Earlier this week the White House unveiled its official design and logo for this year’s Easter Egg Roll souvenirs. For the second consecutive year, the egg packaging has been made from SFI-certified paperboard. The egg itself has been manufactured from FSC-certified wood.

As the largest certifier of U.S. forests, we at SFI are pleased the White House is recognizing the importance of promoting sustainability with the Easter Egg Roll and supporting the responsibly managed forests of North America. I also think it speaks volumes that the White House is recognizing two valid certification programs—the SFI and FSC. The White House is not the first organization to acknowledge the value of both standards. It joins a long list of companies and associations around the world who do so as well.

We are happy to play a small part in this wonderful American tradition, and look forward to the day when all wood and paper products at the White House come from certified forests.

Two major packaging magazines just featured SFI. Food and Beverage Packaging ran a story on our new labels, which were launched earlier this year. You can read the article here. We designed the new labels based on research and government interest in the U.S. and Canada showing a strong desire for detailed information to back up “green” claims. The research found that labels are particularly important to consumers. According to market testing conducted by Artemis Strategy Group in the U.S. and Canada, nearly 70% of consumers would choose a product that is made using responsible sources of wood fiber if there is an identifying label or claim. Looking for the SFI label is something to keep in mind as you do your holiday shopping (See video below.) For more on our labels and the research, see the SFI press release.

The other media hit was in Packaging Digest, which ran this piece, headlined “Certified sustainably forested fibers boost image of recycled paperboard – By providing evidence of compliance to reporting standards, sustainable forestry organizations can help packagers authenticate their ‘green’ packaging claims” The writer notes that “by using FSC- or SFI-certified products or becoming a certified supplier, a packaging operation can ensure a measure of protection against claims of greenwashing.” Quoted in the story is MWV’s Cliff Schneider saying, “Essentially, every packaging solution that uses MWV paperboard from one of our U.S. mills uses SFI-certified material…for customers concerned with the impact of paperboard packaging on the world for us, choosing a partner with the certified chain of custody program provides added confidence that the packages that carry their brand comes from well-managed, legal sources.”

SFI Label

I’ve been thinking about the value of certification for all lands, including public lands, as we finalize SFI’s submission to the U.S. Forest Service, which is inviting views about whether U.S. national forests should be certified. (If you want to send in comments, the deadline for submissions is this Monday, Nov. 17, and the website with all the details is http://www.fs.fed.us/projects/forestcertification/index.shtml)

It’s clear to me that certification is a valuable tool for all forest managers, regardless of who owns the land and how the forest is being used – whether it is for water quality, conservation objectives, timber production, recreation or research. You only have to look at the list of SFI program participants to recognize that certification lets managers consider multiple uses and options for the forest.

Governments are important players in ensuring forests are well managed today for future generations, and U.S. national forests are a great example of public lands that would benefit from certification. The study by the Pinchot Institute for Conservation commissioned by the USFS showed the benefits of certification for national forests, and SFI Inc. welcomes the study and the USFS’s open and thorough response.

The USFS mission statement is to “to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the Nation’s forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations.” This mission is achieved under sustainable multiple-use management.

Third-party forest certification can help Forest Service managers meet their goals, and SFI’s single standard makes it a lot easier for an agency like the USFS that manages lands across the country. It provides a common framework, with objectives, performance measures and indicators that can be tracked and compared to improve planning, practices and reviews in a consistent and comparable context.

SFI has other advantages when it comes to public lands – from our open complaints process to regional SFI Implementation Committees that help to improve practices on the ground, train forest professionals and address questions about practices.

Two-thirds of the 150 million acres of SFI-certified lands in North America are publicly owned. Obviously, a lot of this is in Canada where the vast majority of forestland is publicly owned. But a quarter of the SFI-certified land in the United States is also in public hands – our program participants include state agencies from Maine to Indiana to Washington.

Of course public lands are not the same as private lands. That’s why the SFI 2005-2009 Standard has specific requirements around public lands – there’s more emphasis on public involvement and program participants must participate in land and resource management planning. I fully expect this is an area we will be examining in our review process leading to the SFI 2010-2014 Standard (you’ll soon be hearing more about our regional workshops early in 2009)

We held our Annual Conference last month in Minneapolis. In the year since I attended my first SFI conference as president and CEO, the SFI community has continued their hard work and achieved unparalleled growth. From the conference room to networking events and awards luncheons, the energy and enthusiasm about SFI and its momentum was obvious.

Attendance was excellent and we had a vibrant exchange of ideas and information on forest certification, illegal logging, carbon markets and new research on the public and industry views of eco-labels. A highlight was the launch of SFI’s new on-product label, which provides clear and concise information.

We had almost 200 delegates at the conference, including representatives from the print, packaging and solid wood supply chain; SFI-certified organizations; loggers; academics; and conservation groups. We took in a lot of information-packed and thought-provoking presentations, including the presentation and video by our Minnesota SFI implementation committee and their project with Habitat for Humanity that left us all a little misty-eyed. You can access all of the presentations here.

The entire SFI team knows that our success is built on the success and leadership shown by SFI participants and certificate holders. That’s why I was especially pleased to recognize the contributions of a number of individuals and organizations involved with SFI. I presented awards to Forest Capital Partners LLC, Harden Furniture Inc., JELD-WEN Windows and Doors, the Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee, National Envelope, Rayonier Inc., Sierra Pacific Industries and Smead Manufacturing Company. We’ve seen media pick up on some of the awards – here is a story about Harden Furniture, which received our President’s Award. Thanks again to our Minnesota SFI implementation committee for being such terrific hosts!