Environmental discussion with Cascades CEO and Dr. David Suzuki

The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Assurance Services International (ASI) are launching a transaction verification (TV) loop on supply chains of all types of wood in Vietnam. The TV loop will include forest management (FM) certificate holders in the scope, in addition to specific types of chain of custody (COC) certificate holders. FSC and ASI decided to launch this TV loop – the second one focused on Vietnam – after detecting problems related to volume mismatch between the amount of wood sold by FM certificate holders and the amount used by COC certificate holders to produce wood pellets, in Vietnam. These problems were revealed during the Asia wood pellets TV loop that was conducted between 2020 and 2022. This poses a high risk to the integrity of FSC’s certification system in Vietnam.

The Virginia Department of Forestry today announced that it has certified all of Virginia’s State Forests to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and American Tree Farm System standards. These certified forests cover more than 68,000 acres. The state forests system is self-sustaining and receives no general funds, so they must support operations through timber sales like other private landowners. Certification of Virginia state forest lands demonstrates for Virginia landowners how certification can be part of their land management efforts while validating that working forests are sustainable. “The commitment to sustainability within Virginia State Forests began in 1919 with the gift of 588 acres of land in Prince Edward County from Emmett D. Gallion for the purpose of advancing the cause of forestry in Virginia,” said State Forests Manager Gary Heiser. “Since that time, the state forests have grown in acres, productivity and biological diversity through the dedication of many state forest employees committed to responsible forest management.” Click read more below for additional detail.

You want to order online but hate the non-recyclable packaging material used in e-commerce in addition to cardboard? You are a restaurant owner and want to cut down on the dozens of Styrofoam boxes that your fish is delivered in every day? You are thinking of building a house but worry about the carbon emissions linked to using concrete and steel? It can seem difficult to find adequate alternatives for these seemingly ubiquitous, carbon-intensive materials, but alternatives do exist. Recyclable packaging and wood-based construction materials are already here and ready to be used on a much bigger scale. The exhibition Forests and the Circular Economy. A future without plastics, opened yesterday at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. It showcased some of the many renewable and sustainably sourced products that the forest sector can offer, providing solutions to global challenges as part of a circular economy.