaboration have been crucial. We look at geo-location data, satellite assessments, and imagery which are aspects FSC doesn't embrace. Primarily, this is to do with the EUDR regulations which is a major project I am currently working on and we are far more advanced on it than any of our competitors. As part of the project, last year we created a supplier portal which went live in September (2024) and all the companies we buy from must log on to input the relevant data on each consignment. In addition to their commercial information, suppliers have to provide the relevant ‘forest floor' information, which encompasses the polygon on geo-location as well as species, harvesting dates - and this is sent to satellite providers who generate a report telling us, for instance, if there are any natural resources under risk. Site audits even encompass aspects such as the efficiency of the machinery used for felling, the fire suppression systems that are in place and the use of solar panels to power welfare units rather than running generators out in the forest. In fact, all the harvesting operations are covered by ISO 14000 and ISO 45000; the occupational Health & Safety standard."
The emphasis on due diligence not only covers the supply of forest thinnings and the smaller sections from felled 30+ year old trees, often by West Fraser's own harvesting teams, but also the sourcing of the waste wood like pallets and timber from demolition, which makes up 68%of its particleboard product.
Julie summed up saying: "West Fraser is very proud of the due diligence systems we have in place. We have taken them to a whole new level. Importantly, although I am part of the wood procurement team, I have no commercial role within the company. We go the extra mile on sustainability and have a very strong commitment to legislation. Before our launch last year, almost nobody knew what a polygon was in terms of the forest map at a digital scale. Now 100%of the UK suppliers we deal with are signed up to it."
All West Fraser panel products produced in the UK arenet carbon negativeand manufactured in mills that have obtained the coveted environmental ISO 14001 accreditation. Responsibly sourced, the panels are FSC® certified (C012533) and created from locally grown timber, cutting embodied carbon from transportation.
For further information, call 01786 812 921 or visithttps://uk.westfraser.com/
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With Compliments:
Taylor Alden