Adding auditing to our skill set
It was early summer 2023 and Kath and I were slogging our way through the ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor Course so we could become auditors through the Grown in Britain and Plant Healthy certification schemes.
“Well that must be like watching paint dry” I hear you say, or in a riff on the words of a children's television show that some of you may remember, “why don’t you just switch off your computer and go out and do something less boring instead…”
Before I started on this auditing journey, in my previous role, I had been at the other end of the process, helping to write standards for chain of custody, woodfuel and plant health. Helping Government to risk assess and plan for plant health contingencies. It was a part of my job that I felt was really important - ensuring businesses in the sector had input into the standards that they would be audited against so those standards would be workable and fit for purpose.
That is something that we continue to feel strongly about at Evolving Forests. Whether you, as a business, want to prove to your customers that the timber you use or the tree-derived products you make have originated from responsibly sourced forests and that the material has been tracked through every stage of the process, from forest to end-user, or whether your nursery business is committed to minimising the risk of introducing and spreading damaging plant pests and diseases, then robust standards are essential.
So too are the certification bodies that deliver the standards, in our case, Grown in Britain and Plant Healthy. Grown in Britain has developed a unique mark to give robust assurance to customers that the homegrown timber and forest products the sector produces is truly grown and made in Britain. Plant Healthy governed by the Plant Health Alliance has developed a robust and iterative standard that sets the benchmark for safeguarding businesses and our wider countryside from destructive plant pests and diseases.
The final players are those individuals who audit your business against these standards. As shiny new auditors both Kath and I aim to show that we bring integrity and respect to the table. We are passionate about the businesses we audit, and why we are auditing them, from seed to structure.
Our auditing services build on this and apply our usual people focused, proactive approach to the rigour of the auditing process.
Our philosophy is to always provide simple cost effective solutions to plant health and timber product supply chain challenges and to deliver top quality audit services to the certification bodies we work with and their clients.
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