Forest Stewardship Council Steps Up Certification Campaign.

With certification of forests and wood products gaining momentum, the Forest Stewardship Council seeks to become the Under Writers Laboratory of the wood industry in the eyes of consumers.

SPORTING A DARK, casual shirt and five o'clock shadow, hands resting easily in his pockets, Pierce Brosnan looks as relaxed -- if not as well-dressed -- as the 007 and Thomas Crown characters with whom he is identified.

Despite the absence of a tuxedo, spy gear and diamond-studded companions, Brosnan's regal presence still conjures images of Rolex or Mercedes-Benz. But the full-page ad that has appeared in such magazines as Playboy, GQ and Time is not selling a product as much as a concept: forest certification.

While the forest products industry has been caught up in the certification debate for a number of years, the general public remains essentially unaware of the issues involved. With other groundwork already in place and some major victories under its belt, the Forest Stewardship Council U.S. has decided that the time has come for widespread consumer enlightenment. Thus, the familiar face of Remington Steele and James Bond encourages furniture buyers and other wood products end users to look for the checkmark and tree logo of FSC, a logo which guarantees, according to the public service announcement, that the forest from which the labeled product originated is being managed to protect water, wildlife and recreational resources.

Spreading the word about certification is a major part of the process, says Donald Graul, communications director of FSC-U.S. "An important challenge for the FSC is to let people around the world know that there is a more responsible way to buy wood products. Their purchases are a crucial part of conserving the forests for the future," Graul says.

The not-for-profit FSC-U,S. has chosen to approach consumers' hearts and purse strings through an aggressive public service announcement campaign. So far, FSC estimates that the Brosnan ad has reached 55 million readers. A second Brosnan ad will be released in May, says Graul, adding that the actor has also mentioned his commitment to the organization in a couple of interviews.

The Road to Here

Founded in 1993, FSC currently has operations in more than 40 countries. Gaining the acceptance and support of the forest products industry has not been easy. Many wood products companies and associations initially believed that industry was already doing a good job of managing forests. They felt the third-party auditing scheme envisioned by FSC to certify forests and products needlessly added cost to their products.

For example, a position statement on certification adopted by the International Wood Products Assn. in 1997 asserted that end users were not demanding certified wood, especially if they were expected to help pay for the process. There are indications that acceptance, if not outright support, for certification is gaining momentum. More and more forest land owners, wood products companies and some major retailers have hopped on the certification bandwagon, working with FSC, the American Forest and Paper Assn.'s Sustainable Forestry Initiative program or ISO 14000.

Last summer the IWPA issued a revised certification position statement recognizing the "heightened interest in verification of forest management." Furthermore, a recent FSC press release indicates that the FSC brought 331 new companies into its program in January and February of 2001 alone -- a 30 percent growth in industry adoption. Worldwide, more than 1,400 companies can now use the FSC logo on their products.

The Home Depot, which was besieged by protests from the Rainforest Action Network and other environmentalist groups to cease selling old-growth wood products, announced in August 1999 that it would give preference to independently certified wood products. This was viewed as a major breakthrough for FSC, and a victory that produced a snowball effect. The FSC's growth spike in the first two months of 2001 comes only a few months after Lowe's and Andersen (Windows) Corp. followed Home Depot's example by independently voicing their commitments to market certified wood materials whenever possible.

Sincerest Form of Flattery 

Another fruit of Home Depot's highly visible role in the certification movement, says Graul, has been that industry-sponsored programs such as the AF&PA's Sustainable Forestry Initiative have moved progressively closer to the FSC model. Trade association-backed systems have evolved along with FSC, and while opinions differ within the FSC as to the ultimate merit of these industry-sponsored programs, the general consensus is that the closer they mimic FSC, the better.

"We strongly support anyone who is out trying to improve forest management," says FSC deputy executive director and operations director James Sullivan, "and we believe that the bottom line is the international principles and criteria that have been established through the Forest Stewardship Council's work. We support anyone who's pushing for certification up to that level."

