Summary
"Buying wood that is FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] certified assures people they are buying wood that has been sustainably forested," explains Dan Harrington of EcoTimber in San Rafael, which has been selling reclaimed and sustainably harvested lumber since 1992. Harrington goes on to say that with the explosion in green building, more groups are jumping on the certification bandwagon to try to benefit from the growing interest in eco-friendly products. "At this point, the FSC is really the only group that has support of environmentalists and standards that truly ensure forests are being managed in an eco-friendly way." Harrington cites his main concern as "the difficult battle going on between little guys like EcoTimber pitted against the mainstream timber industry and their high-powered lobbyists. We are trying to keep their marketing efforts from diluting and misleading the green building movement." As a member of the Sierra Club's Forest Certification Committee and a former employee of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Kate Heaton agrees with Harrington: "The environmental community wants consumers to understand that when they seek to buy good wood, there is only one that is truly green-the FSC certified one." In addition, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) only recognizes FSC certification as evidence of the sustainability of a non-recycled wood product. To learn more about FSC certified wood, visit www.ecotimber.com and http://www.fsc.org/en/.
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Legitimate Lumber
The questions seem endless. Is the latte I'm drinking made from fair-trade coffee beans? Were the materials used in my dining room chairs constructed with toxic formaldehyde? Was my favorite rug manufactured in a sweatshop that utiliz...
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