In 2018, we decided to join the Forest Stewardship Council and apply for their certification. We believed it would help us better understand how we can play our part to help and protect forests.

This year, we have decided not to renew our agreement, and we think you should know why:

When we joined the FSC certification, we felt a real sense of pride. It wasn’t that being certified would be the golden ticket for more sales. Our customer base knows we are already doing things right. However, we felt like being part of the FSC family was the recognition of our long-lasting efforts of helping in preserving forests by solely using old wood. Ironwood having been logged for decades to the extinction level, recycling wood is one way to prevent further deforestation.

Let’s start with one simple fact: we had 0 auditors on site for 4 years and only our goodwill kept us doing what we do. So how did we get certified during that length of time? PAPERWORK. 

Indeed, we since realised that with FSC, paperwork with a signature matters more than conservation actions.

We’ve had so much nonsense trouble that we have decided to focus on our CSR support to Friends of the National Parks Foundation (FNPF),  an Indonesian conservation not-for-profit organisation working to protect wildlife and its habitat and, at the same time, supporting local communities.

So why exactly did we decide to stop our partnership with the Forest Stewardship Council? 

The list of annoyances is so long we could write a novel but we will stick to two examples.

“You’re using the FSC name & logo wrong!”

Oh, really? Two different auditors had previously accepted how Kaltimber was using the FSC logo. As with many international organisations, logo uses are heavily reglemented, which is normal. But this time, the same email, once again agreed by two other auditors, was refused. Why? Not sure. 

In a previous audit, we had been asked to write “FSC recycled 100%” in our documentation. So it could have been expected for this to fly smoothly. But no! Of course we were in breach partially because in the end it was supposed to be "FSC 100% recycled”. Big deal! 

There was a very long list and not to mention the fact that from one auditor to the other, while we strictly applied what we were asked, it ended up being wrong the following year...and again and again. Confusing, frustrating and not helping any bit of Forest conservation/protection.

“You do not meet Health & Safety standard”

Safety is, let’s be honest, a very loose concept in Indonesia. But at Kaltimber, we have high standards of work and safety records compared to any other similar size industries and we are millions of years ahead of 99% of woodworking companies in Bali.

Visitors are always impressed about how clean of hazards our factory is, and how serious our staff is about using proper protective equipment.

But here comes FSC:

“Print and sign a piece of paper stating that everyone knows first aid matters more than our every Monday documented meeting with all the team talking SOP and mandatory use of proper PPE, etc…”

Every Monday morning, we start the week by having a safety briefing so that we are sure our staff didn’t forget the rules that, if broken (repeatedly of course, we’re not animals!), could lead to bonus going away.

We take pictures, sometimes even videos. But we didn’t have the piece of paper saying bla bla bla. So many paperwork to be filled to renew the certification.

But as Reuters highlighted in an article, “The FSC itself doesn’t carry out audits; that is done by certification assessment bodies, of which there are more than 80. Companies pay them to conduct an audit, and these certifiers compete with each other for the business of the companies that want to be certified.”

Of course, if any FSC auditor would have actually come, they would have seen dozens of such signs reminding workers of their safety duty, but that would have required too much effort maybe.

We have to admit that this is all very annoying considering what we are doing and trying to do and to promote at Kaltimber.

We have work to do. Business is going well and at some point, we just have to say “STOP” to people whose only job seems to be asking for paperwork to tick a box. 

Therefore we will not spend another week of work for my whole team to get some paperwork done. We thought that more important issues would be addressed by an organisation like the FSC but we were wrong.

Expectations are always  changing and we always feel like we're doing everything wrong, as others feel apparently. We do not like this approach of blaming more than guiding.

We will keep on doing what I do and our team will keep on doing what they do which is helping our manpower, our environment and making our clients happy with stunning reclaimed wood products, all of which without the FSC certification.

We do our work because we love it. 

We do our work because we believe it can be beneficial for everyone.

We do our work the best we can every single day no matter what.