West Fraser 2008 SFI Surveillance Audit Summary Report

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Informations

• Publié par: Epsu
• Nombre de lectures: 37
• Langue: English

Extrait

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West Fraser Mills Ltd. – B.C. and Alberta Woodlands – 2008
Between March and July 2008 an audit team from KPMG Performance Registrar Inc. (KPMG PRI) carried out a combined ISO
14001 re-certification/SFI and CSA Z809 (Hinton Wood Products only) surveillance audit of West Fraser Mills Ltd.’s (West
Fraser’s) B.C. and Alberta Woodlands Operations against selected requirements of the ISO 14001 and Sustainable Forestry
®
Initiative (SFI) standards. This Certification Summary Report provides an overview of the process and KPMG’s findings.
Background
The majority of West Fraser’s B.C. and Alberta woodlands operations are
currently included within the scope of multi-site ISO 14001:2004 and SFI
(2005-2009 version) certificates issued by KPMG PRI. The Company’s
existing ISO 14001 certification expired on August 31, 2008, while its SFI
certification expires August 29, 2010. The Hinton Wood Products CSA Z809
certification expires on March 26, 2009.
West Fraser’s B.C. and Alberta Woodlands Operations
The area included within the scope of the Company’s combined ISO
14001/SFI certification includes the following West Fraser woodlands
operations:
• 100 Mile Lumber (woodlands managed by 100 Mile Woodlands)
• Alberta Plywood Ltd.
• Blue Ridge Lumber Inc.
• Chasm Sawmills (woodlands managed by 100 Mile Woodlands)
• Chetwynd Forest Industries
• Fraser Lake Sawmills
• Hinton Pulp
• Hinton Wood Products
• Houston Forest Products
• Northstar Lumber (woodlands managed by Quesnel Woodlands)
• Pacific Inland Resources
• Quesnel Plywood (woodlands managed by Quesnel Woodlands)
• Skeena Sawmills
• Slave Lake Pulp (woodlands managed by Alberta Plywood Ltd.)
• Sundre Forest Products (woodlands managed by Sundre Woodlands)
• West Fraser LVL (woodlands managed by Sundre Woodlands)
• West Fraser Mills Ltd., Quesnel Division (woodlands managed by
Quesnel Woodlands)
• West Fraser Mills Ltd., Williams Lake Division (woodlands managed
by Williams Lake Woodlands)
• Williams Lake Plywood (woodlands managed by Williams Lake
Woodlands)
These operations cover a total of 8.45 million hectares (gross area), and
provide the Company with a combined allowable annual cut (AAC) of
3
10.47 million m per year.
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Findings – West Fraser Mills Ltd. – B.C. and Alberta Woodlands – 2008 Page 2
Audit Scope
Types of audit findings
The SFI portion of the audit was conducted against the requirements of the 2005-2009
edition of the SFI standard, and incorporated a limited scope assessment against the SFI Major non-conformities:
program objectives for:
Are pervasive or critical to the
• Wildlife habitat and conservation of biological diversity; achievement of the SFM
Objectives.
• Wood procurement;
• Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements;
Minor non-conformities:
• Management review and continual improvement.
Are isolated incidents that are
non-critical to the achievement of The ISO 14001 portion of the audit included a full scope assessment of the West Fraser
SFM Objectives. B.C. and Alberta Woodlands Operation’s environmental management system (EMS)
against all elements of the ISO 14001:2004 standard. All non-conformities require the
development of a corrective
action plan within 30 days of the
The Audit
audit, which must be fully
implemented by the operation
• Audit Team – The audit was conducted by Dave Bebb, RPF, CEA(SFM), EMS(LA), within 3 months.
Sylvi Holmsen, RPF, CA, CEA(SFM), EMS(LA), Dennis Lozinsky, RPF, Bodo von
Major non-conformities must be Schilling, RPF, Del Ferguson, PGeo, Will Sloan, RFT and Byron Grundberg, RPF.
addressed immediately or
All of the members of the audit team have conducted numerous forest management
certification cannot be achieved /
audits under a variety of standards including SFI, ISO 14001, CSA Z809 and FSC. maintained.
• Combined ISO 14001 Re-certification/SFI Audit Surveillance – The audit involved an
Opportunities for Improvement:
on-site assessment of the West Fraser B.C. and Alberta Woodlands Operation’s
Are not non-conformities but are environmental management system (EMS) and SFI program. Full scope site visits
comments on specific areas of
were made to a total of 4 out of the 13 woodlands divisions included within the scope
the SFM System where
of the Company’s ISO 14001 and SFI certifications (Quesnel, Chetwynd, Sundre and improvements can be made.
Fraser Lake). Limited scope site visits were conducted at 5 additional operations. The
audit involved a review of selected EMS and SFI records, interviews with a sample of
staff and contractors and visits to several field sites (36 roads, 45 cutblocks, 20
silviculture sites, and 8 purchase wood sites) to evaluate EMS implementation and the
adequacy of forest management plans and practices.
• West Fraser’s SFI Program Representative – Al Bennett, RPF (West Fraser’s
Stewardship Forester and Corporate EMS Coordinator) served as the Company’s
SFI program representative during the audit.
Audit Objectives
The following audit objectives were included within the scope of the audit:
• A limited scope surveillance audit against selected requirements of the 2005-2009
version of the SFI standard.
• A full scope re-certification audit against the requirements of ISO 14001:2004.
Use of Substitute SFI Indicators
The SFI portion of the audit involved an assessment of conformance against the applicable
objectives, performance measures and indicators included in the 2005-2009 version of the
SFI standard. None of the indicators included in the SFI standard were modified or
substituted for the purpose of this audit.
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Findings – West Fraser Mills Ltd. – B.C. and Alberta Woodlands – 2008 Page 3
Audit Conclusions
West Fraser’s EMS and SFI program were found to be effectively implemented by the
Company’s B.C. and Alberta Woodlands Operations, and continue to meet the
requirements of ISO 14001:2004 and the 2005-2009 version of the SFI standard in all
material respects. As a result, West Fraser’s B.C. and Alberta Woodlands Operations will
continue to be certified to the ISO 14001 and SFI standards.
Good Practices
A number of good practices were identified during the course of the 2007 audit. Examples

