Responsible Wood CEO Simon Dorries and Sustainability Manager Matt de Jongh have spent the week travelling throughout New Zealand, introducing the new AS / NZS 4708 Sustainable Forest Management standard to the NZ market.
This included hosting a workshop at SCION House, Rotorua, where Matt de Jongh and Simon Dorries introduced the new standard to a cross-section of PEFC certificate holders and stakeholders.
In December 2021, Responsible Wood published the new AS/NZS 4708:2021 – Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) principles standard.
Click here to register your details and download the new standard.
Published for the first time as a Trans-Tasman Standard, the new Standard provides common benchmarks for sustainably managed Australian and New Zealand forests.
Matt de Jongh explains:
“It is important to communicate with certificate holders on the key changes to the new standard and that there is a two-year transition period.”
“It is also important to point out that the new standard is, for the first time, a joint Australian and New Zealand standard.”
Mr de Jongh will continue to hold workshops throughout Australia and New Zealand over coming months.
So far Mr de Jongh has presented workshops in Tasmania and Western Australia with upcoming workshops scheduled in New Zealand (6th of July), Melbourne (3rd of August) and Mount Gambier (4th of August).
In November 2021, the SCION Innovation Hub was awarded World Architecture Festival Best Use of Certified Timber Prize – Supported by PEFC International in Lisbon Portugal.
The building showcases PEFC-certified timber in a unique diagrid structure – a design requiring less material than a traditional mass engineered timber building, greatly assisting with earthquake conditions as well as achieving embodied carbon zero.
Earlier in the week, Simon Dorries and Matt de Jongh visited a PEFC-certified Southwood Exports Limited Forest in Invercargill, New Zealand.
“PEFC certified since August 2017, it was a wonderful opportunity to meet with a certified forest manager and discuss the new Trans-Tasman Sustainable Forest Management Standard.” Mr de Jongh said.
PEFC continues to grow from strength to strength with more than 600,000 hectares of New Zealand defined forest now certified under the PEFC certification.
Responsible Wood is the National Governing Body for PEFC in Australia and manages the PEFC New Zealand scheme on behalf of the New Zealand Forest Certification Association (NZFCA).
For more information about forest certification in Australia and New Zealand and the new Trans-Tasman Sustainable Forest Management Standard please visit responsiblewood.org.au
Caption 1: Matt de Jongh, Responsible Wood, Julian Elder, Scion, Pam McLean, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Andy Fleming, Rayioner New Zealand Limited, Carol Rivera, SGS New Zealand Limited, Colin Maunder Timberlands Limited, Sally Strang, Manulife Investment Management NZ Forest Management Limited, Murray Parrish, OJI Fibre Solutions NZ, Simon Dorries, Responsible Wood, Kit Richards, New Zealand Institute of Forestry, Graeme Gillies, ECG, and Robert Finch, Scion, attend the SCION workshop introducing stakeholders to AS / NZS 4708 in Rotorua, New Zealand.
Caption 2: Shaun Foster, Southwood Exports Limited, John Filmer, Southwood Exports Limited, Simon Dorries, Responsible Wood, Graeme Manley, Southwood Exports Limited and Matt de Jongh, Responsible Wood, in a PEFC-certified forest in Invercargill, New Zealand.
