Comparative Analysis of the Forest Stewardship Council and Sustainable Forestry Initiative Certification Programs

This report from 2001, compares two of the world’s largest certification programs for forest products — that of the Forest Stewardship Council and the American Forest and Paper Association’s Sustainable Forestry Initiative — and concludes that the industry-sponsored SFI may not address a full range of environmental and social concerns. The study notes that the SFI often assumes that environmental and social goals will be met through existing laws. The initiative also lacks a consistent “chain of custody” system to ensure that wood products labeled by the group actually come from certified forests, the study noted. And while FSC’s program is global in scope, the SFI is principally concerned with U.S. forests. The study, by the nonprofit Meridian Institute, was cosponsored by Home Depot, which has committed to supplying FSC-certified wood products in all of its stores.