Green products can be certified for a range of environmentally friendly qualities such as indoor air quality, energy efficiency, sustainability and water conservation, to name a few. The number of certification programs and certified products seems to grow with each new month.

Of all the terminology used when discussing green products, sustainability might be most often misunderstood. Sustainability has been defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs; a definition created in 1987 at the World Commission on Environment and Development, a division of the United Nations.

Products that contain wood in part or in whole present an opportunity for architects and builders to add sustainable practices to their work. Choosing windows, doors, flooring, roofing, siding and framing systems that are certified as sustainable not only helps the environment, but it can be a marketing hook as well.

To measure the sustainability level of lumber, two main attributes are evaluated: harvesting and chain of custody. The harvesting process is evaluated based on how trees are planted, grown, cut down and renewed to ensure the long-term health and existence of a forest. Chain of custody tracks exactly who or which company touched a piece of lumber, tracing it back to the company that employed the person or machine that cut down the tree.

“Chain of custody is important because it guarantees a link from the product to the forest it came from,” says Kathy Abusow, president and CEO, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, a program based on the premise that responsible environmental behavior and sound business decisions can co-exist.

“People who buy and sell lumber get it from both certified and uncertified forests, so a chain of custody certification label assures the buyer the lumber came from a sustainable forest. Right now there’s a big push to let people know about sustainability by labeling lumber. In 2008 you will be seeing a lot more SFI logos on wood products,” Abusow says.

Only 10 percent of the world’s forests are certified sustainable, Abusow says, so there is plenty of concern about illegal logging and forest destruction going on in other countries. “These problems would be with those who harvest and sell lumber irresponsibly, who don’t intend to own the forest for very long. So for forest owners who will own their land for the long term, and have been practicing sustainable forestry for a long time, certification is a guarantee from an independent third party that they’re doing things right.

“We can be proud in America that you can source legal and well-managed wood products. [Builders] can be proud they are using a product that is produced following a standard that promotes sustainable forest management, including wildlife species at risk,” she adds.

The overall aim of sustainable forestry practices is to advance a more sustainable building material economy, says Katie Miller, communications director, Forest Stewardship Council, a group whose formation was driven in part by the failure of an intergovernmental process to agree on a global forest compact. “So, people pay attention to issues such as where lumber comes from, how and where it’s manufactured, how long a distance it traveled from cut-down to jobsite. Lumber certification challenges people to think about those things and make an active choice,” she says.

Impact on Home Building

Lumber certification alleviates concerns about mismanaged forests that contribute to soil erosion, loss of wildlife, and the clear cutting of old-growth forests, says Ray Tonjes, chairman, National Association of Home Builders Green Building Subcommittee. “It’s important that a good green home building program address issues like that.

“Still, in my experience [lumber certification] is not a builder-driven issue. It’s probably more of a supplier/dealer/distributor issue to provide the opportunity for builders to achieve green points,” Tonjes says, referring to programs such as the NAHB’s Green Home Building Guidelines. “You see a lot of advertising for different products that are FSC certified to entice builders to get green points for their homes. I see a little bit of point chasing going on, but if that works for a client, that’s grand.”

Lumber certification tells an architect or builder a product is made with environmentally responsible practices and material, says Russell Richardson, director, industrial markets, Southern Pine Council, a joint promotional body coordinated and supported by manufacturers of Southern Pine lumber. “Our member companies’ message is that they’ve been properly managing their forests since day one. After all, they’ve got to have timber to make lumber. But over the last few years, public awareness about everything green has started to sink in, and everyone is starting to pay attention. As public awareness grows, demand for sustainable products will rise,” Richardson says.

Dozens of product certification programs operate worldwide, while two programs take center stage in the United States: The Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council. Both are independent third-party organizations that certify the harvesting process and chain of custody for lumber producers.

Having multiple certification organizations, and therefore multiple logos to recognize can cause confusion among builders and architects. The confusion for some might extend beyond which program to choose, into what a certification label actually means.

Who is SFI?

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative provides lumber producers with a standard to follow for managing their forests in a sustainable way. The group also provides a method of tracking lumber from the forest to the jobsite, also known as chain of custody. “It doesn’t matter if the end product is a juice box, paper or a 2x4, you know a product is from a well-managed source if it has the SFI label on it,” Abusow says.

SFI has grown in recent years, most notably by the number certified locations across North America, which rose from 48 to more than 400. “Momentum is growing. More people are using the SFI label,” she adds.

Every five years revisions are made to the SFI standard, and SFI is entering a revision cycle this year to ensure its standards stay in touch with changes in the market. “With the global trade, we have concerns about offshore wood. So it’s important to SFI that lumber producers follow the North American standards. If a company in North America certified by SFI uses or sells offshore lumber, we make sure that lumber comes from well-managed forests as well,” Abusow says.

In addition to having its standards revised this year, the SFI Program also is being reviewed by the U.S. Green Building Council to determine if USGBC LEED for Homes points should be given to builders using SFI-certified lumber. At press time the LEED program did not award points for SFI lumber. “USGBC decided to conduct a criteria-driven analysis of different certification programs and whether it needs to be more inclusive of other programs such as ours,” Abusow says.