Growing global public awareness about issues such as the destruction of tropical forests, over-fishing of the worlds oceans and the continued use of child and indebted labour, has fuelled interest in both the private and the public sector to better understand the origin of products and consumables, and the conditions under which they are produced. There is now a growing commitment to more responsible purchasing decisions.

In a competitive world, achieving responsible purchasing in practice can be a long and complex undertaking since factors such as quality, availability, price and reliability need to be balanced with concerns about responsibly managed sources and production conditions.

ProForest has a detailed understanding of all the issues, and enormous experience of helping both private companies and government procurement organisations to achieve responsible purchasing in practice. We can support and advise about a range of products such as wood, paper, palm oil, rubber, soy and biofuels feedstocks.

We offer support to governments, private sector and NGOs in the following areas:

• Policy development and benchmarking – setting realistic commitments, promoting buy-in from senior managers, purchasing teams and broader staff.
• Design and development of practical policy implementation programmes
• Verification that sources are being managed responsibly
• Understanding the specific supply chain – tracking the product through its processing, packaging and distribution, which frequently involves a complex multi-national path.

We also offer a service of ongoing support and advice via our Responsible
Investment & Purchasing Advice Centre (ReIPAC), specifically designed for the private sector. This includes a helpline to provide advice relating to a specific purchasing requirement or specifications and unlimited access to the ReIPAC website which offers a range of information on the legality and sustainability of different products and sources, country information and verification schemes.

For those supplying the UK Government with timber or wood products we also run the official government support programme, CPET. The Central Point of Expertise on Timber Procurement (CPET) is a service funded by Defra which offers advice and information on how to meet the timber procurement policy.