The US Green Building Council released for public comment a 3rd round of draft benchmarks to evaluate forest certification programs.

At SFI, we continue to urge the USGBC to end a forest certification policy that discriminates against North American forests and against most of the independent forest certification standards used in the United States and Canada.

We’ve just released a detailed statement on these benchmarks and the USGBC process – you can read it on our main website here.  Here is an excerpt….

As currently drafted, the USGBC’s complex benchmark system to may result in the continued exclusion of independent forest certification standards used in North America, including SFI, the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), and the Canadian Standards Association’s Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CSA), and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes (PEFC).

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The climate change bill pending in the U.S. Congress should include provisions that prevent the “destructive dynamic” of deforestation.  So says the New York Times in a recent editorial.  The editorial included some mind-boggling stats to support its case:   “Deforestation accounts for one-fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — about the same as China’s emissions, more than the emissions generated by all of the world’s cars and trucks. And the world is doing far too little to stop it. An estimated 30 million acres of rain forest disappear every year, destroying biodiversity and pouring billions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”

A major contributor to deforestation is illegal logging, which is exactly what forest certification programs like SFI are designed to avoid.  In fact, voluntary third-party forest certification began in the 1990s in response to market concerns about forest management and illegal logging, primarily in developing countries. In the U.S, The State of America’s Forests report prepared by the Society of American Foresters (and based on U.S. Forest Service data) concludes that forested acres in the U.S. have remained relatively stable for the past 100 years (about 755 million acres).  And while it’s true that tremendous progress is being made, the fact remains that only 10% of the world’s forests are now certified.  SFI is doing its part address the remaining 90%.

On April 2, the Wall Street Journal ran an article headlined, “What do Labels Really Tell You? As Eco-Seals Proliferate, So Do Doubts.” (Here is the link to the article, but you need a subscription)

I agree with the premise of the article, namely that with so many emerging eco-labels it is important for consumers to be able to differentiate those with sound credentials from those that are simply green washing. The article even mentioned forest certification, citing the Forest Stewardship Council, the American Tree Farm System and the Tropical Forest Foundation. To call their attention to SFI, we submitted this letter to the Journal the same day:

April 2, 2009
Letter to the Editor
Wall Street Journal

While we certainly respect the forest certification programs mentioned in “What do Labels Really Tell You? As Eco-Seals Proliferate, So Do Doubts” (April 2), absent from the list was the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, an independent non-profit recognized by government and consumer groups across North America. EcoLogo, TerraChoice’s highly respected North American certification program mentioned in the article, recognizes SFI in the paper products category.

While disappointed in SFI’s omission, the article did capture the growing skepticism about green claims and a desire for consumers to be able to differentiate those with sound credentials from those that are correctly characterized by TerraChoice as green washing. While there is not a single body or government entity to confirm the validity of a green claim, consumers can look for some key indicators, such as the evaluation of a group like TerraChoice. Likewise, the American Consumer Council has developed key criteria to evaluate the credibility of green certification programs and SFI has met their criteria.

SFI is a fully independent, non-profit charitable organization that promotes sustainable forest management and also has a labeling program so that buyers and consumers can source paper, packaging, and solid wood products from 3rd party certified well-managed forests and other responsible sources of supply.

We appreciate the Wall Street Journal’s focus on green claims, but would have hoped that you highlighted certification programs and labels that are worthy of an environmental claim.

We will let you know if it is published.