Sourcing Allocation
Sourcing certification methods for forest products regulate the distribution of sustainable claims across a mill’s output when certified and non-certified fibers are blended during production. Credit system accounting balances the volume of certified material entering a pulp mill against the volume of finished paperboard sold with a certified claim. This framework permits a mill to attribute the total certified input to a corresponding portion of its output, while the remaining portion is sold as non-certified.
The boundary of this practice is the physical limits of the manufacturing site, meaning credits cannot be transferred between unconnected production facilities.
Transfer Mechanism
Certified volume tracking relies on a ledger that registers incoming fiber purchases as credits to be drawn down when finished reels are dispatched. In credit system accounting, each ton of certified pulp creates a specific quantity of credit that must be consumed or expired within a rolling twelve-month window. If pulp yields are not properly factored into this ledger, the system risks over-allocating certified claims.
The process maintains a continuous balance, ensuring that claims made on packaging never exceed the physical equivalent of certified fiber that entered the mill.
Compliance Margin
Annual audits from independent certification bodies verify the ledger balances against physical delivery notes and production records. A variance between the ledger balance and the actual inventory of certified fiber results in immediate decertification of the affected batch. This discipline guarantees the integrity of chain of custody claims made on final corrugated packaging.
