Water footprint and forestry standards published

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and Australian Forestry Standard (AFS) have this week published standards relating to water footprint management and the chain for custody for forest products, respectively.

ISO has published the International Standard ISO 14046, Environmental management - Water footprint - Principles, requirements and guidelines. The standard will allow organisations the means to measure their ‘water footprint’, or their potential environmental impact of water use and pollution.

Developed by experts from all over the world, the standard is based on a life-cycle assessment and can assist in:

• assessing the magnitude of potential environmental impacts related to water;
• identifying ways to reduce those impacts;
• facilitating water efficiency and optimisation of water management at product, process and organisational levels;
• providing scientifically consistent and reliable information for reporting water footprint results that can be tracked over time.

In addition, the standard includes geographical and temporal dimensions and identifies the quantity of water used and changes in water quality.

Meanwhile, the Australian Standard for chain of custody for forest products (AS 4707) has been reviewed. The revised standard enables the tracking of wood or forest products originating from sustainably managed, certified forests through all phases of ownership, transportation and manufacturing to the end consumer.

The review was undertaken by an independent Standards Reference Committee made up of representatives from a broad range of stakeholders, including forest managers, wood processors, traders and wood/paper products customers. The committee has sought to ensure that AS 4707 continues to be consistent with the requirements of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), the world’s largest forest certification system, and AS 4707:2014 is based closely on the recently revised PEFC Chain of Custody Standard (PEFC ST 2002:2013).

The Standards also facilitate compliance with the Australian Government’s new illegal logging laws. From November, businesses will need to assess and manage the risk of importing or processing illegally logged timber, or face prosecution.

The ISO Standard can be viewed here. The AFS Ltd Standard can be viewed here.