In January 2020, PEFC published the revised international standards for PEFC Chain of Custody (ST 2002), PEFC Trademarks (ST 2001) and Certification Body Requirements for Chain of Custody (ST 2003). These three standards entered into force on 14 February 2020, with an 24-month transition period.
Certification bodies need to ensure their practices are in line with the revised ST 2003:2020, and that they are accredited against both the revised ST 2002:2020 and ST 2001:2020, before they can offer PEFC chain of custody certification against the 2020 PEFC Chain of Custody standard.
As the three standards are linked, the 2020 versions of these standards must be used together. An audit is either conducted against and according to the 2020 versions of the three revised standards, or against the three previous versions.
For example:
- Certification bodies can only certify against the 2020 Chain of Custody and Trademarks standards, if they do so according to the 2020 Certification Body Requirements standard.
- A company can only use the 2020 Trademarks standard if they are certified against the 2020 PEFC Chain of Custody standard and the audit is conducted according to the 2020 Certification Body Requirements standard.
Offering certification for the 2020 PEFC standards
In order to gain accreditation for the 2020 PEFC Chain of Custody (ST 2002) and PEFC Trademarks (ST 2001) standards, your auditors, certification decision makers and reviewers need to attend a chain of custody training recognized by PEFC International.
You also need to ensure your processes are in line with the requirements of the 2020 Certification Body Requirements standard (ST 2003).
You can find the PEFC recognized training schedule on our website. You can receive updates on the latest training opportunities by signing up to our newsletter at the bottom of this page or by following us on Twitter.
If your internal PEFC chain of custody training programme was recognized by PEFC through the PEFC Training Recognition Programme (TRP), you will need to get it recognized again before offering certification for the revised standards.
If you are interesting in participating in the TRP, either to renew your recognition or to apply for the first time, you can find more information on our website or contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can also sign up for the next scheduled PEFC TRP event.
For more information, please see the draft TRP guidelines.
After the transition date of 14 February 2022, no PEFC chain of custody certificates against the older version of the standard may be issued. From this date, companies certified against the older versions of the PEFC standards will have one year to adapt their systems to the 2020 versions.
The 2020 standards and introductions to their changes
Certification Body Requirements:
Chain of Custody:
PEFC Trademarks: