Private firms demonstrate their commitment to sustainable management of forests and agricultural lands by adhering to sustainability standards and voluntary certification programs. Voluntary forest certification allows companies and consumers to differentiate products in domestic and global markets while benchmarking a company’s performance to international standards for environmental and social responsibility.
International institutes, industries and investors mitigate risks in their operations by requiring conformance (compliance) with minimum sustainability standards. Voluntary certification provides assurance that the certified activities are environmentally and socially acceptable, with various certificates signifying different standards met. Forest certificates, for instance, are evidence of the legal origin of timber, while chain of custody certificates demonstrate that companies in the value chain have robust traceability systems in place to support claims on the share of certified fibre in a product and the exclusion of illegal or controversial (uncontrolled) wood in the value chain.
At Indufor, we support our clients in developing a thorough understanding of the implications and opportunities associated with different forms of sustainability standards and certification benchmarking. Our experts know well the wide array of international standards and certification arrangements developed for forests and timber production (e.g. FSC and PEFC certification programs), biomass (e.g. the Sustainable Biomass Program and applicable regulations), palm oil (e.g. RSPO and related national standards), and cocoa and other agricultural commodities. Drawing on this expertise, Indufor helps clients strengthen their compliance and social license to operate within their local settings and also assists clients by assessing their compliance with the minimum standards or safeguards required by development banks, e.g. the World Bank, International Finance Corporation and the European Investment Bank.
Our team includes expertise in:
- Sustainable forest management certification development and benchmarking
- Legality verification for timber plantations and agribusiness plantations
- Sustainable biomass and bioenergy production and related regulations.
Our services in this area include:
- Global analysis and benchmarking of certified forests
- Conformity analysis for clients seeking certification against specific standards
- Conformity analysis of national certification systems against international requirements
- Development and strengthening of certification standards and procedures
- Assisting clients to understand the wide array of wood tracking systems and technologies
- Impact analysis and due diligence services including environmental, social and governance (ESG) impacts
- Training and capacity building.
Our project references include:
- Technical assistance and facilitation support for companies seeking forest management certification in Australia (2018)
- Finnpartnership’s Environmental and Social (E&S) Voucher Consultancy (2017-2018)
- Screening of Sustainability Risks in Biomass Procurement and Imports for an Energy Utility Company (2016)
- Technical assistance and facilitation support for companies seeking legality verification for sawn timber products in the Solomon Islands (2015-2016)
- Technical assistance and facilitation support for companies seeking legality verification for sandalwood products in Australia (2015-2016)
- Appraisal of Wood Supply Due Diligence System of a Softwood Sawmill Company (2016).
Area Experts
Blair Freeman, Head of Strategy and Sustainability with Indufor Asia Pacific (Australia), holds a Bachelor of Forest Science degree from the University of Melbourne and a Masters of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management.
Blair has over 20 years of experience in providing advisory services on forest policy, strategic planning, natural resource management and sustainable development, across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.
As project director and project manager, Blair has led a range of complex multi-disciplinary projects, including strategic reviews and program reviews relating to forest industry development, conservation and natural resources management. These projects have encompassed extensive stakeholder consultation and the provision of consulting advice to public and private sector clients, at executive and senior government levels.
Karena leads Indufor’s work on community-centered conservation and organizational design, management and implementation with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy. She recently served as the Technical Lead and Stakeholder Engagement Specialist for the Land Trust Alliance’s Common Ground Initiative. Common Ground was a national listening and learning initiative designed to create a dynamic exchange of information with a diverse array of community institutions and sectors about how the land can help communities thrive. In a multi-year undertaking, she has worked with the Alliance to operationalize these insights and recommendations across the organization. She also leads on conservation finance projects focused on improving the capacity of public and non-profit clients to access and deploy funding, and track the impact of investments over time.
Previous to her time at Indufor, she worked at the National Park Foundation as an Executive Fellow to shepherd the organization's strategic plan and co-lead on the development of a collaborative landscape conservation initiative with the National Park Service. Mahung has also had experience working with organizations in the northeast US including the Downeast Lakes Land Trust, Mass Audubon and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Ms. Mahung holds a Master's in Environmental Management from Yale School of Environment. She lives in Washington, DC and is originally from Punta Gorda, Belize.
Mr Arttu Pienimäki holds a master's degree in forestry from the University of Helsinki (2014). He specializes in tropical silviculture, plantation forestry, climate change and forest carbon. He has worked several years in East Africa with topics related to the development of monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems in forestry, design and implementation of forest inventories and other forest sector surveys, forest carbon stock assessments, plantation establishment operations, and the project cycle management. Arttu is an experienced data analyst and a hands-on field expert, with considerable experience in overseeing and participating in field measurement campaigns. His native language is Finnish, and he is fluent in English with competent skills in Swedish and German.