The following is an E-terview with Corey Brinkema, President of the FSC-US - ed: Mary Hunt
Corey, before you took the position of President of FSC, you were the Executive Director of the Green Institute in Minneapolis and worked with FSC chain-of-custody certification. What did you learn during that experience that taught you that FSC was the best process to follow, enough that you would want to become the President of FSC?
COREY: My home state of Minnesota is a leader in the FSC marketplace with more than 6 million acres certified and strong industry and grass roots support. Like many in my state, I was drawn to FSC's high integrity and genuine commitment to social, environmental and economic achievement. No other program comes close to FSC's rigorous forest management standards and mandatory chain of custody (CoC) system tracking wood from well managed forests to the market.
Key among the reasons for accepting the FSC President position are my lifelong passion for pursuing environmentally and socially sound market-based solutions and the opportunity to work on a national and international level. I'm thoroughly enjoying the challenge as well as the opportunity to work with exceptional and very passionate people!
Another reason to be enthusiastic about the FSC is the critical importance of forest stewardship in combating global climate change. FSC certification keeps forest ecosystems intact, protects habitat, and is the best defense to illegal logging and deforestation - which is responsible for approximately 25% of the world's greenhouse gas pollution annually.
FSC is one of the certifications that SMaRT and the Sustainable Furniture Council relies on for its documentation. For readers who don't know the difference, why is FSC certification so much better than other wood management programs for the furniture industry?
COREY: Ultimately it's about impacts in the forest and managing risk. FSC's standards are by far the most rigorous in guaranteeing social and environmental stewardship. In Addition, FSC's highly respected chain-of-custody system, the diversity of our membership, and truly balanced governance are what give FSC its unsurpassed credibility. Competing systems have tried hard to blur the real distinctions but they can't run away from lower standards and persistent industry biases. While the competition has served to strengthen the market competitiveness of the FSC, it sometimes distracts from our asserting the positive life cycle value of FSC-certified wood over many other types of materials.
FSC's Environmental and Social members play an instrumental role in the development of our forest management standards, which is exemplary of our open, democratic consensus-based process. There is no other process in the world that could bring environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation and forest industry producers and retailers such as Tembec, Domtar, and The Home Depot, together in agreement on what constitutes well-managed forestry.
FSC does not allow large-scale conversions of natural forests to plantations. This common industry practice can change a vibrant and diverse natural forest system to a monoculture ecosystem adversely affecting biodiversity, soil & water quality, water storage, and other ecosystem functions.
The environmental and social improvements fostered by FSC certification have been widely documented in reports including those by FERN, Rainforest Alliance and Forest Ethics. [These reports are contained in the background documents at the SMaRT Standards Process.]
FSC is recognized as having driven substantial environmental improvement in the forest industry over the past fifteen years. For this and all the reasons I've described, FSC is the only forest products certification specified by the LEED green building certification standard, SMaRT, Home Depot's EcoOptions program, the Capital Markets Partnership, the Green Press Initiative, Fireman's Fund, and the Sustainable Furniture Council.
Not having enough certified wood seems to be a common concern. I see that FSC currently certifies over 240 million acres globally. What are the future plans for FSC? How many acres are enough? What is hold back progress, politics or money?
COREY: The amount of acres under FSC certification has grown at an average rate of 25% over each of the past five years. As of December 2007, we had more than 80 million acres certified in the US and Canada alone. This means that supply of FSC-certified wood has increased substantially along with demand, so that folks wanting FSC are getting the wood they need. Home Depot alone sold more than $213 million of FSC-certified products in 2006! Our explosive growth in the US paper marketplace may cause some geographically isolated supply constraints this year, but we are seeing an incredible response from landowners large and small, public and private, seeking certification to meet this demand. And of course this call to improved forest stewardship is just the response we were set up to deliver.
Increased demand is the best way to attract new supply so our top priorities are continued focus on high leverage activities including green building and green products programs, education (like participating in your Blog!) and the capital markets.
We are also committed to working with our many corporate purchasers of FSC-certified products who are the real sustainable market leaders. We'll work hard to add value for this continued support in combating deforestation and climate change, and promoting forest practices that are environmentally appropriate, socially equitable and economically viable.
Anyone who is looking for FSC-certified lumber or other types of building materials can use the product inquiry function on our website www.findfsc.org. In addition, suppliers of FSC-certified paper can be found at : www.fscus.org/paper.
Thank you for this important opportunity to share with your readers the collective success of thousands of FSC-certified land owners producers, members, independent certifiers, and purchasers.
Corey Brinkema, President, FSC-US
612-812-1500
We Welcome Your Comments
This interview delineates the short and steady path to sustainable forest usage, i say short because it no longer is a crooked road to save the woods.
a straight forward attitude is necessary from resource to product and all the links within this inform the consumer furthermore.
relate-relate, former manufacturing practices have obscured the connection between nature and item, with more transparency the connectivity will return.
Posted by: nadine sellers | March 28, 2008 at 01:36 PM