L15. Forest Certification
Over the past several lessons, we’ve discussed how various wood products are made, and some of the mechanical properties that are important when we build things out of wood. We’ve also talked about the relationship of different wood species to end uses. For example, impact bending is of utmost importance for baseball bats, but compression parallel to the grain is more important for the supporting columns of our deck. We’ve also learned about many other properties that might affect what wood we choose for a certain project, like the weather-resistance of cedar for our deck or the high Janka hardness of maple for wood flooring. But how do we know that the wood we choose is produced in a manner that is sustainable and environmentally friendly? The tool to help us make this decision is environmental certification.
What is Certification?
Broadly, environmental certification is a process for ensuring that standards are being met and customer concerns are being addressed. Certification is a non-regulatory tool where a company can voluntarily choose to comply with a predetermined set of standards or objectives. There are a multitude of different certification systems that exist today that cover a wide range of materials. Most environmental certification programs have a logo (commonly known as an eco-label) which can be attached to products they certify. Perhaps the best-known certification system is “USDA Certified Organic”.
The International Organization for Standardization Links to an external site. (also known as ISO) categorizes certification and the associated labels into three types.
- Type I - third party certified. This means that an independent organization or individual came in and inspected the product that is being certified to confirm that it meets certification standards.
- Type II - self declared. An organization can be Type II certified if they publish their standards and then declare that their products meet these standards. You can see how this type of certification mig
ht hold less weight or be less valid than Type I, where an independent party confirms that the organization is everything it claims to be.
- Type III - based on Life Cycle Assessment. A document (that has been independently verified and registered) communicating information about the life-cycle environmental impact of a product may be released. This is called an Environmental Product Declaration.
Type I is the most common type of certification. The “USDA Certified Organic” label is an example of a Type I eco-label, which indicates a third-party certification system that is 
independently audited. So what does a third-party auditing entail?
First, there’s a standard-setting body that determines which standards a product must meet in order to become environmentally certified. In the case of organic, the standard setting body is the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). You can go to the USDA’s website and read the “Certified Organic” Links to an external site. requirements. The USDA governs another certification program that is particularly relevant to our class - the BioPreferred Program Links to an external site.. The "USDA Certified Biobased Product" label assures a consumer that the product contains a verified amount of renewable biological ingredients.
Although we've talked about two Type I certification programs established by a government organization (USDA), it is far more common for the standard-setting body to be a non-governmental, nonprofit organization, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (which we will discuss in more detail later).
After the standards are set, the standard-setting body arranges an independent party to be the auditor. Independent means they are a separate organization from both the standard-setting body and the company that wants to get certified. These auditors are commonly referred to as "third party verifiers", or in the Type I certification system they are called the certification body. The auditors are the ones responsible for evaluating a company to determine if their activities are in-line with the requirements set by the standard-setting body. Note: the certification body/auditor is typically accredited by another independent body. This is a formal recognition that the certification body operates according to international standards, and adds another layer of oversight and rigor to the third-party certification process.
The diagram below outlines these three parties: 1) the standard-setting body that determines what good environmental practices look like, 2) an independent auditing specialist that evaluates if a producer/company is meeting those standards, and 3) the producer/company that wants to get certified.
Forest Certification Programs
Have you noticed any certification labels on forest products? Check out paper in the bookstore or take a trip to Menards. You will find them.
Forest certification began in the early 1990’s, when protests began over the deforestation of tropical rainforests. Consumers wanted a way to know that the wood products they were buying were harvested without causing environmental damage.
There are two types of forest certification: 1) certification of forest management, which evaluates if forests are being managed according to a specified set of standards, and 2) chain-of-custody (CoC) certification, which tracks the raw material from the time it is harvested, through production and manufacturing, to the end user. CoC is basically a trail that allows you to verify the source of the material, i.e. to ensure that the wooden chair you bought that said it was "certified" actually came from a certified forest. Below is an illustration of the difference between certification of management and chain-of-custody.
To label the end product as certified, both forest management certification and CoC certification are required. This ensures that the forest is sustainably managed, and that the product you're buying actually came from the certified forest.
So what does it mean for a forest to be "sustainably managed"? What are these standards based on? Certification can be based on a variety of principles which might include:
- Compliance with laws
- Maintenance of a stable forest land base
- Maintenance of forest ecosystem health & vitality
- Worker's rights and employment conditions
- Maintenance of biological diversity in the forest
- Maintenance of productive forest functions (wood & non-wood)
- Indigenous peoples' rights
And others! There are over 50 forest certification systems worldwide, and each of them have their own combination of standards. The two largest international systems being the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). The FSC pioneered forest certification in the early 1990s, while the PEFC is the largest certification framework, accounting for about two-thirds of the total certified area worldwide (FAO Links to an external site.).
