13/01/2009

Those responsible for the Environment of Barcelona City Council, recently conducted a training session given by managers of the importing wood company of Gabarró Hermanos, S.A.

The meeting was initiated by Mr. Xavier Philip, Chairman of the Department of Continuous Environment Improvement Area of the City of Barcelona, presenting the content and purpose of the meeting. Then Helena Barracó, the preson responsible for the + Sustainable City Council project, from the Department of Continuous Environment Improvement Area, was responsible for commenting on the decree of responsible wood buying of the Barcelona City Council.

On Gabarró Hermanos, S.A., Mr. Ramón Badia Barge, President of the company and the Spanish Association of Importers of Wood (AEIM), introduced the company and gave a comprehensive description of the current situation of the wood market, with particular attention to the certified wood. During the day, he enriched the meeting with key concepts such as legality, sustainability and certification. Then, Mr. Xavier Cairo, Director of Operations and Logistics, was responsible for introducing the attendees at the Chain of Custody Certification. He proceeded to define concepts of Forest Management and Chain of Custody showing the different certification schemes, statistics certification processes and equivalences between different certification schemes, including the structure of the Chain of Custody of Gabarró Hermanos, S.A. Using the example of Gabarró as certified company by the PEFC diagrams (Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) and FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), it could be shown in detail the operation of buying and selling process of certified wood.

Afterwards, it was held a workshop, indicating all the steps, requirements and procedures to follow from the purchase of certified material through storage and control of traceability of the material until its sale to the customer. Certification authorities verify and assure compliance with the rules of certification systems in order to control the flow of certified material from the forest to the final customer.

The training session ended with a visit to the store where attendees were involved in the management system using radio frequency and variety of species and products in stores of Gabarró Hermanos, S.A.