CINCINNATI, Ohio, August 18, 2008-xpedx today announced it has achieved chain-of-custody certification from the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the world's largest independent, third-party certification system.  
 
xpedx is now tri-certified to the PEFC, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standards.
 
xpedx, North America's largest distributor of printing papers, offers the largest selection of environmentally preferable papers.  The new PEFC certification brings xpedx customers more options to meet the increasing demand for chain-of-custody certified printing papers.
 
Graphics professionals and their customers are increasingly demanding papers manufactured with fibers sourced in an environmentally responsible manner.  The addition of PEFC to the xpedx certification lineup helps the company fulfill that demand by providing a large and stable supply of these papers.
 
Chain of custody is the process of tracking and recording the possession and transfer of certified wood and fiber from the forest of origin, through the stages of production, to the end user.  If any entity along this path is not third-party certified, the paper specifier, printer or print customer cannot claim the papers are certified and they cannot print the PEFC, SFI or FSC trademarks.
 
U.S. printers interested in becoming tri-certified in chain of custody can go to xpedx.com to download a Getting Started kit. Additionally, copies of the PEFC, SFI and FSC standards are available for download, as are usage guidelines for reproducing the standards' trademarks.