KEY FACTS: APP & CERTIFICATION
OVERVIEW
APP is committed to going beyond compliance to make paper responsibly, which means ensuring that its
fiber is procured from legal sources and forest managed in a sustainable way, and its production facilities
follow global best practices.
APP demonstrates this
commitment in two ways:
1. Requiring every pulpwood supplier to meet or exceed all
national law and relevant international regulations on
forestry management and conservation.
2. Embracing voluntary third-party certification by such highly
respected independent certification organizations as the
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC),
Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia (LEI) and Société Générale
de Surveillance (SGS).
As a result, APP:
• Developed one of the pulp and paper industry’s strictest set of
protocols to combat illegal logging in 2003.
• Has, along with its fiber suppliers, consistently implemented all
improvements recommended by third-party environmental
auditing organizations.
• Conforming to Japan’s Green Purchasing Law by implementing
the Green Purchasing Method which certify the legality and
sustainability aspects of the raw material. APP adopted the
self-certification method for GPL in 2006, becoming the first
one in Indonesia.
• Takes pride that APP’s pulp and paper mills have received Chain
of Custody certification from PEFC and LEI to produce certified
pulp and paper products
APP’S CHAIN OF CUSTODY/
LEGAL ORIGIN VERIFICATION
(COC/LOV) SYSTEMS TIMELINE
To confirm the integrity of its fiber supply and
combat illegal logging, APP created one of the pulp
and paper’s most comprehensive Chain of
Custody/Legal Origin Verification (CoC/LOV)
systems in 2003. As part of APP’s commitment,
the system is continually reviewed and revised
to become more robust, as highlighted in the
following timeline:
• 2003: APP develops and implements its CoC/LOV system to
conform to the Lembaga Ekolabel Indonesia (LEI) Standard for
Wood Fiber Material.
• 2005: APP’s CoC/LOV system is voluntarily audited by Société
Générale de Surveillance (SGS), one of the world’s leading
environmental auditors. That year, and every year since, SGS has
found no indication of any illegal fiber being introduced into the
fiber supply at APP’s mills.
• 2007: The APP system is enhanced when SGS evaluates APP
and its fiber suppliers against the standards of its “Timber Legality
and Traceability (TLTV) program. SGS also conducts a Gap Analysis
which was implemented on APP’s system. APP began its phased
CoC certification process for its mills starting with the PEFC scheme.
• 2008: The system grows even more sophisticated and more
APP mills were certified under the PEFC CoC scheme. APP’s
pulpwood suppliers were also reviewed by SGS, and were awarded
TLTV-VO (Verification of Origin) certification
• 2009: APP mills start its phased approach for LEI CoC scheme.
After audits by TŰV, the mills were awarded certification
1.
MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS
RESULTING FROM COC/LOV
SYSTEMS
With sustainability beyond compliance as the ulti-
mate objective, APP and its fiber suppliers contin-
ue to expand their CoC/LOV systems to enable the
suppliers to meet full certification by the TLTV stan-
dard. As SGS has noted in each of its annual audit
reports, APP has consistently implemented all of
the improvements recommended in those reports.
Improvements recommended by other third-party
organizations have also been implemented. To
date, major improvements have included:
• Spatial planning policy
• Supplier compliance
• Wood legality documentation
• Environmental, human rights and social improvements
• Security capacity building
• Community awareness
• Multi-stakeholder participation
• Radar mapping and planning
• Digital camera ID
• Online tracking system
• GPL tracking system
• Wet land operation: weigh bridge/weigh scale
• Plantation planning: man power, health & safety compliance
• Set-aside area monitoring
• Concession inventory methodology
• Stakeholder consultation
GREEN PURCHASING LAW &
APP’S SELF-CERTIFICATION
PROGRAM
In 2001, the Ministry of the Environment of Ja-
pan established the “Green Purchasing Method,”
creating regulations requiring local and national
governments to set targets for green purchasing
activities and for businesses and citizens to practice
green purchasing to the greatest possible extent.
The Green Purchasing Law was revised in 2006 to
add regulations designed to certify the legality and
sustainability of pulpwood.
In response to the revisions, APP established a “Self-Certification”
program, becoming the first pulp and paper company to do so in
Japan. The ultimate goals of the program are threefold:
1. To complement the Green Purchasing Method’s goal to require
green purchasing by governments and promote green
purchasing by Japan’s businesses and citizens
2. To certify the legality and sustainability of pulpwood products
within APP’s operations as spelled out in the Green Purchasing
law by creating:
• Comprehensive standards and procedures for APP and
its fiber suppliers
• A strict fiber procurement and sustainability policy
• A GPL certification policy & code of conduct
3. To provide a foundation for APP’s Sustainability Reporting and
earn environmental certifications from third-party environmental
organizations recognized in Japan
2.