The three most common certification systems in the United States are the FSC, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the American Tree Farm System (ATFS). SFI and ATFS are independent, national organizations, but are also branches of PEFC, established to develop and implement a PEFC system in the United States.
So why are there so many certification programs?? Forest certification is not a government-regulated issue. There are laws in place regarding forestry, but the decision to take the extra step to get certified is voluntary. Forest certification is private, market-driven issue which has led to the creation of a multitude of standard-setting bodies, and each body has set different standards for what it believes to be the best forest management principles. The following video explains forest certification, and gives an overview of the three different certification systems in the US (ATFS, SFI, and FSC).
Minnesota is a leader in forest certification. In fact, over half of all certified forests in the U.S. are in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. There are approximately 16.2 million acres of forestland in Minnesota (private and public) with about half of those acres in a certification program. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources owns about 5.53 million acres and has about 90% of them dual certified (certified in both FSC and SFI). They are the largest single FSC certificate holder in the United States. (Source Links to an external site.). Figure 1 shows the certified acres in MN.
Figure 1. The legend indicates private lands, county lands or state owned lands (DNR) and the certification type. "Dual" suggests both certifications. (MN -DNR Forest Certification Links to an external site.)
Why Would Someone Want to Certify Their Forests?
As a land owner there are many reasons that you might want be certified. Your reasons may also help you determine which certification program you want to be a part of.
- It lets consumers know that you are managing your forests sustainably and are in it for the “long haul”.
- It allows you to put an eco-label on your products, which may allow you to sell your lumber at a higher price (as is the case with certified organic products).
- It may open the door to new markets. For example, the European Union has a certain set of timber regulations that all imported wood must meet. Meeting the FSC certification standards typically ensures that your timber is also meeting the standards of the European Union, allowing you to sell to Europe.
- Certification can enhance customer relations (e.g. if your customers really care about environmental stewardship) or make the forest manager feel good about their business.
- Certification may be required by the person you are selling your trees to. Imagine you are selling trees to a sawmill that sells lumber to Menards and Menards wants to cell FSC certified lumber. Guess what, you will be getting certified or will be looking for a new market for your trees.
Why Aren’t All Forests Certified?
Certification can be expensive, especially when you’re hiring a third party to come in and conduct the audit. If there’s no demand in the market for certified products, and you can’t charge a higher price for certified wood, there’s no point in spending the money to get certified. Moreover, there’s the burden of maintaining certification - complying with the standards, audits, and reporting. It is not only government programs that are cumbersome, cost money, and require paperwork :)
Conclusion: Be an Informed Consumer
We live in a world full of products with all sorts of labels. It can get confusing! It’s important to remember that these labels do not all hold equal weight. Type I eco-labels often increase the value of the product to consumers (as is the case with organic), because the producers have been independently audited to assure the standards are being met. But would you pay more for a product that has been “self-certified” with a Type II eco-label?
Moreover, when consumers place value on a Type I label, they assume that auditors are doing their due diligence in evaluating producers. Critics of the third-party system argue that auditing is mostly paperwork and little fieldwork, and that the accreditation of the certifying body is not a transparent process. In one case regarding organic food, organic certified produce had not met the certification standards. In this case, an audit by the USDA Inspector General found that the importer could not provide "reasonable assurance" that the imported agricultural products labeled as organic were verified to have come from certified organic foreign farms. In addition some organic labeled products were chemically fumigated at U.S. ports of entry. (USDA’s Inspector General Audit Report, 2017) Links to an external site.. In this case there were problems with CoC and understanding of the complex standards.
As a consumer it’s important to keep in mind that a label is just that - a label. It takes a bit of extra effort to research what a label actually means.
- First, find out what the requirements are for a product to use that label.
- Second, find out who is in charge of ensuring that the product is actually meeting those requirements (is it a third-party or self-audit?).
- Third, double check that company that is claiming to be certified actually is. Most certifying bodies have a search function. For example, if you saw some lumber with the FSC logo, you can type the license code (often found on the label - see picture) into the FSC database Links to an external site.. If the company you are searching has a valid certificate, their information will show in the results.
Remember: only robust, independent, third-party certification based on stringent standards and verification requirements ensures truthful and credible messaging to help customers make healthy and sustainable product choices.
Forest certification is a system that allows us to trace our forest products and ensure that they are coming from sustainably managed forests. By looking for eco-labels, and reviewing the requirements that a product must meet to receive that label, consumers can make educated purchasing decisions. In the next lesson, we will revisit the other decision making tool we’ve learned about - Life Cycle Assessment.