Sourcing timber and forest productsAs a member of WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network since 1996, we are committed to progressively sourcing forest products from well managed sources. In particular, we focus on the timber forest products that we use in our track (such as railway sleepers). To monitor our progress, we collect as much information on our supply chain sources as possible, and categorise this to enable us to identify where any risks of poor sourcing may lie, and to eliminate them systematically from our supply chain into the UK market.
Our challenges:
- availability of credibly certified timber to meet our volume, specification and timescale requirements
- expanding our scope to include forest products procured through our supply chain, not just directly by Network Rail.
Our priorities:
- working with our supply chain to increase the forest species accepted to meet our technical specifications and requirements
- engaging with our supply chain for other forest products that we procure directly
- engaging with our supply chain to include requirements for reporting on and improving the sustainability of the forest products procured by our supply chain.
Sourcing timber for our trackOne of our main aims for 2010 was to eliminate the small amount (0.1 per cent) of track timber in our supply chain that was from a ‘known origin but where no legality verification was possible’.
In 2010, we were able to report into WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network for the first time that all forest products purchased for use on our railway track (such as wooden sleepers) were, as a minimum, from a confirmed legal origin. This means that we can be confident that our track timber did not come from illegal sources.
We are now going even further than this, and our new contract for track timber, which takes effect in 2011, specifies that we will only purchase forest products that are credibly certified (for example, Forest Stewardship Council certified with chain of custody).