Sorting out the standards for eco-certified paper and wood products

Magazine publishers who want to be on the side of the angels are confronted by a variety of certifications being bandied about for paper from eco-certified wood pulp. So called "green" terms are tossed about like logs in a stream, but consumers and publishers alike could be forgiven for being baffled by the gab.

Christopher Pollan, a contributing editor for The Tyee in Vancouver has written the first in a projected series of articles about the "war" over eco-certified wood and wood products. While his story covers everything from newsprint to building supplies, it's an interesting look at the two, largest rival forestry certification non-profit organizations* which put their stamp (literally and figuratively) on paper we use to print magazines: the forestry industry-created Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which was conceived by a coalition of North American environmental activists.

What both certification programs have in common is that their respective logos -- appearing on books and 2x4s and everything between -- carry a promise of "sustainability;" both indicate that eco-conscious buyers can relax and know they are buying a product that they can feel good about.

What the rivals do not share, is a common vision of what sustainability looks like on the forest floor, and whether the differences between certification standards matter at all.

Pollan notes that the SFI has roots in the American Forestry and Paper Association (AF&PA), though now nominally independent and that it is waging an expensive and high level public relations and ad campaign across North America, designed to influence influential users . He reports that SFI is criticized for "greenwashing" unsustainable practices such as high-elevation clear-cutting and attempting to blur the differences between it and the tougher FSC standards.

"We consider SFI to be forest greenwash," says Jennifer Krill, Program Director at San Francisco's RAN, a founding member of the FSC. "The marketplace cannot trust the SFI to deliver the environmental and social standards that customers are demanding."

Krill says that SFI-labelled products can come from old growth forests, from huge clear cuts, and from tree plantations that were formerly ecologically-diverse forest -- and all the while, unwitting consumers and businesses buy the wood in an effort to be sustainable.

*Readers of this blog will know that there are other players such as Canopy (formerly Markets Initiative), a Vancouver-based environmental organization that advocates with publishers on behalf of eco-paper purchasing and use through a sustainable supply chain, thereby sparing the world's ancient forests. It endorses FSC standards.