On Earth Day 2008, WhatTheyThink hosted a webinar titled "The Value of Certifications as a Business Strategy" that attracted more than 500 registrants. Companies who are building a sustainable strategy and focusing on good corporate citizenship are looking to third-party certification to validate their strategies to the market. Should your company consider one or all of the certifications available? How do you go about it? What steps do you take? This week we hear from Vic Barkin, consultant and auditor for Smartwood's FSC-certification program. Yesterday, in Part One, Vic talked about the Chain of Custody certification process, how you go about becoming certified, and other certifications you might consider. In Part Two, today, we get the process details including estimated costs. Note: There are a number of consultants and auditors for several certifying bodies, WhatTheyThink does not endorse or recommend service professionals. Details in these two articles are based on Vic's experience as a consultant and auditor for FSC certification; the requirements for SFI certification are similar but not identical. For exact details contact the consultant and/or auditor of your choice. What does the certification assessment and audit process look like on the ground? From my perspective, the assessment process is the initial evaluation of an organization's readiness to successfully implement and conform to the FSC standards through a combination of a documented procedures review, staff interviews and facility observations. The resulting evaluation is submitted by the auditor to the CB for a technical review, which is then sent in final draft form by the CB to the client for their final review. At that time Major Corrective Action Requests (CARs) are identified and must be addressed, in some cases, prior to certificate issuance. Minor CARs can be addressed post-certification unless they are numerous. The subsequent annual audits are an evaluation of compliance with applicable CoC standards. As with the assessment, the audit includes an evaluation of procedures. In addition, historical activity documentation is reviewed by the auditor. Upper management and random staff interviews are conducted to confirm adherence and awareness of the organizations responsibilities, and trademark approval and training documentation is collected and evaluated for conformance. What does an FSC/SFI auditor actually do? Speaking from my perspective as an FSC auditor/consultant, the job of the auditor is to report findings based on supporting documentary evidence and observation. The auditor is prohibited from acting as a consultant for a company they are evaluating. Advice given to the organization and interpretation of the standards are usually left up to the auditor's discretion. Any official ruling is always deferred to the CB. That said, the auditor should be informative, courteous and professional. How long should I expect the certification process to take? Many variables affect how long it takes to get certified. Just a few of the factors are the ability of the organization being certified to implement procedures correctly, the volume of companies seeking certification at any given time, the complexity and size of the organization, geographic location, scope of the certification, subcontractor issues, and a host of other extenuating circumstances. There is no average time, however typically certification can easily take from three to six months, depending on the mixture of the variables listed above, sometimes longer. What should I expect the certification process to cost? Certification costs vary greatly again, depending on a variety of factors. Size of the organization, number of individual sites, geographic location and certificate scope requested among other factors can affect costs. As a benchmark, the usual cost for a the average mid-sized commercial printer with a single site, where the auditor incurs moderate travel time hovers around $3700 for the assessment, with subsequent audits being around 70% of the assessment cost. There are however opportunities for discounts with the possibility of employing multi-site or group certification strategies, and the leverage of negotiated certification and travel cost discounts through some PIA/GATF affiliate programs. About Vic Barkin Vic Nathan Barkin has more than 30 years of experience in the printing industry and currently owns a consulting practice specializing in digital printing business development, workflow, and technology implementation geared to the in-plant and commercial printing communities. He also offers expertise in “Green Printing” practices and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification facilitation, and serves as a consultant for Smartwood's FSC-certification program, having audited or assessed over 70 printing facilities across the country. Barkin serves as vice president for the Mountain States Printing Education Foundation and is a contributing writer for In-Plant Graphics Magazine.