FSC-certified organizations nearly doubled in 2007

The number of U.S. organizations certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for responsible forestry and wood product management grew from around 700 to 1,400 in 2007, and today the number is more than 1,900. Despite this rapid trajectory, growing demand for green building resources has highlighted supply chain challenges in certified wood production.

Wood certification procedures trace a product throughout its “chain-of-custody,” from forest owner to consumer. Timber must be grown, sorted, processed and distributed according to the sustainability standards of the certifying organization. Lumber that originates from a FSC-certified forest will not become FSC-certified wood flooring, for example, if the sawmill that handled raw material processing was not certified by FSC as well. Such interdependencies have created growth barriers in the industry. 
“It’s a chicken-and-egg dynamic,” says Peter Hayes, owner of Hyla Woods, 780 acres of FSC-certified forest in Oregon. If forest owners do not have sufficient access to certified mills, they are less likely to pursue certification. Conversely, without an adequate supply of certified timber, a traditional mill has little incentive to alter its operations.

Managing the supply chain
Forest owners are the starting point for a chain-of-custody, and numerous organizations have begun focusing attention on easing and supporting the certification process, particularly for small landowners. “Small” is defined by FSC as fewer than 2,500 acres, but the majority of owners in the category have fewer than 300 acres.

Collectively, small landowners produce about 60 percent of the wood fiber used in the United States, according to John Pampush of the Metafore organization, a nonprofit that works with businesses to help them select environmentally preferable wood and paper products. Pampush also states that FSC-certified paper has been a bigger driver of FSC-forest certification in some states than lumber. Mechanisms that allow small landowners to join forces can create economies of scale and generate additional certified paper and wood supply sources.

The Northwest Natural Resource Group (NNRG) has developed a Northwest Certified Forestry (NFC) initiative, providing members with benefits such as FSC certification assistance. “Most small landowners are already managing land responsibly,” says Kirk Hanson, NFC’s South Sound regional director. Still, cost and administrative requirements have historically hindered the already sustainable forests from being labeled as such. “The NFC provides them with access to a low-cost certification program,” Hanson says.