ETTF and ATIBT merge trade and legality websites

The European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF) and the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT) have agreed to combine their respective timber legality and due diligence information and advisory websites.

The organisations said that the two sites, ETTF’s Timber Trade Portal (www.timbertradeportal.com) and ATIBT’s Legal Timber Information (www.legal-timber.info), were highly complementary. A merged site, operating under the Timber Trade Portal banner and its url, will provide a more comprehensive facility and assure its future development.

The ETTF launched the Timber Trade Portal with backing from the European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC) and International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO).   It provides current information on profiled supplier countries’ timber and forestry laws to help timber buyers satisfy the due care and due diligence demands of timber market legality regulation, such as the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR), US Lacey Act and Australian Illegal Logging Prohibition Regulation (AILPR). It also includes trade and market data and business contacts.  The goal, said ETTF Secretary General André de Boer, is to help ‘’international timber traders do business with suppliers worldwide, and ensure that business is legal”.

To date the site has profiled 24 countries across Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe and Asia.

ATIBT’s site includes legality data ‘country sheets’ on five African producers; Liberia, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo. These include details of legality and other documents required for timber exports. They  list companies known to operate legally, species and products available and whether these are subject to trade or CITES restrictions.

The site also features an EUTR-aligned due diligence system.

“ Legal Timber. Info provides an intelligence and analysis centre, pooling relevant and verified information from a wide range of sources and presenting it in a ready-to-use format,” said ATIBT General Director Benoît Jobbé-Duval. “The aim is to assist importers put in place EUTR due diligence systems and to meet information needs of stakeholders, including EUTR  competent authorities and monitoring organisations, the European commission and civil society.”

“Combining sites makes sense,” said Mr de Boer.  “It will provide a single more powerful tool for timber legality and doing business. In addition it combines the expertise and experience of our organisations and lays foundations for an even more wide-ranging resource.”

He added that forest governance and timber traceability information on the sites  could also prove valuable in third party sustainability certification implementation and maintenance.

STTC takes action towards European Sustainable Tropical Timber declaration

It worked in committing European public and private sectors to procure sustainably sourced soya and palm oil. The Green Deal took a similar approach and had similar impact in pledging key market players and opinion formers in the Netherlands to buy and use only sustainably sourced timber and wood products.

Now the European Sustainable Tropical Timber Council (STTC) plans to emulate that success. In 2017 it aims to bring European public and private partners together to develop a Declaration, with a target of sourcing exclusively sustainable tropical timber by 2020, as part of its climate commitments. The document is to be signed by European political and market decision makers, buyers, end users and retailers, stating that they will procure only sustainably sourced timber timber and help drive a robust and sustainable market for it.

Tropical timber is an incredibly diverse, versatile and beautiful material. It can be used in everything from decorative interior fittings, furniture and flooring, to exterior joinery and heavy-duty industrial applications, such as canal siding and sea defences.. What is more, we have only tapped a part of its potential. There are still many lesser known tropical species which are barely used in Europe, but which can be sourced sustainably and which the STTC is now promoting.

But committing to buying only sustainably sourced timber does far more than grow the European market for a high performance, good-looking manufacturing and construction raw material.  Increasing, reliable demand will incentivise producers, as well as governments of producing countries,  to continue to invest in sustainable forest management.

“It’s been manifestly shown that a strong, viable market place for their timber is key to helping spread supplier uptake of sustainable forest management strategies,” said André de Boer, Secretary General of STTC Principal Partner the European Timber Trade Federation. “Likewise if demand for sustainably sourced tropical timber in an environmentally concerned market like Europe declines, producers as well as governments regulating them can feel compelled to lower the bar. This is likely to lead to conversion of forest land to other uses, such as soya or palm oil plantation.”

Moreover, states the STTC, the healthy, renewable forest that results from sustainable management helps preserve biodiversity. It sucks climate changing CO2 out of the atmosphere and can store it for generations. The resulting sustainable tropical timber, in turn, is low energy to process and acts as a long-lasting carbon sink.  In life cycle assessment, the STTC has also shown it easily outperforms rival man-made materials in a range of applications. In terms of environmental impacts, it is a clear win-win.

