Responsible Purchasing Coordinator

George has worked with WWF for over three years following almost a decade working with large UK and US retailers. He was worked on a variety of environmental issues ranging from packaging and waste to fuels and transport. His main area of interest has been in the responsible sourcing of forest products and he has worked with a number of companies to successfully improve their sourcing. George worked for a number of years in the timber trade both buying and selling lumber, sheet materials and joinery in the UK. He holds an Honours degree in Forest Products Technology from Brunel University (UK).

GlobalForest and Trade Network (GFTN) is an initiative of the WWF Forest Programme to drive improved forest management in the worldĄŻs valuable and threatened forests.It is a partnership between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) led by WWF, and leading progressive buyers, suppliers, and producers from across the spectrum of forest products sectors who are willing to demonstrate leadership in implementing best practices in the areas of responsible forest management and trade. It has been estimated that the GFTN and the companies that participate in it have driven at least 50% of the forest certification through harnessing (and creating) demand for wood product from well-managed forests. In 2002 GFTN made a major change to its operating strategy by broadening the scope to include producer countries. Rather than solely creating demand for wood product from well-managed forests, it was recognised that efforts were needed to be made to work with forest managers and producers to assist with delivery of certification. Over 50 forest management companies across 3 continents now work with GFTN to achieve certification in the next few years.Today, over 300 companies and community-based operations, trading in more than 30 billion dollars of forest products annually, are members of the GFTN across 34 producing and consuming countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

The Global Forest and Trade Network in China