included:
Block design and layout often incorporate
the retention of groups of trees and
• A high level of compliance with applicable regulatory requirements was noted at the
individual trees to promote structural
field sites visited during the audit. diversity.
• The management reviews completed by a number of the divisions visited during the
2008 audit were through and well documented.
• The Company staff and contractor employees interviewed during the audit
demonstrated a high level of understanding of applicable EMS requirements and site-
specific environmental concerns.
• The Williams Lake operation is working to develop new mixed-wood reforestation
standards under its FSP as a means to help address both the impending lodgepole pine
seed shortage and expected shortfalls in mid-term timber supply (both of which are the
result of the MPB infestation).
• The Sundre operation is experimenting with the use of LIDAR (LIght Detection And
Ranging) to produce colour coded maps which identify various slope classes as a tool
to improve road and block layout.

• Harvesting and Area Supervisors at the Chetwynd operation have started conducting
joint inspections of harvesting and road construction practices. The joint inspections Wildlife, such as this inquisitive fox, were
are expected to enhance training through effective mentoring and communications, observed using active harvesting sites
during the field audit. setting consistent practice standards and assisting with problem solving.
• The Sundre operation has installed telephone signs on its main road network as a
means to identify areas where there is good cell phone coverage on the FMA.
• The audit noted significant improvements in the road maintenance inspection process
and associated remediation plans at the Hinton operation (e.g., greater focus on
environmental issues, clear risk-based process for identifying priority remediation
projects, spatially tracking of inspection results in TFM, etc.).
NB: The above list of good practices is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all of the
noteworthy or progressive forest practices that are taking place at the operations included in
the 2008 audit sample. Rather, they are simply observations made by the audit team that
were deemed worthy of inclusion in this public summary report as a means to highlight
some of the positive aspects of the Company’s forest management practices.
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Findings – West Fraser Mills Ltd. – B.C. and Alberta Woodlands – 2008 Page 4
Follow-up on Findings from Previous Audit
At the time of this assessment there were a total of 13 open non-conformities and 22
opportunities for improvement from previous (2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007) ISO 14001
and SFI audits. The audit team reviewed the implementation of the action plans
developed by the Company to address these issues, and found that although good
progress had been made in addres