| Certification is a good thing. By
finding practical solutions and balancing the needs of the
environment, the economy, and the people we promote the quality
of our forests and wood products. But who gets to say what is a
good practice and what is a bad practice? Who sets the
standards?
Right now there are many wood certification
systems. We believe the best certification system will:
- Be established and set standards based on
substantially equal input from environmental, business, and
social organizations.
- Insist on regular third party auditing.
- Be somewhat difficult to obtain.
If we are looking for a system that helps us
find balance, it makes sense that the certifying system is
itself balanced. Mandatory auditing by someone other than
the business that potentially benefits from certification is
essential for credibility. Seriously, if everyone is
certified, it probably means the standards are too low. At
this time, we believe certification by the Forest
Stewardship Council is the best certification system.
FSC was formed to operate with respect for the environment,
business, and social concerns. Third party auditing is
required. Although some states have certified their
timberlands, we believe it would be very difficult for most
larger companies to be certified by FSC. We are not saying
large companies don't care about the environment, we just
appreciate the difficulty of large scale certification through
FSC. It is not an easy standard to obtain. |
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