‘Fishy labeling’ isn’t restricted to seafood industry

A certification battle similar to what is playing out today in the seafood industry has been occurring in the forestry industry for years.

In the early 1990s, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) formed when environmentalists were alarmed by deforestation of tropical forests and teamed up with industry leaders in Europe to set standards for the cutting and milling of timber.

In response, timber companies in the American Forest and Paper Association created their own certification system, enabling their products to be stamped with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) label.

Many academics and government foresters argue that both certification systems improve forest practices and can reasonably claim to promote forest sustainability.

While both systems improve practices, the battle escalated to the U.S. Green Building Council and its widely used LEED rating system, which decided to only grant credits to developers using sustainably harvested wood if it met FSC standards, forcing dealers to pay for and renew certification and builders to buy the certified lumber, often at a premium, to achieve LEED status.

The timber industry, largely shut out of the green building market, has lobbied the Green Building Council to accept SFI certification, but has so far been unsuccessful.

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