PUBLIC PROCUREMENT NEWS

  

News

20 January 2012

UK councils pledge to implement sustainable timber product procurement

Councils across the UK are making a pledge to procure their forest products responsibly, as part of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) What Wood You Choose? campaign. Currently more than 1.5 million cubic metres of timber imported into the UK is from illegal sources, with local authorities often neglecting to keep records of the timber products they buy. To address this, the campaign encourages local authorities to make a pledge to improve their timber purchasing.

There are three levels of pledges, bronze, silver and gold. To make a gold pledge, the council must ensure that it will only buy recycled, certified or sustainable and legal timber products across all its departments and is required to set up a recording and monitoring system to ensure forest products it procures meet the requirements of its policy.

Several councils have developed case studies to demonstrate the impressive steps they are taking. Examples include the Highland Council, which makes sure it sources only FSC-certified timber for its house-building, buys only recycled and FSC paper, and plans to use wood chip in its 20 biomass boilers and Glasgow Council, which uses locally-sourced FSC timber for the construction of its council houses.

For more information, click here.