Complaint Process for Certifications under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Program
The complaint process is an important component of any legitimate certification program, including the SFI. The complaint process enables individuals or organizations to have their complaint openly investigated. It is a credit to the transparency requirements of the SFI Standard that individuals and organizations can bring forward their concerns under a complaint process.
A complaint does not challenge the credibility or the content of the SFI Standard, but rather it challenges the audit findings and the decision to grant the certification, or events that have happened since the last audit, that questions the maintenance of the certification.
Accreditation of Certification Bodies
The SFI program requires certification bodies to be accredited in order to conduct SFI certifications and issue certificates.
Certification body: an independent third party that is accredited by:
- ANAB – ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board as being competent to conduct certifications to the 2005-2009 SFI Standard.
- ANSI – American National Standards Institute as being competent to conduct certifications to the SFI Chain of Custody Standard.
- SCC – Standards Council of Canada as being competent to conduct certifications to the 2005-2009 SFI Standard and the SFI Chain of Custody Standard.
Complaint Process
- The complainant outlines their concerns in a letter to the certification body responsible for the audit.
- The certification body may request additional specifics associated with the concerns and will investigate the issue in accordance with their procedures that were approved by their accreditation body.
- If the certification body finds a sound basis for the complaint then it would require the Company to take correction and corrective action to address the complaint and advise the complainant accordingly.
- If the certification body did not find a sound basis for the complaint and felt the certification was appropriately granted and performance has not changed since the certification, it would inform the complainant of this.
If the findings of the certification body do not satisfy the complainant then they can move to the higher authority which is the body that accredited the certification body, which is either the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) (www.ansi.org) or the Standards Council of Canada (SCC) (www.scc.ca). The accreditation body would then conduct its own investigation into the complaint as the highest authority.
List of Certification Bodies and Contact Information:
SFI 2005-2009 and SFI Annex 2 (all CBs below audit both standards)
Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC)
Teresa Puder
Customer Service Representative
BVQi (NA), Inc.
515 West Fifth Street
Jamestown, NY 14701
Phone: 716.484.9002 ext 107
Fax: 716.487.9004
Email
Other Contacts:
Diane Franklin
Customer Service Representative
Bureau Veritas Certification North America, Inc.
515 West Fifth Street
Jamestown, NY 14701
Phone: 716.484.9002 ext 103
Fax: 716.664.7219
Email
Karen Rhodes
Program Manager
Bureau Veritas Certification North America, Inc.
515 West Fifth Street
Jamestown, NY 14701
Phone: 716.484.9002 ext 124
Fax: 716.664.7588
Email
Linda Rugg
Customer Service Representative
Bureau Veritas Certification North America, Inc.
515 West Fifth Street
Jamestown, NY 14701
Phone: 716.484.9002 ext 128
Fax: 716.487.9004
Email
KPMG Performance Registrar, Inc.
Chris Ridley-Thomas
Vice President
777 Dunsmuir St.
PO Box 10426
Pacific Centre, Vancouver, BC Canada, V7Y 1K3
Phone: 604.691.3088
Fax: 604.691.3031
Email
Other Contacts:
Barbara Puchala
Administration
Tel: 604.691.3476
Fax: 604.691.3031
Email
Mr. Michael L Alexander
Principal
9th Floor, 777 Dunsmuir Street
PO Box 10426, Pacific Centre Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K3
Phone: 604.691.3401
NSF International Strategic Registrations
S. Petie Davis
Business Unit Manager
EH&S; Registration Services
789 N. Dixboro Rd
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Phone: 734.827.6810
Fax: 734.827.6801
Email
Other Contacts:
Mike Ferrucci
Email
Office and Cell: 203.887.9248
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Canada: Bruce Eaket
250 Howe Street Suite 700
Vancouver BC Canada, V6C-3S7
Phone: 604.806.7535
Fax: 604.806.7806
Email
US: Don Taylor
Director
6 Collins Creek
Greenville, SC 29607
Phone: 864.675.9146
Fax: 864.675. 0983
Email
Shawn Ellsworth, MBA, RPF
Performance Improvement
250 Howe Street – Suite 700
Vancouver, BC V6C 3S7
Phone: 604.806.7780 ext 4190
Fax: 604.806.7806
Email
QMI
Guillaume Gignac
Senior Manager
865 Ellingham Street
Pointe-Claire, Quebec Canada, H9R-5E8
Phone: 514.428.2438
Fax: 514.694.9697
Email
Gregor Macintosh
Product Manager, Forestry
13799 Commerce Parkway
Richmond, British Columbia Canada, V6V 2N9
Phone: 250.748.0462
Fax: 250.748.0467
Email
SGS Systems & Services Certification
Canada: Louis Stock
3420 boul. St-Joseph Est
Montreal, QC Canada, H1X 1W6
Phone: 514.255.2492 or 888.695.4769
Fax: 514.255.4315
Email
US: Christine Cherevko
201 Route 17 North
Rutherford, NJ 07070
Phone: 201.508.3000
Email
Other Contacts:
Moushumi (Lily) Joshi
Technical Support Administrator
SGS Systems & Services Certification
6275 Northam Drive, Unit 2
Mississauga, ON L4V 1Y8
Phone: 905.676.8122 ext 1408
Fax: 905.676.9519
Daniel J. Simonds
Forestry Coordinator
Phone: 207.864.5025
Email
Accreditation Bodies
SCC
Stefan Janhager
Conformity Assessment Branch
Standards Council of Canada
Suite 200-270 Albert Street
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P 6N7
Phone: 613.238-3222 ext 433
Fax: 613.569.7808
Email
ANSI
Reinaldo Figueiredo
Program Director, Product Certification Accreditation
1819 L Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
Email
ANAB
Scott Richter
600 N. Plankinton Ave.
Milwaukee WI 53201-0586
Phone: 414.347.9858 ext 7519 or 1.800.606.5394 ext 7510
Fax: 414.298.2506
Lori Scheid
Manager, Accreditation
Phone: 414.347.9858 ext 7827
Email
Randy Dougherty
Director of Accreditation
Email
