Certifications & Chain of Custody

As a company operating in many jurisdictions with different systems for managing forest resources, West Fraser has selected certification standards that match the forest regions where we operate. The consumers of our products also recognize these high standards in the markets where our products are sold.

Forest Certifications

Forest certification is a voluntary tool that demonstrates West Fraser’s wood products are sourced from sustainably managed forests. Third-party independent auditors verify that we have met high standards in key criteria. That includes the sustainable growing and harvesting of trees with the protection of habitat, wildlife, plants, water and soil quality, and a wide range of other conservation goals.

Western Canada

About 94% of Canada’s forest lands are publicly owned, and harvesting is only allowed through government-granted licences. West Fraser follows strict forest management requirements to maintain and renew government-granted harvesting rights in Canada.

All of the Canadian woodlands operations directly managed by West Fraser are independently certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) fibre sourcing and forest management standards. SFI is an internationally recognized sustainable forest management certification program.

Eastern Canada and the United States

West Fraser does not directly manage forestlands in the United States and Ontario, where we purchase the logs needed for our operations. All U.S. timber procurement meets SFI fibre sourcing requirements, as well as Ontario.

In the province of Quebec where the provincial government has full responsibility for forest management, including reforestation, West Fraser maintains SFI forest management certification on behalf of the provincial government under a joint agreement of collaboration for approximately 2.6 M hectares.

SFI Fibre Sourcing Certifications

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SFI Forest Management Certifications

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Chain-of-Custody Certification

West Fraser remains committed to diligent implementation of chain of custody standards, which assure customers and other interested parties that the wood fibre in our supply chain is responsibly sourced and complies with applicable laws, regulations, and sustainable resource standards.

Certifications

PEFC (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification) Chain of Custody of Forest and Tree Based Products – Requirements (PEFC ST 2002:2020) across all operations in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada; Inverness, UK; and Genk, Belgium‍
SFI Chain of Custody Certification across oriented-strand board (OSB) operations in North America
West Fraser’s pulp operations and medium-density fibreboard (MDF) mills are registered to the Forest Stewardship Council’s (FSC) Standard for Chain of Custody Certification, Trademark License Code: FSC-C109677 ‍
U.K. and European operations producing OSB, particleboard, and MDF (Trademark License Code: FSC-C012533) and the La Sarre OSB mill in Quebec, Canada are certified to FSC Chain of Custody (Trademark License Code: FSC-C023585)
Genk, Belgium and Inverness, Scotland OSB facilities are certified to the PEFC Chain of Custody
SFI® 2022 Chain-of-Custody Standard for our North American engineered wood operations
‍SFI Chain-of-Custody Certification for our engineered wood operations in North America.

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To access more of our certifications and other documents in the U.K and Europe, please visit the West Fraser U.K. page for more information. You can filter for "certificates" on this page to specifically access our certifications.

Additional Certifications

West Fraser maintains certifications specific to our products. You can find details about additional product-specific certifications in the Products section of our site for each product we produce.

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