In our last post (23 June 2016), we included a mention of a “Stakeholder Dialogue & Reception” that had been recently announced by the US affiliate of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC-US) for 19 July 2016 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. We were unclear at the time that the reason for this meeting – which includes members of the FSC International Board of Directors (BoD) – was the occasion of a scheduled BoD meeting beginning the next morning, also in Charleston. That Board of...

We last wrote about The Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC) seemingly endless attempt to update its central Chain of Custody (CoC) standard last October.  At that time, we mistakenly called attention to the "last round" in a long and tiresome process to re-write the key traceability standard that over 30,000 certified companies rely upon to buy, sell, produce, and trade in FSC-certified goods around the world. At that time FSC's Board of Directors was charged with approving or rejecting a short...

It is a real pleasure to be able to share some promising news from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).  After many years of hard work, SFI staff - with support from key players in the building materials industry - have succeeded in persuading the USGBC LEED program to take a balance and positive approach to recognizing the environmental benefits of wood in commercial construction. LEED (Leadership in Environmental & Energy Design) is a rating system administered by the US Green...

The ugly and rather public dispute between FSC-Canada and one of its largest and most influential stakeholders continues to generate real concerns for SFM stakeholders around the world.  MixedWood wrote about this "drama" in December, and provided another followup early in the new year.  At that time, we expressed hope that the parties would come to appreciate their shared interests, that cooler heads would prevail, and that the very real and challenging issues of concern would be resolved...

Just after the turn of the new year, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) posted this news release - calling attention to the publication of an updated version of a document entitled The Development and Revision of FSC Normative Documents (FSC-PRO-01-001 v.3-1). FSC has had a “procedure for writing procedures” for many years.  This is just the latest of many versions.  We think it is significant to mention because - in spite of the best of intentions - FSC staff continue to find it difficult...

On 18 December 2015, the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) published the final version of a long-awaited update to its Controlled Wood standard (FSC-STD-40-005 v.3-0).  You can link to the announcement here, and download a copy of the new standard document here. This update has been in the works for nearly 5 years and the subject of seemingly endless discussion, debate, analysis, and hand-wringing.  Two discussion drafts were released - the first in fall of 2013 and the second in late 2014. ...