The European Declaration for Sustainable Tropical Timber is work in process, with more detail to be revealed at the 2017 STTC annual conference.

Building bridges for lesser known species

FSC Denmark has launched a programme, backed by European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC) project and Action Plan funding, to broaden application of sustainably sourced tropical timber on the Danish market and increase use of lesser known timber species (LKTS).

The initiative will include development of an LKTS market network and construction of a showcase timber bridge, using  a range of lesser known varieties.

FSC Denmark said its project would build on its work over the last three years to increase LKTS market share in Denmark. This included research into continuing barriers to their use among specifiers and end users. These, it found,  included:

  • convenience and security of staying with tried and tested species
  • low awareness of LKTS’s technical performance and potential applications
  • tropical timber’s poor environmental image
  • growing competition from alternative materials
  • concerns over availability

On the positive side, FSC Denmark research also identified growing interest in LKTS among architects and their clients, increasing its confidence that now is the time to give them added market impetus.

The initial task under its STTC funding will be to develop the LKTS communications  network,  including Danish importers, suppliers, NGOs and other stakeholders.  It’s an idea based on a network concept started by the Dutch body and STTC founder IDH, the sustainable trade initiative.

“Network members can use it to share knowledge and ideas on promoting LKTS to the building sector,” said FSC Denmark.

Another first step would be the public sector showcase project in Aarhus. This will comprise renovation of the city’s old ‘Coalbridge’ to form a park and walkway, similar to New York’s ‘Highline’, plus renewal of the neighbouring industrial harbour area. The goal will be to create an iconic city landmark and it will entail engaging the municipal authorities, so the decking is specified entirely in LKTS, with members of the network supplying the material.

“It will allow suppliers to conduct practical testing of selected species, and at the same time act as corporate social responsibility marketing,” said FSC Denmark.

Results of testing will be made public and the bridge will form part of the publicity campaign around Aarhus becoming European City of Culture next year.

FSC Denmark will also host two major events around the project and it will feature in an exhibition in Aarhus in March linked to Building Green, Denmark’s leading sustainable construction trade fair.

Participants in the bridge build will include at least eight private sector companies and all involved who are not yet in the Coalition must join as participants.

As part of the wider project, FSC Denmark will additionally develop its LKTS website, www.lesserknowntimberspecies.com, and launch an outreach programme to the Danish Timber Trade Federation.

Berlin in STTC and pledges to stimulate sustainable timber procurement

Berlin has officially joined the Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC) and   now plans to work with the organisation to drive procurement and use of sustainable timber in the city.

The STTC sees the development as further evidence of rising interest in its aims and activities among European urban authorities. Earlier this year the City of Rotterdam joined, following others including Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona and Leeuwarden.  ICLEI, the international organisation for promoting sustainability in local government, notably urban authorities, has also recommended its members to back the Coalition.

It was already Berlin Senate policy to procure only timber from sustainably managed forestry, certified under FSC or PEFC schemes, or backed by alternative verified evidence of sustainability. Recently certified bangkirai was used in the construction of a public footbridge.

As an STTC member, the city will also now actively promote sustainable procurement.

“With the STTC we hope to create real stimuli, such as use of certified timber in the construction of public buildings,” said Thomas Schwilling of Berlin’s city development and environment administration. “Where we see a potential application for certified sustainable tropical timber we will advocate its use.   In fact, we aim to increase the use of timber overall in construction, as it is such a sustainable raw material.”

Another incentive for Berlin to back the use of tropical timber under its Nachhaltiges Bauen, or Sustainable Building criteria for public projects, is its increasingly widely recognised Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) performance – with the STTC itself increasingly focusing on this area and backing LCA evaluation of tropical species.

“In the context of our Nachhaltiges Bauen evaluation system, the ecological balance and impacts of construction materials, including timber, are taken into account,” said Mr Schwilling.  “These studies show timber is climate neutral, in contrast to other materials.”

Berlin is also in tune with STTC’s work to increase the use of lesser-known sustainable tropical timber species to take the supply stress off more widely used varieties, and maximise yield of sustainably managed forest areas.

