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Catch up on ASI assessment activities & accreditation programs, quality & team updates, plus news from the past quarter.
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Celebrating Ten Years of Trust

Letter from Guntars Lagūns, Managing Director

Not sure if many have noticed, but it is ten years since ASI was established. At that time, our shareholder understood that keeping assurance processes in-house is not in line with their strategy, as their core competence is standard setting and promotion of responsible forest management. With this decision, a new highly-specialized organization, ASI, was established, with a small team and only one accreditation program.
 
Over the last ten years, our organization became a key partner for prominent global social and environmental initiatives. We are proud to be a prime choice for sustainability leaders seeking credible assurance that their certification system or similar initiative is being implemented consistently around the world. We now work with seven such initiatives, and are sure of our capacity to keep growing.
 
ASI has established a global network of assessors and experts, growing from a modest team of five (back when I joined the organization) to close to 50 – a tenfold increase over ten years. Today, our team and growing portfolio of services accommodate the demands of our customers and their stakeholders, offering innovative, collaborative solutions to global challenges in the sustainability landscape.
 
In November, we opened the ASI Asia Regional Office in Kuala Lumpur, to ensure our presence and availability when our expertise is urgently needed. This is our first office outside of Germany and we invite you to come around and visit the team: you are always welcome. This global expansion of ASI will continue, and we look forward to establishing our presence in other regions.
 
While beginning another decade at ASI, we still feel like a start-up company. This may sound a bit strange in this seemingly regulated and strict assurance industry. However, as the saying goes, it is not how old you are, but instead how old you feel. We are agile. We want to learn. We are open for growth. This desire to innovate combined with the established expertise of our people and effectiveness of our customized assurance solutions is what makes ASI special and we are proud of it.
 
Therefore, 2016 is special. To celebrate our Tenth Anniversary, we will develop the organization further while enjoying our youth and following our beliefs: that we can change the world and make it better. I invite all our stakeholders and customers to join our celebration and, indeed, help us to make the world better place.
 
Sincerely yours,
Guntars Lagūns
MD

ASI News

ASI expands global presence: Regional office opens in Kuala Lumpur

On Friday, 13 November 2015, ASI opened its new regional office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The regional office has been in planning for over a year, and the opening event – coordinated and hosted by Jessie Ooi, ASI Regional Representative in Asia – connected a group of more than 20 individuals from a dozen local sustainability standards and NGOs. ...Continue reading

Putting technology to work

ASI presented two recent projects – to demystify technologies and to demonstrate innovation in practice – at the annual ISEAL Members’ Week, a meeting of participants across the alliance of mission-driven organizations to discuss progress, challenges and collaboration. ...Continue reading

Transparent & Accessible Assessments: ASI to publish ASC and RSPO assessment reports

As of 1 November 2015, assessment reports for the ASC and RSPO accreditation programs will be published on the ASI website. All reports from ASI desk reviews and compliance and witness assessments for ASC Aquaculture and RSPO Principles and Criteria (P&C) scopes will be available for download in the ASI Document Library. ...Continue reading

ASI continues to increase rigor and credibility of RSPO accreditation program

Since its appointment as accreditation body for RSPO in 2012, ASI has continually increased the rigor and credibility of its accreditation program. ASI now oversees more than 20 CABs operating around the world under the RSPO SCCS and P&C standards. ...Continue reading

ASI Quality Management

 

QMS updates

ASI Glossary was updated.
ASI Accreditation Application Form was updated.
ASI Scope Extension & Reduction Form was updated.
ASI Surveillance & Sampling Procedure was updated.
Presentation for CABs on ASI assessment activities & services was published.

ASI 2016 Assessment schedule was released. See all upcoming assessments here.

ASI Fee Schedule (effective 1 March 2016), which combines and simplifies the fee schedules for ASC, FSC, GSTC, MSC, RSB and RSPO programs, was published.

Find all public ASI QMS Documents on our website, and always check the Controlled List of Public Documents to be sure you have the latest versions.
 


Public Consultations

ASI invites FSC-accredited CABs to contribute to the revision of two draft Procedures: FSC Auditor and Training Registry and FSC Auditor Registry Transition. The public consultation will be open until 12 February 2016. Please find more information here.

ASI held a public consultation on the new Witness and Compliance Assessments Procedure (ASI-PRO-20-111), which will superseded the existing Witness Guidance (ASI-GUI-20-105). The public consultation was closed on 17 November 2015. The procedure and comments received are now under review. Please find more information here.

ASI Global Team

We were pleased to welcome new members to the team in the final quarter of 2015:
 

Assessors
  • Ana Dahlin - FSC Accreditation
  • Selvanathan Grapragasem - RSPO Accreditation
  • Vladislav Kheynonen - FSC Accreditation
  • Bill Reynolds - FSC Accreditation
  • Haye Semail - FSC & RSPO Accreditation

Office & Operations
  • Marnie Bammert - IUCN GLPCA Coordinator 
  • Antje Liedtke - Bookkeeper
Meet the whole team.

Stay informed

Sign up for FSC & RSPO Assessment Announcements 

If you wish to be subscribed to the ASI FSC and/or RSPO Assessment Announcements mailing lists please send an email inluding your full name to: asi-info@accreditation-services.com.

Activity Update

The latest stats on our assurance programs,
plus our accreditation activities from last quarter.
ASC-accreditation stats
FSC-accreditation stats
GSTC public consultation
IUCN public consultation
MSC-accreditation stats
RSPO-accreditation stats
Photos © Maris Zudrags, ASI.
Copyright © 2016 Assurance Services International, All rights reserved.


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