Sustainable construction starts with sustainable materials. For timber, this means being able to demonstrate FSC or PEFC certification. But providing that evidence requires accurate recordkeeping. Every delivery must be recorded correctly, and every certificate number must be traceable. Until recently, this involved considerable manual work at Hegeman Bouw & Infra, with the associated risks of errors, double counting, and overlooked certifications. The introduction of the Wood Passport has changed that significantly.
The Wood Passport is a web application for recording and managing timber deliveries for FSC and PEFC certification. All deliveries are grouped by construction project, making it clear which timber was used where and whether its certification can be verified.
The idea is simple. An employee adds an invoice or delivery note by dragging the file into the upload area or emailing it to a dedicated address. The email option was a deliberate choice, as many documents come directly from the construction site.
As soon as a document arrives, AI-powered extraction automatically identifies the key details: supplier, certificate number, certification claim, quantity, and dimensions. The application displays a confidence score for each field, making it immediately clear which extracted details need closer attention.
The system does not have the final say, however. Every entry starts as a draft, and the delivery is only included in dashboards and reports once an employee has checked and approved the details. Most of the manual data entry and searching is eliminated, but people remain in control.
One of the Wood Passport’s key benefits is its built-in quality control. The application automatically flags cases where an invoice or delivery note cannot be interpreted clearly. It also detects potential duplicates, such as the same invoice being accidentally uploaded twice. Deliveries without valid certification receive a clear NO CERT warning. These deliveries remain on record for audit purposes but are excluded from compliance figures.
These warnings, also known as red flags, are visible throughout the application: in the register, on dashboards, and in overview screens. This ensures that nothing slips through the cracks.
Every record must be backed by evidence. That is why the Wood Passport automatically stores each source document in a connected SharePoint environment, with a unique reference for each entry. This allows every line in the register to be traced directly back to the original document, which is essential during a certification audit.
At the click of a button, the application also generates a complete FSC/PEFC register as an Excel file, with separate worksheets for each certification type, subtotals, and references to the source documents. What once took hours of gathering information now takes seconds.
The Wood Passport was developed through close collaboration between Hegeman Bouw & Infra and Basewise, building on a previously approved proof of concept. Mandemaat 3 in Assen is the first construction project to use the application in practice. Alongside managing FSC/PEFC records, the project provides practical insights into which documents produce the most accurate data extraction, how email submissions work on the construction site, and where further fine-tuning is needed.
The lessons learned at Mandemaat will guide the rollout of the Wood Passport across Hegeman Bouw & Infra’s remaining projects. The goal is clear: less administrative hassle, greater control over certification, and full traceability of every timber beam used on the construction site.