“It’s important planners and architects procure the types of timber from sustainably managed forests that are available and know which [new types] can be introduced,” said Mr Schwilling. “In fact we are now discussing this with the timber trade around Berlin.”

Whether other German towns and cities will follow Berlin’s example and sign up to join the STTC remains to be seen. But alongside other city authority members, it will provide a prime model in urban sustainable tropical timber procurement and application which the Coalition believes can be built on.

STTC sets out forward strategies

The European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition has had an active, eventful year.  It launched a new website, stepped up communications further through its newsletter and annual conference and rolled out its funding programme to back development of private and public sector sustainable procurement policies and other action plans to strengthen the European market for sustainable tropical timber.

But after a busy 12 months the organisation is not about to rest on its laurels in 2017. According to André de Boer, Secretary General of STTC Principal Partner the European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF), the year ahead will not only see the organisation consolidate its success to date, but build on it significantly.

“A very positive meeting with members and other supporters confirmed both a range of exciting new strategies and plans to take forward existing programmes,” he said. “The focus will be building STTC support and alliances with other organisations to highlight sustainable tropical timber’s diversity and to provide proof of its technical and broader environmental performance. We will also develop STTC activities to encourage implementation of sustainable timber procurement policies and communicate the proven link between growing demand for the material and spreading sustainable forest management in tropical supplier countries.”

To date the STTC has largely concentrated its trade action plan support, financed by its founder-supporter IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, on five countries; Germany, Denmark, France, Italy and Spain.  Four out of their five trade federations have now got the go ahead to implement sustainable procurement policy programmes with Coalition backing (Italy did not submit one), and 20 company action plans are approved. In 2017 action plan funding will also be actively widened to  private and public sectors in the rest of Europe.

Last year the STTC additionally backed life cycle assessment (LCA) projects at Dutch timber promotion body Centrum Hout. These demonstrated sustainable tropical timber’s carbon and other environmental credentials in highly demanding applications; marine pile planking and window frames. Plans are now to work with partners to broaden LCA across a range of species and end-uses.

“LCA has become a key specification criteria for construction and manufacturing materials. Architects, in particular demand it, and government is including it in building regulations,” said Mr de Boer.

STTC will also step up efforts to increase use of lesser-known tropical timber species (LKTS).

“Encouraging use of sustainably sourced LKTS increases tropical timber availability and choice in the market place, takes the supply stress off more popular species, and makes certification more economically viable for producers by increasing timber yield of a given forest area,” said Mr de Boer.  

As detailed in the following news stories, the International Tropical Timber Technical Association (ATIBT) and the ETTF have also agreed to combine their respective due diligence, due care and business data support websites; Legal.timber.info and Timber Trade Portal, which is backed by the STTC and International Tropical Timber Organisation. The coming year will see the merged resource increase its number of supplier country profiles, that include sustainability certification data.

Another accompanying news story explains that the STTC is also developing a ‘European Declaration for Sustainable Tropical Timber’. Inspired by the success of similar Declarations for sustainably sourced soya and palm oil, this will pledge public and private sector signatories to procure, promote and increase the application of sustainable tropical timber.

The aim is to launch the document officially at the STTC annual conference set to be held in Berlin in June.

 

Retiring Stout hails STTC’s success and potential

Hans Stout has announced his retirement as Programme Director at IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative, the founder and funder of the European Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC).

Reflecting on his long and varied career, the tropical trade veteran views involvement with the STTC among the high points. It has, he maintains, already had market impacts and can continue to grow, evolve and develop the European market for sustainably sourced tropical timber further, in turn driving the spread of sustainable forest management in supplier countries.

Mr Stout has been in the timber sector for 35 years, working in senior positions with businesses worldwide. His roles included managing director of Van den Berg hardwoods and chief executive of Precious Woods. He was also Director of FSC Netherlands.

“I’ve been in this industry a huge part of my life – I’m a tropical timber man!” he said. “It’s involved hard work and a lot of air miles, but it’s a business I love.”

Mr Stout joined IDH four years ago. Up to this point, the organisation’s tropical timber focus had principally been supporting forest management certification.

