We recently held our first annual ECO Impact Awards in Calgary and during our inaugural awards ceremony, we were pleased to present the Auditor Impact Award to our longstanding member Christopher Mosher, CPA, CA, EP(CEA).
Throughout the nomination, evaluation and judging process one nomination stood out when it came to the category of Environmental Auditing. Our judges unanimously awarded Chris Mosher as the winner, citing his work with British Columbia’s Forest Practices Board as a benchmark standard for future nominees for this award.
About Chris
Chris is a fifth-generation coastal logger and worked in various camps along the coast of BC during summers while attending university. Chris’s education consists of a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, with a major in Finance and minors in Economics and Communications, from Eastern Washington University. Chris has been certified through ECO’s EP Certification Program since August 2002.
Chris is also a Chartered Professional Accountant and holds an Environmental Professional designation, with a focus on sustainable forest management. Chris Mosher has worked in the audit section of the BC Forest Practices Board (FPB) since January 1996 and has been the Director, Audits since April 2002. As Director, Audits, Chris assumes overall responsibility for all compliance audits, including the final reports. Chris also has taken on the role of Chief Financial Officer for the operations of the Forest Practices Board. The FPB has published over 200 compliance audits since 1996 and Chris has been the signing “Auditor of Record” for 164 of these reports. Before joining the Board, Chris articled with Deloitte and Touche Chartered Accountants, then worked with the Auditor General’s office, as well as the Office of the Comptroller General.
Commitment to Environmental Auditing
Chris Mosher has set the standards of environmental auditing and ensures the audit work of the Forest Practices Board is trusted by all. Chris is responsible for the development and application of an annual compliance audit program in British Columbia. The audit program provides assurance to the public over the entire Province – FPB audits cover all forest and range activity on Crown land in BC-a total land base of 95 million hectares of which 60 million hectares is forested. The longevity of the FPB audit program is proof of the sustainability of this work. Several provincial organizations, including the BC Wildlife Federation, have suggested government should expand the mandate of the Forest Practices Board and its audit program to protect the environment across multiple resource sectors in BC.
“This award is really a recognition of the Forest Practices Board’s program and what staff and board members have accomplished over the past 21 years” – Chris Mosher, CPA, CA, EP(CEA)
For the past 15 years, Chris has had overall responsibility of the FPB audit program. Chris applies his environmental skills and knowledge to ensure the credibility of the program by consistently applying audit standards when assessing compliance through assessment of the environmental impacts of various forest and range practices. The audits cover all regions of BC and examine many different tenure holders, ranging from small family run wood lots to major forest companies such as Canadian Forest Products and Western Forest Products. As Auditor of Record, Chris has overall responsibility for all of the Board’s audits.
The Forest Practices Board is B.C.’s independent watchdog for sound forest and range practices, reporting its findings and recommendations directly to the public and government. The board audits forest and range practices on public lands and appropriateness of government enforcement. It can also make recommendations for improvement to practices and legislation.
