mar

18

mai

2010

Special issue Racewood 2010 - Fair trade

events

“We continuously make sure that
our products come from legal sources”

Saint Gobain’s Philippe Deletain

As the only product subject to such policies, Saint Gobain has since 2007, a specific “environmental” policy concerning timber.

“We have made a clear choice of not giving in but keeping on promoting timber in general and tropical timber in particular”, explains Philippe Deletain, head of Environmental Timber Policies with Saint-Gobain Distribution Bâtiment on the occasion of Racewood 2010 that was held in Douala on March 22 and 23.

Saint-Gobain’s timber policies are centred on responsible purchasing and sales. Saint-Gobain has ceased all purchases of species on the Cites list and applies safeguard measures concerning threatened species on the UICN red list.

Philippe Deletain continues: “The policy we apply for these species implies that they can be traded under certain conditions but in view of their vulnerability, they need to be handled with the greatest caution.  Our message is clear: we may continue to trade vulnerable species or endangered species on the IUCN red list if and only if we dispose of FSC certificates guaranteeing those species’ resilience in the forest”.

For social and environmental reasons, Saint-Gobain has also removed certain supplier countries from its list such as Burma (Myanmar) and Papua New Guinea. Some Chinese products containing illegal timber have equally been removed from the list.  SGDB does not buy Liberian timber for the same reasons. The group’s responsible supply policy, notably concerning tropical timber, is also grounded on the access to credible and transparent guarantees concerning origin and legality of purchased products, preferably provided by independent third parties.      “The goal is very clear: to ensure our products’ legal origin at 100%”, an issue that was largely discussed during Racewood.

Ensuring the contracts with suppliers

Besides, the distributor is “ready” to meet the compulsory “due diligence” still under discussion in various European bodies.  “In France and England we are working with our import centres which are already certified, which are aware of the importance of possessing and maintaining documentary databases on incoming timber, of ensuring that contracts with our suppliers are fully tallied, these latter providing necessary documents for each delivery, namely legality certification or FSC certification.    A certain number of internal measures have also been implemented in order for us to keep a trace of everything that has been delivered for each supplier.  We rather turn towards those countries that have integrated the Flegt process or that are signing voluntary partnership agreements. Today, we are therefore almost set regarding those issues of due diligence.  Once more we are waiting for concrete implementation details: the devil is in the details, as the English say!”

Now the consumer needs to be properly informed. “The fact that labels are still rather unknown is a true problem [ …] in France.  Public authorities have not yet given the necessary impulse and provided related communication.”  Yet, Philippe Deletain calls to mind, 25% of French tropical timber import is used for public-related constructions, notably within the ministries of national education and equipment. Regarding this issue, the State could play a vital role of instruction, in the training of architects, providing a breath of fresh air to the market, etc.

As for Saint-Gobain, the company sets out to certify its agencies (more than 130 certified agencies to date) and publishes information on product-related certification throughout company sales outlets and catalogues.   “Information campaigns are scheduled to be carried out in stores and in collaboration with a certain number of industrial partners supplying timber from various countries and notably from central Africa.      

Half of Saint-Gobain’s tropical timber supplies come from Africa…