“And achievements in this area were considerable,” he said. “With Netherlands, Swiss and UK funding, we supported the Amazon Alternative Project, the Borneo Initiative in Indonesia and Malaysia, the Congo Basin Programme in Africa, and the Guiana Shield Programme in central-south America. In total in the last four years these accounted for certification of around 10m ha of tropical forest, a third of the total certified worldwide.”

Despite this success, there was growing realisation at IDH that other strategies were also required to encourage take-up of sustainable forest management.  A report it commissioned from PricewaterhouseCooper came to the same conclusion. What was needed, it said, was a major complementary demand-side effort to grow the market for sustainable tropical timber and incentivise producers.

“While the area of certified forest was increasing, the market for the resulting timber was shrinking,” said Mr Stout. “Our figures showed European tropical timber imports halving between 2008 and 2013 from 2.2 million m3 to 1.1 million m3.”

Part of the decline was attributed to global recession. But also involved were poor environmental image and lack of awareness of either the availability of certified sustainable tropical timber or the material’s technical capabilities.  So the STTC was created, backed by public and private sector.

“Its role was to connect suppliers with clients, communicate the synergy between sustainable tropical timber consumption and sustainable forest management and to tackle technical barriers,” said Mr Stout. “Most importantly, we had to give tropical timber a strong voice in the market, which it lacked.”

The STTC, he maintained, has achieved success in all these fields.

“It has also communicated the positive effect private and especially public sector sustainable timber procurement policies (STTPs) can have, helping convince suppliers there will be an ongoing strong, reliable market for sustainable timber. Our successful and impactful STTC Conference in Rotterdam last summer focused on this and our message is clearly getting through. Besides representatives of the timber trade, federations, end-users and retailers, members now include the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Leeuwarden and France’s Reseau Grand Ouest regional organisation; all committed to procuring sustainable tropical timber and increasing its applications.”

Also significant, said Mr Stout, has been the STTC’s support for life cycle analysis of tropical timber and technical evaluation and promotion of lesser known sustainable species (LKTS).

“LCA is increasingly a criteria in material and product specification and the projects backed by STTC have already highlighted tropical timber’s superior LCA performance compared to steel, concrete and plastic,” he said. “The LKTS work is also vital, helping suppliers make more economic use of their certified forest, taking supply pressure off more popular species and increasing sustainable tropical timber availability. The key is to persuade buyers and end users to specify for end use, rather than species. And that’s starting to happen.”

Going forward, he added, this work will continue to form part of  STTC activity.

“The key is to communicate the outcomes even more strongly to specifiers and end-users,” he said. “And within that context, it’s significant the ETTF has assumed its management role in STTC activity.”

As for Mr Stout himself, it comes as little surprise that he will not be disappearing over the tropical timber horizon quite yet.

“I’ll continue to be involved through my consultancy, Stout adviesburo,” he said. “I will also stay in touch with the STTC’s developments in coming years. It has great potential to make a real difference.”

 

STTC conference highlights sustainable procurement’s positive impacts

The inaugural Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition Conference proved a major success, attracting a capacity audience from across Europe and concluding with host city Rotterdam signing up to join the organisation.

Headlined ‘Real impact through timber purchasing policies’ and co-organised by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment (MIE), the June event focused on the power of procurement policy to drive sustainable tropical timber demand, which,  in turn, can stimulate sustainable forest management in supplier countries. It attracted a sell-out 100-strong audience from across Europe, including STTC members and other delegates representing the wider timber trade, end users and specifiers.

Hans Stout, Programme Director of STTC founder partner IDH-the Sustainable Timber Initiative, emphasised the interdependence of sustainable forest management and viable markets for its products. “That’s why STTC was formed, to stimulate sustainable tropical timber demand across Europe,” he said. And MIE Sustainability Director Hannie Vlug highlighted the market impact government sustainable timber procurement policies (STPPs) could have; contributing to a rise in sustainable timber’s Dutch market share from 13.4% in 2005 to 74% in 2013. “Government policy incentivises companies to bring sustainable products to the market,” she said.

Her point was underlined by figures from researcher and Chatham House Associate Duncan Brack. “In most developed countries, government buying accounts for 10-12% of GDP, but its impact on wider business procurement can increase that to 20-40%,” he said, adding that 33 governments now had STPPs.

