This Natural Stone Council Chain of Custody Standard has been developed as part of the ongoing efforts of a number of interested parties to document and improve the sustainability profile of natural dimension stone production. This standard complements American National Standard, NSF/ANSI 373 - Sustainability Assessment for Natural Dimension Stone, by driving sustainability throughout the supply chain, ensuring that natural stone products that are sustainably produced, are also handled throughout the supply chain in a manner that ensures their sustainability. These requirements are intended to form the basis of conformity assessment programs, such as third-party certification or registration.

The standard applies to all organizations in the supply chain of natural stone, both domestic and international, that take legal ownership of natural stone products and that wish to make or maintain a certified genuine stone claim. Organizations directly engaged in the quarry or processing of natural stone should refer to the ANSI/NSF 373 standard. A company intending to apply for certification will need to purchase the chain of custody standard in order to pursue certification. The certifier will not provide these.

This standard was developed through a multi-stakeholder process, led by Ecoform, LLC, an organization with extensive standards development experience. Stakeholders involved in developing the Standard included stone producers, fabricators, distributors, as well as end users such as architects, academics, and other interested parties. While developed through a robust stakeholder process, the NSC would like to acknowledge that deliberations around specific criteria were informed by several existing standards, most notably the Forestry Stewardship Council entitled FSC Standard for Chain of Custody Certification (FSC-STD-40-004 V2-1 EN), upon which the structure of this standard is based.