What they have in common is that the requirement is not a report written afterwards but a process that has to exist before the product is sold: you have to be able to show where the material came from, what the packaging is made of, and that what you claim can be traced back down the chain. It is a documentation job, and it rarely lands on whoever has time to spare.
The three sets of rules
EUDR — the Deforestation Regulation
What the EU Deforestation Regulation requires and how to build a due diligence process that holds: risk assessment, geolocation data and the statement you have to submit.
PPWR — the Packaging Regulation
The EU packaging regulation: what applies to materials, recyclability and labelling, and what extended producer responsibility means in reporting and fees.
FSC and PEFC
How forest certification works, what the standards require, and how traceability — chain of custody — is kept in order through the whole chain.
What they have in common
- The burden of proof is yours. It is not enough that the material is lawful — you have to be able to show that you checked.
- The requirement follows the product down the chain, so a gap at a supplier becomes your gap when you sell on.
- The documentation has to exist when the question is asked, not be produced then.
- Anyone who already runs a certified chain-of-custody system has much of the work done, but not all of it.
Questions about compliance
- How do we know which one applies to us?
- Start from what you place on the market. If the product involves one of the commodities the Deforestation Regulation lists, or something made from them, it is EUDR. If it has packaging — and almost everything does — it is PPWR. If you sell wood- or paper-based goods to customers who ask for certified material, it is FSC and PEFC. Most industrial companies are caught by more than one.
- They overlap. Are we doing the same work three times?
- No, but the evidence is partly the same. The supplier knowledge you build for one carries over to the next, and a working traceability system takes much of the load in both. What differs is what you have to be able to show and to whom, and it is that difference the courses keep apart.
- Who here should take it?
- Whoever owns the purchasing or quality process, and whoever has to answer customers' questions. In smaller organisations that is the same person.
Training in the sustainability regulations
Online courses at your own pace, to spread across purchasing, quality and sales.
See the courses