Stephane Glannaz, Chief Commercial Officer of supplier Precious Woods, said STPPs could be encouraged by publicising broader benefits of sustainable forest management and linking it to ‘hot topics’, notably climate change mitigation. And Peter Gijsen, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of construction giant Royal BAM Group, stressed the growing market influence of his sector, given its increasing focus on sustainable materials procurement.

The conference additionally featured workshops with themes including designing procurement policies, financial instruments for driving sustainable timber markets and improving tropical timber’s image.

André de Boer, Secretary General of STTC Principal Partner the European Timber Trade Federation, concluded by saying STTC initiatives were now succeeding in growing sustainable tropical timber sales and he urged more companies and organisations to join. Subsequently the City of Rotterdam itself announced it was becoming a member.

“Joining the STTC network was a logical step given our commitment to the procurement of sustainable sourced wood,” said City Council Sustainable Procurement Specialist Léon Dijk. “We already obtain our tropical timber certified as FSC/PEFC directly from suppliers, aiming for 100% sustainable timber in municipality construction projects. Now we intend to develop an STTC action plan to enlarge use of tropical wood in areas where it not yet common and develop design criteria that allow other tropical species to be used.”

Delegates described the Conference as ‘positive’,  ‘impactful’ and ‘delivering important messages and useful and eye-opening information clearly’.

“We were shown that the tropical timber sector should not be afraid of high environmental targets,” said one attendee, Ewa Bazydlo, Environmental Manager of UK importer/distributor James Latham. “And we learned that it can develop a positive image and generate stronger market pull for sustainably sourced tropical products”.

The presentations and outcomes of the workshops can be found here.

Life cycle analysis opens up wood windows’ eco-benefits

Wood windows came out clear environmental cost winners in new research conducted in the Netherlands. The life cycle analysis (LCA) project, co-funded by the Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC), compared the performance of  sustainably sourced wood frame types against man-made material competition, including pvc and aluminium.  It shows the best performing timber outscoring the worst synthetic material composite by a factor of 16.

The research was initiated by STTC members the Netherlands Timber Trade Association (VVNH) and Dutch Woodworking Industry Association (NBvT) and was coordinated by VVNH Project Manager Eric de Munck.  He said the findings could prove increasingly significant for timber window market share.

“Previously energy or carbon content and energy efficiency were key indicators for building sustainability,”  he said. “Now it’s a more holistic calculation. The entire building, including materials, is taken into account and sustainable construction procurement is defined more widely.”

Besides material, the study takes into account design, looking at main European frame types: fixed frame, out-turning and and tilt and turn. All were tested in five sustainably sourced wood types; European softwood and hardwood and Asian, South American and African hardwoods.

The results showed wood easily outscoring competing materials.  The Environmental Cost Indicator (ECI) for European softwood was €0.55 per m2 of frame and €1.23 for tropical timber. The nearest man-made rival was VMRG steel at  €1.58, with recycled pvc at €2.61, coated aluminium €4.52 and steel-cored pvc €7.96.

Dutch building regulations demand such calculations in assessing materials environmental performance, but, according to NBvT training, sustainability and innovation advisor Monique Fledderman, the rules are not enforced.  “But that will change and specifiers will have to evaluate which building products and elements, like window frames, must be selected to achieve high overall  environmental performance.”

Until now, said Mr de Munck, while many construction companies and their clients have wanted to build sustainably and select materials with lowest impact, it’s been difficult due to lack of data to make comparisons.  Studies like the new LCA study will fill the knowledge gap, with its simple single point ECI values. “ And it underlines that sustainable wood products are the most responsible choice you can make,” he said.

Environmental Cost Indicator per m2 window frame (excluding set frame and glazing)

Environmental Cost Indicator MKI
Material Window frame
European Softwood (like spruce, fir, douglas, larch)  €          0,55
Asian hardwood (Meranti)  €          1,22
South American hardwood (Sapupira)  €          1,23
African hardwood (Mahogany)  €          1,34
European hardwood  €          0,49
Modified wood (Accoya) not available yet  To be published 
PVC, recycled  €          2,61
PVC with steel core  €          7,96
Aluminium set (recycled), anodized  €          2,42
Aluminium set, anodized  €          2,80
Aluminium set (recycled), coated  €          3,46
Aluminium set, coated  €          4,52
VMRG Steel Window frame  €          1,58

ECIs presented in bold are based on verified data, others
on non-verified data. All data is available in the Dutch National
Environmental Database (NMD).

