The eyes of the world turn to Washington on Monday, as President Barack Obama takes the oath of office for his second term as President of the United States. And as he stands on this figurative world stage, he’ll also be standing on a sustainable stage, literally: the inaugural platform was constructed with lumber certified to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) Standard.
Forest certification standards, like SFI’s, are an essential tool to promote sustainable forest management practices that protect and grow our forests for the future. SFI is proud to play a part on this historic day, as the single largest forest certification standard in the world. Across North America, more than 200 million acres/80 million hectares are certified to the SFIforest management standard.
Sierra Pacific Industries, a family-owned company and the second-largest producer of lumber in the United States, provided the lumber for the inaugural platform from facilities in Washington state that are third-party certified to SFI’s rigorous standard. The SFI standard includes measures to protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk, and Forests with Exceptional Conservation Value. And one-third of SFI-certified land in the U.S. is on publicly-owned land.
As adoption and visibility of forest certification continues to expand, we expect more opportunities to celebrate in the years to come.
