WASHINGTON – The Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI®) Inc. today reported significant growth across key performance indicators with the release of Writing the Next Chapter, SFI’s 2013 Annual Progress Report.
Since 2007, forests certified to the SFI Standard® have grown by 100 million acres to 240 million acres today. Total chain-‐of-‐custody certified locations grew from 500 in 2007 to more than 2,500. Also, SFI received on-‐product label requests for more than 6,000 wood, paper and packaging products in 2012, up from only 50 for the entire year in 2007.
“While our Progress Report demonstrates growing momentum for responsible forestry, with indicators of success rising across the board, what’s most exciting is our conservation and customer partnerships,” said Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of SFI. “By working together, leading environmentalists, community advocates and SFI Program Participants are writing the next chapter to promote sustainable forestry, to improve forestry practices and to encourage responsible purchasing of forest products.”
With a $400,000 initial investment in 2010, SFI’s Conservation and Community Grant program grew to over $4.8 million by 2012 with leveraged contributions and 150 project partners including the American Bird Conservancy, Habitat for Humanity affiliates, National Association of State Foresters, National Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy of Canada, U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, and World Resources Institute.
On the supply-‐chain front, the report congratulates four market leaders – Time Inc., the National Geographic Society, Macmillan Publishers and Pearson – for stepping forward to become SFI Founding Forest Partners, making five-‐year commitments to increase certification across the forest products supply-‐chain.
The report highlights the active, on-‐the-‐ground outreach, training and program work of the 35 local and regional SFI Implementation Committees across North America, who train loggers, advance best management practices for water quality and do so much more to support healthy communities and thriving working forests.
The report’s theme, Writing the Next Chapter, connects with the reality that on June 5, SFI launched the 18-‐month process to revise its standard and create the SFI 2015-‐2019 Standard, which includes reaching out to 10,000 individuals and organizations and holding numerous workshops across North America.
The SFI External Review Panel, a panel of distinguished independent experts representing environmental, academic, professional and public organizations, conducts an independent review of theSFI Program and the SFI Progress Report to ensure it fairly states the status of SFI implementation. The ERP will now focus on ensuring that the SFI standard revision process gives ample consideration to all comments received.
ABOUT SFI
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative® (SFI) advances sustainability through forest-focused collaborations. We are an independent, nonprofit organization that leverages four interconnected pillars of work: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI works with the forest sector, conservation groups, academics, researchers, brand owners, resource professionals, landowners, educators, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and governments. Collaborating with our network, we leverage SFI-certified forests and products as powerful tools to help solve sustainability challenges such as climate action, conservation of biodiversity, education of future generations, and sustainable economic development.
MEDIA CONTACT
Christine Leduc
VP, Communications and Government Relations
Sustainable Forestry Initiative
613-706-1114
media@forests.org
