Posted by Barry Graden, SFI Director, Southeast U.S. Community Outreach

When I joined SFI Inc. last month, I knew I would have a chance to work with many partners who share my interest in sustainable forest management and third-party forest certification.

Last week, I learned just how much these partnerships can achieve. The second phase of an innovative pilot project in Maine, involving Time Inc., Hearst Enterprises, National Geographic Society, Verso Paper Corp. and Sappi Fine Paper North America, led to 790,000 acres/320,000 hectares of additional forest lands being certified to the SFI Standard.

Now that’s worth celebrating. These corporate leaders understand we need more certified lands to address the growing market and customer interest in how resources are managed – and they are willing to act. We are interested in replicating this kind of work in other locations, which is why I am currently looking to identify corporate sponsors.

That’s what I have always liked about the SFI program – it has a strong foundation as an internationally recognized forest certification standard then builds on this by supporting responsible forest management locally. It draws on the strengths of diverse partners to improve forest practices across North America through landowner and community outreach, through science, through market awareness.

I’m a registered forester and I have been involved with the forest sector for 31 years so I’ve watched SFI from its inception. I’ve seen how it has helped to improve practices and advance knowledge over time. This view has been reinforced in the last month as I met with members of the vast SFI community – with SFI Implementation Committees, forestry associations and family forest owners; with suppliers and customers.

There is so much happening, and so much more we can do. Let me know if you have ideas about how we can grow certification or if you want to join with SFI and its many partners. Together, we can strengthen third-party certification and spread the word about the benefits of the SFI program – and build more successes like the Maine pilot.

Barry Graden recently joined SFI Inc. in the new position of Director, Southeast U.S. Community Outreach. He will build on the program’s community activities to promote and strengthen forest certification throughout the United States, with emphasis on the south. His office is in Greenville, SC, and he can be reached by email or telephone at 864-451-7958.

I’m so proud of the SFI community’s accomplishments and our shared commitment to responsible forest management, but it really hit home when I had a look at our December newsletter.

It demonstrates how we are growing on the ground – 195 million acres/79 million hectares certified to date – and how we are being increasingly recognized by leading agencies around the world.

Check it out. You’ll see that this fall alone, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education and the International Green Construction Code all recognized SFI and other credible certification standards. On top of this, PEFC International members re-endorsed our forest standard. You’ll find many other statements in our fact sheet SFI: What Others are Saying.

Even the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is starting to look at things differently. LEED Pilot Credit 43 for non-structural materials currently gives equal credit to all forest certification standards including SFI. And in the LEED for Homes draft 2012 language, the USGBC has removed the FSC credit so SFI program participants have a level playing field. In a recent article, green building writer John Wagner asks if Pilot Credit 43 might open the door to LEED credits for SFI certification. And don’t forget to post a comment to let the USGBC know Pilot Credit 43 is on the right track!

Of course, this recognition would not be possible if it were not for the efforts of hundreds of SFI program participants across North America and the countless number of partners working with us and our SFI Implementation Committees to extend the reach of SFI certification so we can build knowledge and improve forest practices on certified and uncertified lands alike.

Everyone who supports forest certification and the SFI program should take a bow. It’s an honor to work with you, and such a pleasure to see the concrete results of our efforts.

British Columbia has more than 130 million acres/53 million hectares of certified forests – over 40 percent of them certified to the SFI 2010-2014 Standard.

And forest professionals contribute a lot to forest certification. So it wasn’t a surprise when the Association of British Columbia Forest Professionals made certification the theme of its November/December magazine – BC Forest Professional – with articles on a range of topics, including SFI certification and audits.

In An SFI Audit: How it Works and What’s Involved, Chris Ridley-Thomas, who leads KPMG Performance Registrar Inc.’s forest certification practice, said the key factors that drive successful SFI audits are competent auditors, clear standards, reliable audit processes and transparent reporting.

He pointed out that regulatory compliance alone is not enough to achieve SFI certification. Chris said that’s because the SFI Standard has unique requirements such as landowner outreach, fiber sourcing and research, and because “. . . regulation provides a static performance target based on conditions to be avoided while voluntary standards provide a dynamic performance target based on processes to improve performance over time.”

In Interfor: 10 Years of SFI Certification, Gerry Fraser, Interfor’s Manager of Sustainable Forestry and a founding member of the Western Canada SFI Implementation Committee, looked back at some of the reasons why his company chose to be certified to the SFI standard in 2000.

“We chose SFI certification for a number of reasons,” Gerry wrote. “It meant we could integrate performance measures and objectives into the environmental management systems we had in place and SFI had broad recognition in the United States – our largest market. We found that certifying our lands gave us the incentive to improve practices and helped us strengthen and formalize many of the environmental and social actions that are part of doing business in British Columbia.”

And on the ground, he added, “the similarities between the three certification standards in British Columbia outweigh the differences.”  Gerry noted that most forest professionals in British Columbia choose SFI or Canadian Standards Association Z809 certification – and since lands certified to CSA are recognized by SFI, this means products from 95% of British Columbia’s certified lands are eligible to use the SFI chain-of-custody label.

