EverCover Matching / Direct
EverCover Matching
The way that EverCover Matching works is that a forest owner the same amount of EverCover-certified wood is placed on the market as is consumed there. The wood itself is not tracked through the entire chain; instead, ECM is based on mass balance.
These forests are managed in a nature-respecting way. No clear-cutting is carried out at all; instead, the forests are managed using continuous cover forestry methods. In this way, forest biodiversity and various ecosystems are preserved for future generations.
In EverCover Matching, the owner sells EverCover-certified wood freely to the market, after which a company purchases an equivalent amount of raw wood material from the market. This may not necessarily be the original EverCover-certified wood, but it is compensated, since the corresponding amount has been harvested from an EverCover forest managed without clear-cuts. The forest behind the compensation is always known and traceable, so its existence can also be physically verified.
In ECM, there is no full Chain of Custody tracking between the forest and the purchasing company. However, companies buying ECM wood are subject to Chain of Custody requirements, where instead of physical segregation of materials, a credit system is applied.
The credit system means that the company must
- Track the amounts of ECM it has used
- Document purchases and sales
- Demonstrate in audits that the volume of products used corresponds to the ECM wood purchased from the market
In addition, CoC requirements include responsible operations at the production facility: respect for workers’ rights, safe working conditions, and lawful and transparent practices. This ensures that the entire production chain is responsible both from an environmental and a human perspective.
This ensures that the use of ECM wood is based on the amount of wood harvested from clear-cut-free forestry, even if an individual end product is not traceable to a specific EverCover forest. At the same time, the known compensation forest creates transparency and provides the company with the possibility of physical verification.
EverCover Matching offers companies a flexible and practical way to join a system based on clear-cut-free forestry and to communicate responsibility in the marketplace.
EverCover Direct
EverCover Direct (ECD) wood is harvested from forests managed in a nature-respecting way. No clear-cutting is carried out; instead, forests are managed using continuous cover forestry methods. Forest use takes into account biodiversity and the variety of forest ecosystems.
ECD wood is produced only from EverCover-certified forests. ECD wood also guarantees the complete traceability of the wood from the EverCover forest all the way to the final product. This is called Chain of Custody, or full origin tracking. ECD means that
- The original location of each batch of wood is known
- The whole supply chain is documented
- The wood is never mixed with any other raw material at any stage
ECD requirements also include the responsibility of the production facility, such as a sawmill or furniture manufacturer: respect for workers’ rights, safe working conditions, and lawful as well as transparent operations. This ensures that the entire production chain carries its responsibility for both the environment and people.
When you purchase ECD wood or products, you can be confident that the wood used comes from an EverCover forest. Every final product can be traced throughout the processing chain back to the original forest where no clear-cutting has taken place.