Original text: Marijke Popma(FAAM) – edited by Eric D. de Munck (Centrum Hout)

ICLEI promotes STTC to local government

ICLEI, the international network for local government bodies aiming to improve their environmental performance, is urging members to join the Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC).

The organisation, which goes by the full name ICLEI  – Local Governments for Sustainability,  provides mutual support and best practice exchange to help members become ‘more sustainable, low carbon, biodiverse, resource-efficient and productive’. It connects civic and other authority leaders in strategic alliances for specific projects, and also provides training in developing ‘innovative methods and tools for improving sustainability performance.

It now comprises 1500 city, town and regional authorities worldwide, together  represent over 20% of  global urban population.

ICLEI sees the STTC’s goals to boost EU procurement and sales of sustainably sourced tropical timber as very much aligned to its own.  It is already a STTC partner as an organisation and is now recommending individual ICLEI members to join the STTC too.

To raise awareness of the STTC, it is distributing a range of literature, including 1000 postcards based on STTC materials, and a letter signed from its European Regional Director Wolfgang Teubner. It is also using  STTC videos.

It will provide information on the STTC’s programme to help fund organisations establish sustainable timber procurement policies and use testimonials from existing local authority members

ICLEI focuses on the five initial STTC target countries, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Denmark . But it will also promote STTC membership to authorities elsewhere where it feels appropriate. In addition it is exploring collaboration with the Environmental Partnership Association to publicise the STTC in Eastern Europe.

The latest local authority to join the STTC is Rotterdam City Council, which signed up at the STTC Conference in the city in June.

Home improvement giant boosts certified sales via STTC Action Plan

Collaboration between the Sustainable Tropical Timber Coalition (STTC) and FSC Italy has seen the Italian arm of international home improvement retail giant Leroy Merlin implement an STTC Action Plan to increase sales of certified timber products.

The success is now prompting the two organisations to explore working jointly with other diy chains and large retailers on sustainable timber procurement.

French-based Leroy Merlin (LM) today has 400 branches in 12 countries, mostly in Europe, but including Brazil and China. Corporate social responsibility and environmental impacts are a growing focus of the business worldwide and its CSR programme includes developing environmentally friendly stores and initiatives to help customers lower the environmental impact of their houses.  In 2010 it also started an active programme to offer FSC or PEFC certified timber products and garden furniture.

Subsequently its Italian operation approached FSC Italy in 2014 to scale up the proportion of outdoor furniture and other garden wood products sold as certified and to increase marketing around them.  This led to an approach to STTC to develop this as a co-funded Action Plan (AP), which was agreed, with half the €30,000 budget for the project provided by the Coalition.

The comprehensive AP programme of activities included special training by FSC Italy of LM Italy management, purchasing, marketing and administrative staff. It also saw production of customer videos in the tropics explaining sustainable forest management and the importance of buying certified timber. Monitoring of sustainable procurement was also started.

The target was to increase sale of FSC certified wood garden products from 50% of LM’s total in 2014, representing 1050m3 of timber, to 80% or 1400m3 this year. In fact it has hit 90%, or 2320m3.

FSC Italy Director Diego Florian described the project as a success and a valuable example for other businesses. “We’re happy with this collaboration with Leroy Merlin Italy,” he said. “It shows once again that FSC certification is both a significant market tool for businesses and a guarantee for responsible consumers, including when considering tropical timber”.

To maintain the AP’s momentum, LM Italy last Spring launched an in- store promotional campaign focused on the role consumers can play in preserving forests by buying certified timber products.  Based on FSC’s new ‘Forests for all, forever’ branding, this used point of sale cards, pull-up banners, and promotional leaflets, all including a QR code linking to the FSC’s “Feel The Forest” video.

“We now see further opportunities for FSC and STTP to work with the retail sector to drive the establishment and development of sustainable timber procurement policies” said Mr Florian.