Earth Day messages and actions around reducing, reusing and recycling have been a great success. But when it comes to wood products like paper and lumber, consumers have two ways to take care of the forests – buying recycled and certified products.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI Inc.) promotes responsibly managed forests in North America and around the world.  Consumers can look for the SFI label to know they are buying paper or wood from responsible sources – whether it is reams of paper, packaging, lumber or furniture.

Next time you head out to pick something up from the store; don’t limit yourself to looking only for a recycled label on the packaging.  By looking for both recycled goods and products from well-managed forests, you are encouraging responsible forest management, protecting woodlands for the future and showing you truly care about our forests and the communities that they support.

Built Green Canada: Inclusive – and Expanding

The fact non-profit Built Green Canada is expanding across Canada is wonderful news for anyone who views wood as a great environmental choice – the Built Green™ program is one of many green rating tools with an inclusive certification policy.

And when it updated its building product catalogue at the end of March, Built Green made it crystal clear it recognizes wood or wood-based products certified to all of the third-party certification programs used in Canada – the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Canadian Standards Association, the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification system.

That means builders across Canada seeking Built Green certification are not limited in wood choices like they are under the LEED program, which is currently reassessing whether to open up its certification credit. They will have access to more wood from responsible choices, which means a lot when only 10 per cent of the world’s forests are certified. Built Green Canada joins programs around the world such as the ANSI National Home Building Standard, ANSI/GBI 01-2010: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings, and BREEAM in England that recognize all credible forest certification programs.

Built Green has already enrolled more than 13,500 homes in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia since 2004 – and it’s expanding across Canada because builders are asking for it. Built Green President David Bengert says that’s because the program delivers environmental performance with a lot less cost and complexity. If the response to our online petition asking LEED to open up its forest certification credit to all credible certification programs is any measure – Built Green’s inclusive certification policy will also make it attractive to builders. And that’s not only good for forest certification and Built Green, it’s also good for forests and communities across Canada.

As I’ve said before, making the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Rating System more inclusive would be of value for green building and the North American economy. SFI wants the USGBC to create fair science-based benchmarks that will open up the credit to ALL credible forest certification standards used in North America.

FSC and SFI share common goals and have support from credible forestry community experts, such as the National Association of State Foresters and the Society of American Foresters.  We recently produced a comparison of the two organizations to highlight similarities and explore the differences. The truth is, SFI promotes inclusive recognition of all credible forest certification standards.  Roger Dziengeleski, senior forester for Finch Paper and Vice President of the National Society of American Foresters, sums it up well in his blog post. Here’s an excerpt:

What’s better when it comes to responsible forestry certifications — FSC or SFI?

That’s like asking: What’s better, an apple or an orange?  Both are good for you, but they bring completely different strengths and weaknesses to the table.  Having access to both fruits results in a healthy body. Having access to both FSC and SFI makes for an overall healthier forest resource.

… Both programs have done an outstanding job of helping forest owners “prove” their compliance with responsible forestry publicly by establishing a list of criteria they must meet, and establishing processes through which to document their performance and subject it to third-party review by independent experts. The programs’ auditors also help forest owners improve their management practices by making recommendations from their years of experience, and pointing out possible improvements that a landowner can sometimes overlook in the course of his day-to-day activities.

Most Finch paper is SFI and FSC-certified. There are many other companies also looking to make wood products from responsibly managed forests. Reliable certification standards—like SFI, FSC and other certification standards—let companies and consumers know their wood and wood products are coming from responsible sources. FSC and SFI are both working toward advancements in responsible forestry—how can that be a bad thing?

Michael T. Goergen, executive vice president and CEO of the Society of American Foresters, recently had an op-ed about opening the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED standard published in The Seattle Times. One important point he makes is:

“The only solicited comments the Building Council seems to be heeding are coming from groups bent on promoting a monopoly and others in the building sector who have very little, if anything, to do with forest products. I don’t understand why they ignore American foresters, who live and breathe forestry and go to school for years to understand how best to preserve and maintain one of our most precious natural resources.”

He goes on to give positive credit to the work SFI and the American Tree Farm System do. Additionally, Goergen points toward the economic benefits for the United States and Canada to open LEED, since most certified wood in North America is certified to standards other than the Forest Stewardship Council. As the trend for green building grows, using domestic wood certified by organizations such as SFI, ATFS and CSA only makes sense.

I’d encourage you to read the piece in full, and share with friends who care about the future of our forests and green building!