Letters, feedback, get it off your chest

Dear Editor,



Re:
MIS supplier targets Kodak and Heidelberg customer base

Our firm has been trying for two years to get software at a reasonable price that meets our requirements. We have gone to the very best regarded industry leaders. The service, for example only 3 responses over 12 months by one firm when $100,000 was quoted when we asked for some alterations, and the standard of product offered for the price was very disappointing. In the end we had it written for nothing as a student project by the local university. This was reasonable, but is only interim.

Good luck to the Kiwis and Tharsten, I hope it is not tied up to one hardware supplier.

Edward Congdon


Whites Law Bindery, Melbourne












Dear Editor,



Re: FSC Australia paves the way for builders and architects



Firstly I applaud the initiatives taken by FSC in raising the awareness of
Forest Certification as an issue. Forest certification is an issue at the
centre and origin of any paper or board and it is important that consumers,
print buyers, publishers and specifiers understand just what it is all about
and what the different certification schemes are.

The PEFC forest certification scheme is the one that applies to most of the
imported paper grades, especially those from Northern Europe and Nth
America. Its outcomes for the environment are very similar to FSC but
unfortunately they seem to be seen as competing bodies rather than
comlimentary. Any differences between them are in fact negligible compared
to what is possible when compared to unregulated, uncertified forestry.

That's what forest certification is meant to do, give a measure of certainty
that the wood used to create the paper product has come from legal,
sustainable and ethical sources. The measure of that is audited by
independent third party bodies who grant certification only to those who
meet the criteria. Many of those bodies actually work to certify to both
PEFC and FSC standards.

The next step along the line is for the paper mill to take up Chain of
Custody (CoC) which allows them to be able to pass on that forest
certification onto the products that they output. That chain of custody can
be passed along through the next stage as that paper product is transformed
by the printer or publisher into the finished product. Once again, that CoC
certification is only granted after meeting strict criteria.

I work for an Australian company who are mill agents for two Finnish paper
companies, M-real and Myllykoski. Those companies produce both PEFC and FSC
products. They support both certification schemes equally and although by
far the majority of product is PEFC, they source the wood on a geographic
and locality basis rather than on any preference for the benefits of one
scheme over another. The important factor is always to be increasing the
share of certified wood.

Regrettably, PEFC havent had the local resources to get their message out
into the marketplace and mirror the excellent work FSC have done in this
regard. The industry and those making decisions on paper based on wanting to
do the right thing by the environment should however be hearing that message
and understand the whole range of products and choices that are available to
them.

We are working now to raise the profile of PEFC with our customers, their
clients and the industry in general.

Regards


Glenn Flack


Technical Services Manager


Aust & NZ Pty Ltd


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