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Growing Green Wood Markets:

A forum on FSC certified forest product markets

June 23, 2009

Embassy Suites Hotel, Greensboro, NC

Join forest products companies, TIMOs, landowners, green builders, FSC staff and others in discussion about current markets and opportunities to expand markets for FSC certified forest products in the South.

Register now!

Hosted By:

The Community Forestry Business Alliance ~ Southern Forests Network

Appalachian Hardwood Manufacturers, Inc ~ NCSU Extension Forestry- Forestry & Environmental Outreach Program ~ Rainforest Alliance

Sponsors:

Citigroup Foundation ~ Columbia Forest Products ~ Domtar ~ Home Depot

Supporters:

NCWoodlands ~ Piedmont Triad and North Carolina Triangle Chapters of the U.S. Green Building Council ~ Southern Pine Inspection Bureau  ~ Sustainable Furnishings Council

CFE Credits:

1.5 hours for the chain of custody workshop & 4.5 hours for the forum, Category 1

Agenda:

Technical Workshop: Chain of Custody Certification

9:30 am to 10:45 am

Approved for 1.5 Category 1 CFEs

Details and logistics of COC certification:

·         What is chain of custody certification?

·         FSC chain of custody (CoC) certification provides information about where the wood or other forest-based material used in a product comes from or does not come from. It requires to identify the origin of raw materials used in FSC-certified products, to keep FSC-certified products separate from other products throughout the production process, and to allow their tracking from one operation to the next - from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution. Only operations covered by an FSC CoC certificate are allowed to label products with the FSC trademarks.

·        
The FSC label thus provides the link between responsible production and consumption and thereby enables the consumer to make socially and environmentally responsible purchasing decisions.

·         Who needs chain of custody certification?

·         Any operation making, changing, trading, re-labeling or repackaging FSC-certified products needs to be CoC certified in order to use the FSC trademarks and to enable its customers to make an FSC claim about these products.

·         Brokers or agents, who neither take physical nor legal possession of the products, and retailers, who sell FSC products to end consumers that do not want to make an FSC claim, usually do not need to become certified.

·         What are ‘controlled sources’?

·         FSC has developed tools that help FSC certified companies to avoid wood produced in socially and environmentally damaging ways. It specifically helps manufacturers and traders to avoid wood that has been:

·         Illegally harvested

·         Harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights 

·         Harvested in forests that have been identified to be of particular biological and/or cultural value

·         Harvested from conversion of natural forest (or other natural habitat)

·         Harvested from genetically modified trees

·         Are there different types of chain of custody certification?

·         Yes.

Small enterprises may form or join a group of operations and apply for group chain of custody certification. FSC has specifically designed Group CoC certification to make CoC certification accessible to small operations for which individual CoC certification may be too costly.

Larger companies operating at multiple locations can, if they comply with certain requirements, choose to apply for multi-site chain of custody certification. This makes use of elements of scale and thus is more economical than to seek a separate certificate for each site.

Both, group and multi-site CoC certification, allows certification bodies to evaluate participating operations or sites based on samples in recognition of existing common, centrally administered and monitored control and reporting systems and thereby reduce the auditing costs.

FSC project certification is a non-bureaucratic way to get one-off and complex products FSC certified without each involved participant having to become individually FSC certified. It has been specifically designed for building projects. In some countries FSC project certification has been a great success with the building industry.

·         How much does chain of custody certification cost?

Forest Stewardship Council Markets Forum

Approved for 4.5 Category 1 CFEs

11:00 am   Welcome

o   Alyx Perry, Southern Forests Network

o   Greg Savage, Piedmont Triad Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council

Markets for FSC Certified Products

o   Emily Jaklitsch, FSC-US

o   Representative of The Forestland Group

12:00 pm to 12:30 pm – Lunch provided by Home Depot

Afternoon Session: Market Development Panel Discussions

Panelists will provide their perspectives on strategies for facilitating certification, market linkages, and market development, followed by group discussion.

12:30 pm to 1:30 pm

Organizing Supply- Forests and Primary Mills

Strategies, opportunities, and challenges for facilitating a reliable supply of FSC certified solid wood products.

o   Harry Groot, Blue Ridge Forest Cooperative- landowner experiences with FSC certification

o   Ched Kearse, Kearse Timberlands & Manufacturing - certification of small forests and businesses

o   Jim Sitts, Columbia Forest Products - Resource Manager Certification

o   Alyx Perry, Southern Forests Network  - Group Certification

1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Facilitating Local Value-Added Processing- Manufacturing and Distribution

Strategies, opportunities, and challenges for facilitating local value-added processing

o   Bobby Thomas, Anderson Hardwood Flooring - A local manufacturer’s perspective

o   Susan Inglis, Sustainable Furnishings Council - Opportunities in the green furniture market

o   Ryan Temple, Sustainable Northwest - Coordination among certified businesses

2:30 pm to 2:45 pm - Refreshment Break provided by Columbia Forest Products

2:45 pm to 3:45 pm

Making the Sale- Green Builders, Consumers, and Retail Markets

Strategies, opportunities, and challenges for connecting with local buyers.

o   Jason Shuey, Rainforest Alliance - Successful strategies for creating market links between forests and buyers

o   Trish Holder, Owner of “Greenspiration Home” - Green buyer preferences and interest

o   Susannah Tuttle, Trace Collaborative, Triangle Chapter USGBC - Connecting with local green builders and architects

o   Richard Poindexter, Columbia Forest Products - Green building market demand

3:45 Wrap-up

4:15 Reception provided by Domtar

For more information: email, 828-277-9008