FSC® and Littlethorpe: A Q&A With Commercial Director Tom

10 December 2025 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Littlethorpe has been working with FSC®-certified timber for more than two decades. In this conversation, Tom explains how it started, why it still matters, and what most people misunderstand about sustainable timber.

When did FSC® certification become non-negotiable for Littlethorpe?

Around the early 2000s. Leicestershire County Council put out a tender for bus shelters, and one of the requirements was that the timber had to be FSC certified. That pushed us to go for FSC certification.

At the time, FSC was still relatively new. Timber merchants weren’t really set up for it. Some would say “take it or leave it,” or they could only supply certain lengths and sizes in FSC, not everything we needed. That meant we had to go back up the supply chain, because merchants were just buying whatever importers had brought into the UK market. We needed to demand FSC from them, which forced merchants to demand it, which forced importers to demand it.

We were slightly too early for the market, really. We couldn’t force anyone to change, so we bypassed them. If we were doing the same thing now, it would be far easier, because FSC is much more widely available.

What benefits has FSC® certification brought to Littlethorpe?

It gives us a position we can stand on: our timber is FSC certified. If you’re importing tropical hardwoods and they’re not FSC or PEFC certified, you shouldn’t be touching them. With local timber, you can sometimes get away without certification if you know exactly where it’s coming from. But if you’re in a supply chain and you don’t know the source, you have to have chain of custody, otherwise the timber could be from anywhere.

It’s not about which country you buy from. You can buy really sustainable timber from the Amazon, and really unsustainable timber from North America. What matters is knowing where the tree came from or having a chain-of-custody certificate. FSC removes doubt. It lets us clearly say: this is sustainable.

How do you explain to councils or procurement teams why FSC matters, especially when cheaper options exist?

These days, it’s a relatively easy conversation. Most people understand the gist that FSC means sustainable timber. They may not know the details, but they recognise that FSC is “the good stuff,” and the inverse: if it’s not certified, is it the bad stuff?

Often, they just haven’t thought about it. Once you talk it through, the answer becomes obvious.

On larger government projects, the timber procurement policy already requires FSC or PEFC-certified timber. If it’s certified, you’re fine. If it’s not, then you fall into a secondary category where you need a risk assessment to prove the sourcing is sustainable. That can work, but it’s nowhere near as robust.

One thing people don’t always realise is that a company being FSC certified doesn’t mean the product they sell you is FSC certified. They can still sell you something completely uncertified. What matters is that the product itself is sold as certified.

What changes in your workshop or sourcing have been influenced by FSC standards?

Because we couldn’t get reliable FSC supplies at the start, it forced us to go further up the supply chain and import our own timber. That turned out to be a big advantage.

We can order exact lengths and cross-sections, which means less waste. We can buy shorts — something most merchants won’t stock because they can’t guarantee selling them. Mills can cut what we need, and that gives them better yields from the forest.

It also allowed us to use lesser-known timber species that merchants wouldn’t usually import. Timber can behave like a brand, where everyone asks for the same few species because they recognise the names. By using species that suit our needs but aren’t widely demanded, we relieve pressure on the forests and help sustainability overall.

How does Littlethorpe’s longevity-first approach fit into modern sustainability conversations?

Perfectly. In the waste hierarchy, “make it last longer” is right at the top. If you install a shelter and it lasts decades, you avoid reprocessing, replacing and repeating all the associated carbon and cost.

There are large costs with any shelter installation including groundworks, highways licences, surfacing, traffic management, planning etc. If the shelter lasts longer, all those costs spread across more years. Councils tell us they like that our shelters don’t have to rely heavily on glazing for example, as glazing repairs is what typically eats budgets through vandalism. In rural areas in particular, no glazing means far fewer replacements, and councils can actually spend money improving infrastructure instead of chasing broken glass.

What misconceptions do people still have about tropical hardwoods and sustainability?

Two main ones.

First: bad practices in the industry. A company might say they “buy FSC timber,” but if they’re not FSC certified themselves, they can’t issue a certificate. They might be blagging it. Unless the product is sold as FSC certified by an FSC-certified supplier, the claim doesn’t mean much.

Second: people think “Amazon timber” automatically means deforestation. Sustainable forestry is not deforestation. In FSC forests, local communities manage the land, selectively remove trees, protect biodiversity and earn a living from maintaining the forest. Clear-felling is the problem, and that’s mostly for agriculture.

There’s no such thing as a bad place to get timber from — only bad practices.

In practical terms, does FSC-certified timber behave differently in the workshop?

No. Physically, it’s the same timber. The difference is paperwork which includes chain-of-custody, sourcing accuracy and traceability.

It becomes complicated only if you’re mixing FSC and non-FSC products, because then you risk contamination. The easiest approach is to make everything FSC. If everything you do goes through the FSC system, there’s no segregation, and the process becomes simple.

When people say FSC is “a lot of work,” it’s usually because they’re dabbling. If you go all in, like us, it’s straightforward.

Is everything you produce FSC certified?

All our street furniture is FSC certified. Some small bespoke domestic joinery isn’t, purely because certification isn’t relevant to that market, but we still buy sustainably (usually FSC or PEFC certified), because that’s the standard in most timber merchants now.

Where you might see uncertified timber today is in specialist hardwoods. But again, there are no bad places, just bad practices. Sustainable hardwoods exist everywhere.

Can you share an example of choosing the harder or more expensive route for sustainability?

In the early days, FSC timber cost more. We paid a premium and had to pass that on. Councils still preferred the certified option. When we shifted fully to buying container loads of FSC-certified timber, it became cost-neutral which at that point, why not do it?

Another example is roofing shingles. The Canadian market produces sustainable western red cedar shingles, but they’re now PEFC certified. FSC and PEFC don’t mix well. We needed FSC, so we sourced Wallaba shingles instead. Wallaba is much more durable but heavier, which can limit use. For us, the weight wasn’t a problem, so we chose the more sustainable but harder-to-source option.

There are also issues with EU/UK Timber Regulations (EUTR/UKTR). Those regulations enforce legality, not sustainability. Someone might say “it’s EUTR compliant,” but that only means it wasn’t illegally harvested, not that it’s good for the forest. The terms can easily mislead people.

Is illegal logging still an issue globally?

It has been, yes. Investigations have shown illegal logs entering mills and then becoming indistinguishable from legal timber. Once timber is processed into products like plywood, it’s almost impossible for the end buyer to trace its origin.

That’s why regulations require the first importer into the EU or UK market to prove legality. It stops illegal logs at the border. But legality isn’t the same as sustainability as clear-felling can still be legal in some countries.

Has sustainability become easier or harder in the last decade?

Much easier. FSC and PEFC have become far more widespread, and sustainability is now expected. That’s great for the industry and great for forests.

It does mean we’ve lost a bit of our USP — we were doing it properly long before it became standard — but that’s a good thing. The goal is for everyone to work this way.

How do you see Littlethorpe’s role in shaping sustainability in public infrastructure?

If we show that FSC-certified shelters are possible, it strengthens councils’ ability to demand them. If suppliers can’t meet the standard, they lose out. That raises the bar across the industry. Certification stops unsustainable products from hiding in plain sight. By consistently offering FSC-certified shelters, we help councils push for better options.

We’re proud of being early adopters (especially for a company of our size at the time). Now that FSC is becoming the standard, we’ll keep moving forward. It’s already a very sustainable product. Future improvements will be in the details and in adapting as the wider construction industry evolves.

Back to Blog