Talk about a rewarding start to 2010! We just launched our new standard – check out the summary of significant revisions on our website and our news release with all the details.

You’ll see our new standard improves conservation of biodiversity, recognizes emerging issues such as climate change and bioenergy, and expands logger training in North America. It has made our fiber sourcing requirements stronger, and complements SFI activities aimed at avoiding controversial or illegal offshore fiber sources.

The review that led to the new standard certainly demonstrated the power of our partnerships – kudos to everyone involved.

We also began 2010 as the largest single forest certification standard in the world – more than 180 million acres (73 million hectares) are certified to the SFI forest management standard in North America.

Our new standard, our expanded partnerships and our growth mean we are in a great position to keep leading the push for improved forest practices and more certified forests.

This puts us in a position of responsibility that we take very seriously. We may not certify forests outside North America but our work definitely has a global reach, and a global impact. We cannot act alone, but we certainly can remain leaders in helping raise awareness of the value of forest certification.

In 2010, we’ll be reaching out to anyone who cares about forest management to work with us – not to promote one standard but to show how credible forest certification can make a difference. I hope you’ll join us.

Kathy

We were in Phoenix last week at the Us green Building Council’s well-attended Green Build Expo. I’d like to thank USGBC for hosting this event and bringing together members from all sectors of the building and design community. It is our 7th year with a presence at this show and we are impressed and encouraged with the stellar year over year growth in the event. Like forest certification, green building is no passing trend.

As sustainability practices continue to evolve, it is important that planners, designers, builders, customers and architects know the source of the wood used in their project, and increase the wood in their projects! Today in North America we are all fortunate to have a number of strong forest certification standards, which means the building community have a lot of options when it comes to responsibly sourced wood. But the fact remains that just 10% of the world’s forests are certified – collectively, we all need to promote credible forest certification to influence the other 90%.

As you may know, USGBC is currently reviewing and revising its wood certification benchmarks under LEED. I strongly urge them to recognize all credible forest certification programs, including SFI. This is really a huge opportunity for the USGBC to take a leadership role, end the certification debates and encourage more forest certification worldwide by focusing on sustainability. The certification debates, and subsequent PR stunts, take away from the real goal we should all be working towards – responsible forestry. This sentiment is echoed by Dr. Jeff Howe of Dovetail partners, a non-profit that fosters sustainability and responsible behaviors:

“We must remember that the fundamental purpose of forest certification systems was to decrease deforestation rates, particularly in tropical regions by using the marketplace to create incentives for good forest practices. Quibbling over the relative merits of good systems distracts from that overall goal.”

I hope we’ll be in a different place by the 2010 green build event – I know I sensed a lot of agreement with the notion of putting this debate to bed during our many discussions at this year’s event.

On September 15th, 2009 the US Green Building Council released the second draft of the benchmarks for the certified wood credit in the LEED rating tool. Many of us are disappointed with the direction the benchmarks have gone.

When USGBC began the process of revising its standard, the hope was that it would take an inclusive approach and include a variety of credible certification programs like SFI. That is the approach taken by numerous programs, including Green Build Initiative’s Green Globes system for commercial building in the US, Green Globes Canada for commercial building in Canada and NAHB’s Green Building Guidelines for residential building in the US, among others. The USGBC misses the point with the latest draft and could miss the chance of a lifetime to end the certification debates, encourage more forest certification globally and give architects and builders the choices they need. These benchmarks are still draft and SFI will be filing comments. I encourage anyone who believes in responsible forestry and green building to do the same. For more details, read SFI’s press statement on the SFI website here and see the draft benchmarks here.

A recent UN report – 2008-2009 UNECE/FAO Forest Products Annual Market Review – says there’s potential for significant demand for certified products due to increased interest in avoiding illegal sources, new forest values such as carbon sequestration, and green building initiatives.

It also says that giving “exclusive recognition to particular forest-certification brands may help drive demand for these brands at the expense of wider appreciation of the environmental merits of wood.”

At SFI Inc., we absolutely agree. I have said all along that the world needs more forests certified to reliable and trusted programs like SFI, and the best way to do this is to make sure procurement policies accept them all.

It is distressing to keep reporting that just 10 percent of the world’s forests are certified – even more distressing when the UN report suggests the total might be closer to eight percent.

Let’s hope the objective information in this report – prepared by the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the Food and Agriculture Organization – will help us move from rhetoric to reality when we talk about the value of third-party forest certification.

There is one really bright spot in the review, especially for the SFI program, and that’s the rapid growth of chain-of-custody certification. While forest certification has slowed, chain of custody is growing rapidly in many regions – and the UN report reports the SFI program led the pack. Here’s what it says about chain-of-custody certificates: “In terms of numbers, the most significant of these is the SFI Program in North America. The numbers of its certificates issued increased dramatically during the course of 2008 from 100 certificates covering 400 locations to almost 400 certificates covering 1,000 locations.”

One of the things I absolutely love about the SFI program is our work with communities – it’s a natural extension to any forest management activities. Our partnerships with local Habitat for Humanity affiliates capture this spirit perfectly.

At last count, the SFI program and its SFI Implementation Committees have been or are involved in Habitat projects in Minnesota, Maine, Tennessee, Manitoba and Ontario. Program participants have volunteered hundreds of hours of their time, and companies have donated thousands of dollars worth of products.

There are so many pluses it is hard to know where to start. Through Habitat, we are helping put low-income working families into their own homes. I was given a chance to wield a hammer at a Build Day in Hibbing, Minnesota, last summer, and saw for myself how much it meant for the new homeowner to build her own home with the help of her community.

The Manitoba and Ontario projects are special because both involve Aboriginal organizations – Habitat for Humanity Winnipeg has partnered with the Manitoba Métis Federation and Habitat for Humanity Northumberland is working with Alderville First Nation in southern Ontario to build the first Habitat for Humanity home in a First Nation community in Canada.

This is a great way to provide safe, healthy housing for First Nations people. Chief James Marsden of Alderville First Nation put it perfectly when he said: “We are very pleased to establish partnerships like these with businesses and the community because it allows us to create an affordable home for an Alderville First Nation family. Partnering with SFI also allows us to reinforce our respect for land and forests.”

Habitat for Humanity is a fantastic organization, and I am proud we can support them. Their guiding principles – simple, decent, affordable – say a lot about what they represent. And our involvement is a great fit because Habitat is increasing its emphasis on sustainability, and our donated forest products are from responsible sources.

I want to thank all the SFI companies and individuals who have pitched in to promote Habitat partnerships, and encourage you to check out the Habitat for Humanity website to see if there are opportunities to help out in your area.