Box 1. The wood supply chain

There is no single standard supply chain for wood and paper-based products and all supply chains are different. There are, however, common elements that can be useful to clarify the connections among various manufacturing points, the product flows, and the environmental and social issues associated (figure below).

Solid wood, engineered wood, and paper-based products are manufactured using different technologies, but they may all come from the same forest or even the same tree. Some forest-based industries often use all parts of the tree for different products in a system of integrated processing facilities. In other instances, only the most valuable portions of the best trees are used. Raw tropical hardwoods are often produced under these circumstances.

There is great variability in supply chains depending on the country, region, or local circumstances. In the most complicated cases, a sawmill, pulp mill and engineered wood plant are fed by a network of product flows and business relationships. Mills frequently incorporate wood from various sources involving a large number of actors. For instance, a pulp mill in the Eastern United States that produces 860,000 tons (Mt) of paperboard per year uses 2,720,000 tons of wood chips. The mill procures these chips directly from 60-70 landowners, some 600 suppliers, 120 sawmills and 10 shipping operations (MeadWestvaco estimates for 2006).

Tracking these wood flows can be challenging, but it is possible to do it to a degree that is satisfactory for sustainable procurement (e.g., district level; see traceability discussion).