From kitchen cabinets to hardwood floors and outdoor decks, we love to adorn our homes with the timeless warmth and beauty of wood. Not to mention that behind the scenes, wood is a major supporting player in the form of beams, joists and studs.

If you love wood, chances are you also appreciate nature and would never want your hardwood flooring or teak benches to have contributed to the destruction of an old-growth forest that was the home of many species of wildlife. And you’d no doubt appreciate knowing that the owner of the forest, wherever in the world he may be, is practicing environmentally responsible forestry yet still making a profit in order to sustain himself and his community.

That’s why more and more people are turning to what’s termed "sustainable wood," meaning wood that comes from a certified, well-managed forest.

Getting Certified

Although there are several programs that issue certification, the gold standard is set by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization with a United States branch based in Washington, DC. The FSC is endorsed by such environmental groups as Greenpeace, the National Wildlife Federation, the Rainforest Alliance, the Sierra Club and the World Wildlife Fund.

Forget about simply cut a tree, plant a tree: FSC requirements are much more comprehensive than that and cover environmental, social and economic concerns. According to Katie J. Miller, communications director of the U.S. Forest Stewardship Council, the FSC requires that wood be harvested in a way that maintains the forest's biodiversity, productivity, and ecological processes such as water quality, and minimizes road building, erosion, and pesticide use.

Local inhabitants and laborers are thought of as well; standards require workers be treated well and that communities be able to financially profit from sales of forest products. The FSC also tracks products through processing, manufacturing and distribution—in essence, from the time the tree is harvested to right before the finished product is sold to you—in what is called "chain of custody."

The FSC employs third-party certifiers to conduct inspection of logging sites and judge whether the operations get FSC approval. In the U.S., these certifiers are Scientific Certification Systems and the SmartWood Program, which is part of the Rainforest Alliance, a global nonprofit conservation organization.

EcoTimber, based in San Rafael, California, is an importer and distributor of ecologically sound flooring that is made from FSC-certified sustainable wood as well as reclaimed wood and bamboo (see sidebar).

According to Lewis Buchner, CEO of EcoTimber, the company is growing rapidly and expanding its reach so that consumers nationwide will be able to find a dealer located in their area or one who can take orders over the Internet.

Although EcoTimber has a strong customer base in such environmentally aware regions as California, Oregon, Washington State and the East Coast, Buchner says, "We are also getting a surprising amount of interest from the Southeast. We’re finding that customers want clean, safe homes with nontoxic products that are also environmentally sound."

Going Green

How do you find FSC-certified products? Buying from an environmentally aware supplier like EcoTimber, or one of those listed on the FSC website, is one way. Another is to simply visit your local Home Depot, Lowe's or Ikea. All three retail chains have instituted policies for purchasing more sustainable wood products and/or using sustainable wood in their manufacturing.

According to Ron Jarvis, merchandising vice president for lumber for The Home Depot, based in Atlanta, Georgia, 95 percent of wood purchases come from the North American forest and 80 percent are sold by companies that participate in some type of sustainable forest certification. "Less than .15 percent come from areas around the Amazon Basin, and most of that is FSC certified," he adds. Jarvis notes that sales of FSC-certified products have increased over 100 percent in the last 24 months.

FSC-certified products at The Home Depot include shelves, lumber, underlayment, boards, cabinets, plywood, paneling, molding, and blinds.

According to Lowe's wood policy, the retailer is aggressively phasing out the purchase of wood products from endangered forests and giving preference to those that come from independently certified, well-managed forests, in particular those certified by the FSC.

Miller says you can identify an FSC-certified product by the packaging or sometimes the FSC stamp on the lumber. Another way is to look at the invoice: the line item should have a code (starting with the letters "FSC"), which is the manufacturer's certification number. If you are shopping in a store, you can always ask a salesperson for help in determining whether the product is certified.

An Easy Decision

With all this good news about the benefits and availability of certified wood products, you may be thinking: Where's the catch? Is sustainable wood inferior to noncertified? And how much more does it cost?

Certified wood is indistinguishable from noncertified wood of the same type and species. As for cost, prices range anywhere from no difference at all to 20 to 30 percent higher than for noncertified. Miller says price depends on the species of wood and how close you are to where the wood was harvested.

Therefore, for little to no cost increase, you can have the gorgeous wood you love and do your part for the environment at the same time. Proponents point out that buying certified wood is like casting a vote for sustainability. The more consumer demand for certified wood, the more suppliers will practice sustainable forestry and seek certification, and the greater cost efficiences for suppliers will in turn drive down prices for consumers. And that's good news for everyone.

 

Consider the Alternatives

Sustainable wood that's certified as coming from a well-managed forest is one environmentally conscious method of choosing a natural product that doesn't harm the environment. But there are other choices equally eco-friendly, such as using reclaimed wood or substituting wood with other natural materials such as bamboo or cork. Reclaimed wood (also referred to as rediscovered, recycled or salvaged wood) comes from old buildings or other structures scheduled for demolition, or from trees removed from streets, yards and parks due to disease or damage. According to Lewis Buchner, CEO of EcoTimber, much of this wood is high-quality, old-growth timber. Since this type of wood is also found in the very old-growth forests we want to protect, reclaimed timber is a great way to utilize this hard, dense wood without cutting down a single tree as well as diverting the wood from our already overcrowded landfills. Fans of wood salvaged from old buildings regard the nail holes, streaking, and other marks often present as simply adding to its charm. Another option is to use natural products that don't require the long growth cycles of wood. Bamboo is a grass that is actually more durable than many hard woods and has a five- to seven-year growing cycle as opposed to the 50 to 100 years required for trees. And don’t worry about stealing meals from pandas; the type of bamboo used in manufacturing is a cousin of the variety so vital to this endangered animal. Cork is another product that’s easy on the environment. Unlike bamboo, cork comes from trees. But while we need to chop down a tree to get the wood, cork can be stripped off the tree, which afterward regenerates itself. Cork flooring is finished with acrylic or polyurethane so that it’s hard, yet it is still softer on the feet than most flooring.

Copyright© all text 2004 by Ela Schwartz