In Donald Graul's mind, the FSC has three major strengths that some of the trade association-endorsed programs have lacked. The first of these is chain-of-custody certification, tracking the product from the forest to the shelf. Second is the strict adherence to third-party auditing and evaluation, a feature of FSC's ideal that Graul says distinguishes it from programs like SFI. He adds that this is also the feature that many environmental groups believe gives FSC more "teeth" than other certification schemes. A third strength of FSC's program, says Graul, is the democratic and public methods of developing the standards -- the ability to involve environmentalists, social scientists, business representatives, local governments and so forth in establishing the organization's principles and criteria. (In recent years, the AF&PA has taken greater steps to involve more industry outsiders on the SFI program.)

With each of these pieces of the puzzle in place, the FSC operates as a hub at which environmental, economic and social interests converge. Says Graul, "Greenpeace and The Home Depot are at the same table along with the Sierra Club and J.D. Irving. (Bringing these groups together to) reasonably discuss, debate and negotiate to reach yes instead of no is a contribution FSC, I think, has brought in that no one else has been able to do before."

Sullivan says, "Now, it's generally accepted by the industry that certification is a requirement. The debate now is 'which one?' It's a different debate than it was about five years ago, when people were saying it's not necessary at all."

Sinking into Consumer Consciousness

With personalities like Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Newton-John and New York Gov. George Pataki making cameos in its public service announcements, it is hard to believe that FSC would eventually like to step outside the spotlight, but that is just the situation Graul envisions.

"Hopefully, the ultimate goal is to be invisible," says Graul. "The FSC becomes like the Underwriters Laboratory label -- the UL label on electrical appliances -- because the certified checkmark and tree logo is at that point where people just assume it's going to be there and look to be sure it's there. We'll have achieved that ultimate success, when we're invisible."

While the FSC label is what the public will see, this is only a symbol of the underlying goal: socially, environmentally and economically responsible forestry on a global scale. "Whether something is certified or not," Sullivan explains, "is not as relevant as whether or not the forests are managed to the standard that's accepted."

To reach that behind-the-scenes status, however, FSC must first deal with some challenges that still lie before it. One of these, ironically, was birthed from the organization's monumental success. The fact that major retailers such as Nike, The Home Depot, Lowe's and Andersen Corp. are giving preference to certified products means this wood has to come from somewhere, and so the challenge becomes making the supply meet the demand.

In terms of acreage, FSC-accredited certification bodies such as the Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program and Scientific Certification Systems (SCS), as of March 1, 2001, have certified over 53 million acres worldwide, including more than 7 million acres in the United States. Certified tract sizes in this country range from 20 acres of the privately owned Tree Shepherd Woods to approximately 1.2 million acres of Pennsylvania State Forest lands.

More acreage must be brought into the system to ensure an adequate supply of certified wood. FSC has seen the need to bring in more small landowners, and toward this end, Graul says the council is developing such solutions as group certification and resource manager status.

Another challenge is the development of national and regional indicators. A tract of forestland near Seattle, WA, does not equal a same-sized tract of land near Princeton, VA, in terms of biodiversity, wood species and terrain. Therefore, FSC-U.S. has developed a draft of national indicators. Once approved, these will be used to develop regional standards for fulfilling FSC's goal.

Whether or not the Forest Stewardship Council will ever gain the full trust of the forest products industry and consumers remains to be seen. However, Graul and Sullivan say they believe that because the FSC has dedicated itself to becoming the global authority on responsible forestry, more and more timber companies, retailers and other industry sectors are expected to pledge their commitments to the certification vision. Once consumers begin to demand these products on a larger scale, then the vision is just a step away from fulfillment.

                   Certification Resources on the Web
American Forest & Paper Assn.'s                 www.afandpa.org
Sustainable Forestry Initiative
American Tree Farm System                www.treefarmsystem.org
Forest Stewardship Council                        www.fscus org
ISO 14000                                            www.iso.ch
Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program       www.smartwood.org
Scientific Certification Systems Forest            www.scs1.com
Conservation Program