If you’ve had a chance to check out the new section on our website – In Case You Were Wondering – you’ll know we welcome this kind of informed discussion about certification. A vote of thanks to Gerry and Chris for doing their part.

Larry Selzer covered a lot of ground in his keynote address at the SFI annual conference. It was clearly well received, and was one of the highlights of the event.

Larry is an incredible advocate for working forests and certification because he has such a unique perspective. He heads The Conservation Fund, a top-ranked non-profit that last year was named #1 on Charity Navigator’s list of 10 of the Best Charities Everyone’s Heard Of for its efficient and fiscally responsible performance.

The Conservation Fund owns almost 100,000 acres of working forests in the United States. They are all actively managed, and certified to the SFI Standard. Larry has been a firm supporter of SFI certification since it began; he is currently vice chair of our board and a member of the board’s Conservation Chamber.

In his speech, he said he would like working forests to be seen as an essential part of infrastructure – like our rail lines, fiber optic cables and interstate highway system. “If we reframe our conversations about forests to include water security, energy independence and jobs here at home, I believe this will elevate them to a much higher level of discourse when it comes to policy decisions, funding and citizen support.”

He also issued some tough challenges. Environmental activists need to shift from dissembling and name calling to finding ways to expand conservation; corporate leaders need to stand up for what is right, not what is expedient; and elected officials need to recognize an investment in forests is an investment in clean air, clean water, energy independence and good jobs.

Larry is serving his second term on the SFI Board. He told us he came back because SFI is making a real difference on the ground, there is so much more to do to make sure we do not continue to lose millions of acres of working forests, and because the vast majority of the world’s forests are not yet certified. He was clear that he did not come back to respond to a steady stream of attacks by market campaign groups.

“If well-managed forests are the goal, we should all be celebrating the remarkable victory of having millions of acres of forests across North America certified,” he said. “We should not be wasting precious resources while millions of acres of forests disappear.”

I would encourage you to read Larry’s speech and circulate it – and let me know if you have thoughts about how we can build on his ideas. Larry ended with a quote from actor Christopher Reeve that is quite apt: “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

There’s a lot to like about SFI annual conferences.

They bring together the SFI community so we can share ideas and explore future opportunities with experts – this year speakers included Kathryn Fernholz from Dovetail, Scott McDougall from TerraChoice, Adam Grant from the World Resources Institute, Mary White from PepsiCo, Michael Luzier from the NAHB Research Center and Jimmie Powell from The Nature Conservancy. A panel of Aboriginal leaders shared their experiences with SFI, and three SFI board members engaged in a thoughtful open discussion.

The conference in Burlington, VT, was our biggest ever, with 226 participants. We welcomed customers – like PepsiCo, IKEA, JCPenney and Time – as well as delegates from companies and communities of all sizes, Aboriginal communities, government agencies and conservation groups. They included academics, students, auditors, biologists, printers, landowners and forest professionals – it truly represented The Bigger Picture – Conservation. Integrity. Community.

I was constantly reminded that it’s the passion, the enthusiasm, the knowledge and the diversity of our many participants and supporters that make the SFI program so strong. That’s why we are able to achieve so much in forests and communities across North America.

The conference awards luncheon gave me a chance to showcase some of this good work.

The Boy Scouts of America received the SFI President’s award for everything they do to promote the value of sustainable forestry. Their Forestry merit badge encourages scouts to explore the complexity of forests, and is especially important when you consider these youth are our future leaders, our future land managers, our future consumers. The Boy Scouts of America are also firm supporters of forest certification – their Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico is certified to the SFI Standard; Boys’ Life magazine is printed on SFI chain-of-custody certified paper; and they are using SFI-certified wood for facilities in West Virginia where the 2013 Scout Jamboree will be held.

At this year’s conference, we also celebrated the achievements of the Mississippi SFI Implementation Committee, The Lyme Timber Company and the Wildlife Management Institute.

The Mississippi SFI Implementation Committee met a broad range of criteria – including leadership, logger education, landowner outreach and education, SFI program integrity, and SFI program growth – to earn the 13th Annual SFI Implementation Committee Achievement Award. I can’t say enough about the fantastic contributions our SFI Implementation Committees make. By representing SFI locally, they help us support strong communities and responsible forest practices.

The Lyme Timber Company and Wildlife Management Institute received an SFI Conservation Leadership Award for Biodiversity Research for a project that is improving forest habitat for the American woodcock in northern New York State. As always, there are a lot of other partners involved – including New York State Department of Environmental Conservation; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Geological Survey; National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; and Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Thanks to everyone who made the 16^th Annual SFI Conference such a great success – including delegates, sponsors and speakers. Check our conference website where we have posted speaker presentations, including the inspiring keynote address by Larry Selzer, President and CEO of The Conservation Fund and an SFI board member.

I hope to see you at next year’s conference from Sept. 11 to 13 in Milwaukee.