Instruction for sourcing of wood raw material

SCA work actively to ensure that forests are managed responsible, both through the management of its own forest holdings, and through the responsible sourcing of wood raw material. All wood raw material used by SCA shall be sourced from responsibly managed forests and as a minimum meet FSC’s standard for Controlled Wood. SCA aims at maximizing the proportion of wood raw material sourced from FSC® or PEFC-certified forests.

This instruction covers all types of wood raw material and is a supporting document to SCA’s sustainability policy. In this context, “wood raw material” refers to wood fiber used in the production of solid-wood products, pulp, and paper products.

SCA’s business area Forest is responsible for the sourcing of all wood raw material to SCA’s industries except for the sourcing of sawn timber for further processing that is handled by SCA’s business area Wood. The sourcing is to be done in a responsible way that supports:

  • The overall objectives of the SCA Group and policies
  • SCA’s overarching ambition to create health forests for future generations

SCA actively works to exclude wood raw material originating from:

  • Illegally harvested forests
  • Forests where high conservation values are threatened by harvesting. In Sweden, this applies to any timber that comes from woodland key habitats that are harvested contrary to recommendations from the Swedish Forest Agency
  • Forests that have been substantially converted to plantation or other forms of land use
  • Forestry using genetically modified trees
  • Forestry that breaches any of the core conventions of ILO in respect of forced and/or child labor, freedom of association and collective bargaining or discrimination and harassment
  • Forests harvested in violation of traditional and human rights
  • Sources that are not compliant with EUTR, the EU timber regulation, and UKTR

This is ensured by:

  • SCA’s forest management of its Swedish forest holdings being certified in accordance with FSC’s and PEFC’s Swedish standards for responsible forest management
  • Forestry conducted by SCA on its forest holdings in other countries being carried out in a responsible manner and certified in accordance with FSC’s and PEFC’s national standards
  • Procuring wood raw material from other sources that is, where possible, either FSC or PEFC certified
  • Encouraging private forest owners to certify their forest management or apply the SCA standard for conservation (SCA-hänsyn)
  • SCA’s entire wood raw material sourcing organization is third–party certified in accordance with FSC’s and PEFC’s international Chain of Custody standards