To ensure that the Rio 2016 Organising Committee is buying only products with a valid and accurate responsible management claim, Rio 2016 will use the Online Claims Platform (OCP) as a tool to be connected with approved certified suppliers. This move will ensure the Organising Committee adheres to its commitment to use only certified products.
In December 2013, the Rio 2016 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and FSC Brazil announced that all forest products that will be acquired by the Organizing Committee will be certified. Now, the OCP will be used as a tool to save time on administration processes while giving robust information about the FSC certified purchases.
To this end, Emily Crumley, FSC Supply Chain Integrity Manager and Fernanda Rodrigues, FSC Brasil Technical Coordinator, initiated the OCP’s pilot use by presenting a training workshop to representatives of the Rio 2016 Organising Committee. The workshop covered the functioning of OCP, which is to be shared with all FSC certificate holders involved in the sales and purchases of FSC certified products in partnership with FSC Brazil. The training session was held at the Rio 2016 headquarters in Rio de Janeiro on May 05th 2014.
Currently more than 170 organizations are taking part in OCP testing, giving important feedback and suggestions to the OCP team. Rio 2016 is using the demo and live versions of OCP, with next steps being uploading FSC certified purchases as soon as they start purchasing these.
The first results can already been seen by the Rio 2016 Organising Committee : “Rio 2016 has committed to purchase products that are certified for chain of custody, either to facilities or operations. With the volume of certified products purchased and with a yet unknown number of supplier contracts, use of the OCP tool will be essential to manage our suppliers in a secure way that also validates the certification status of specific products and help us make a positive legacy for companies”, says Tania Braga, head of Sustainability, Accessibility and Legacy for Rio 2016.
FSC Online Claims Platform (OCP)
During the last 20 years the FSC label has become a globally recognized symbol of trust and integrity. With more than 28,000 FSC certificates worldwide, the FSC network has grown into a myriad of connections between companies, which continues to expand. The backbone of the FSC system is chain of custody, which allows FSC product claims to be passed on through a production chain from forest to end-user.
FSC has developed OCP, creating digitally linked connections between suppliers and customers. The OCP is currently under testing and consultation and will remain so for all of 2014. The Rio Olympics will be part of this testing and will provide valuable input on how OCP can be used in the green building market. The use of OCP is currently voluntary for all FSC certificate holders. Decisions on if and when the OCP will be implemented across all certified companies will be made by the FSC Board of Directors, once testing is more advanced and the consultation process has been finalized