The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) is continuing its outreach programme to the publishing community by exhibiting at this year’s MediaPro 10 (Stand 42b) in order to promote the PEFC programme more widely to the creative community and the corporate print buying sector. Experts will be on hand to provide information on PEFC-certified and papers and the assurances that they can provide to discerning consumers and businesses who are demanding greener products. 

Alun Watkins, National Secretary of PEFC UK will also speaking at one of the many seminars being staged at MediaPro. Alun’s session is titled; PEFC certified paper – The responsible choice. Alan will debate why Print buyers are increasingly specifying environmentally-friendly paper options: be it recycled or certified virgin fibre. He will also provide information to those attending as to why and how as the world’s largest forest certification system (two thirds of the world’s certified forests are certified to PEFC-endorsed systems), PEFC provides millions of tonnes of certified fibre for the global market and can provide assurances to customers of responsible paper sourcing. The session will be staged in the Production Theatre from 4.05pm to 4.30pm on Tuesday 2 November. MediaPro 10 is being held at Olympia 2 from 2-3 November 2010.

With the majority of the UK’s leading paper merchants now able to offer a range of PEFC certified papers, it is no wonder that now almost 500 printers have been awarded PEFC chain of custody certification. PEFC recently re-launched its UK website and it now includes a database of certified printers and the range of service they offer – www.pefc.co.uk. This has proved to be very popular with visitors to the site demonstrating increasing print buyer interest in providing assurances to their customers of sustainable sourcing.

As a result, more and more publishers and brand owners are now opting to use the PEFC logo on their publications as an assurance of responsible paper sourcing. Demand for the PEFC logo continues to grow, and this year alone has seen the PEFC becoming ever more visible, as trusted household names such as Argos, Boden, British Airways, First Choice, Matalan, National Westminster, John Lewis, Debenhams, Tesco, Asda, Nectar, Airmiles, Lakeland, Next, Yellow Pages and most recently The Economist and The Big Issue have both used the PEFC logo on their customer-facing publications.

PEFC is a framework for the mutual recognition of credible national or regional forest certification schemes that have been developed based on internationally recognised requirements for sustainable forest management. Since its launch in 1999, PEFC has become the largest forest certification umbrella organisation covering national schemes from all over the world, delivering hundreds of millions of tonnes of certified material onto the global marketplace to meet the ever increasing demand for certified wood-based products.