Wednesday, 01 October 2003
FSC Marketing, A Community At Work
By Michael P. Washburn, VP of Forestry & Marketing
With standards development virtually complete, the obvious next step for FSC is the development and cultivation of a strong market for FSC certified products. While FSC has a role in supporting this work, it is really the “FSC community" that must work together to make it happen. This community has consistently impressed me with its diversity, capacity, commitment, and talent in the nearly 10 months since I joined the staff. In addition to nearly 500 forest management and chain of custody certificate holders, FSC enjoys active — very active — support from an array of non-profit organizations. Of course, certificate holders have the strongest incentive to sell products, but our NGO partners can help by educating prospective customers about FSC and by helping broker relationships that demonstrate how FSC can be successfully included in purchasing decisions. These NGO partners include major national groups such as Certified Wood and Paper Association, Metafore, Ecotrust, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Community Forestry Resource Center, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Alliance, Wilderness Society, and World Wildlife Fund. In addition to these national groups, we see regional groups taking a strong interest as well. Several local green building alliances are now in close touch, and small regional conservation groups, too numerous to list, are working as part of the marketing network.
There is a high level of enthusiasm among these groups, and we are hearing more every day about how they are making FSC work. An important new trend has emerged where companies now see their commitment to purchasing FSC as an important part of how they define their own brands. Whether it’s Citigroup printing its annual environmental report on FSC-certified paper, or Aveda shipping its cosmetics on FSC-certified pallets, more and more companies are strengthening their own position by using their purchasing power to support our certificate holders.
Perhaps most exciting is the increased use of FSC in housing and commercial buildings. Approximately thirty-percent of domestic wood consumption is used in building. Shifting this consumption toward FSC-certified sources has the potential to move us very quickly toward fulfilling our mission of improving forestry across landscapes. The U.S. Green Building Council’s inclusion of FSC in its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program is but one significant commitment that is showing how FSC can make a difference within the context of business realities.
Looking forward, it is clear that FSC still has much to do, but has also come a long way. We have been searching out other examples of non-profit initiatives that have transformed industries. To date, we know of no better example than FSC. As supply chain scrutiny increases, and markets become ever more global, FSC will continue to offer a strong global system that assures supply chain integrity and performance to standards that reflect all three elements of sustainability.