October 13/20, 2014; Volume 28/Number 9
By Ken Ryan
It is potentially the biggest environmental issue facing the hardwood flooring industry, and it has nothing to do with the Lacey Act or LEED standards. Rather, it is about the Northern Long Eared Bat, and whether the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will list the virus-stricken mammal as either “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act.
The potential problem for the wood industry is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a series of protective measures for the bat that would impact forest-related activities, including logging restrictions in all the hardwood-growing states from April to October each year.
Both the Hardwood Federation, the hardwood industry’s voice in Washington, D.C., and coalition partners including the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) have lobbied—effectively to this point—to postpone any decision until at least April 2015.
“We are hopeful that we can redirect efforts toward finding a cure for the illness and away from industry-destroying harvesting restrictions,” said Don Finkell, chairman of the Hardwood Fed-eration. “There is a short window of opportunity to act.”
FCNews was recently updated on some of the most pressing issues impacting hardwood flooring.
LEED v4
LEED v4, which states that wood products must be certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) or a USGBC-approved equivalent to contribute toward credit achievement, was approved by 86% of USGBC members about a year ago. One of the areas most affected was the broadening of points available for wood.
“The most significant credit for wood is building product disclosure and optimization—sourcing of raw materials, which is eligible for a possible two points,” said Michael Martin, president and CEO of NWFA.
Martin said that in conjunction with the Lacey Act, LEED v4 has given domestic wood species a new focus as a sustainable and environmentally friendly building product. “Lacey makes it more difficult to import wood from other countries into the U.S., which has impacted the sale of domestic wood species with American consumers. In particular, the growth of domestic exotic species has risen as cases of Lacey Act violations hit the mainstream media.”
Finkell said as a result of extensive lobbying, USGBC has moved closer to the industry position on most wood-related issues. “The rapidly renewing credit, which mostly favored bamboo, went away,” he said. “As long as material is renewing faster than it is being harvested, what does it matter how long it takes to grow?”
He added that he would like to see more credit given to North American wood because of its superior environmental credentials. “The LEED standard still does not adequately address extraction issues like illegal logging or pollution from mining. U.S. hardwoods have a very low incidence of illegal logging, and this fact is now recognized by buyers worldwide, but not USGBC. I am confident this will eventually change in our favor.
Lacey Act
The 2008 Lacey Act amendments make it illegal to trade plants and plant products, including wood and paper, harvested or traded in violation of the laws of a foreign country. It also requires importers to file a declaration with the name of the country of harvest and the genus and species of plants contained in their products, although the declaration requirement has yet to be phased in for composite wood products or for pulp and paper.
To date, there have been two incidents of Lacey Act violations—Gibson Guitar Corp. and Lumber Liquidators. According to Martin, the cases outlining Lacey Act violations have made the chain of custody reports even more critical to Lacey compliance. “These cases show that documentation can and will be questioned, so practicing due care when purchasing wood products from overseas is absolutely necessary.
“For example, if nine companies are selling species X at $10 a square foot, and another company is selling it at $5 a square foot, due care comes into play. In other words, if it looks fishy, it probably is fishy.”
Finkell said the industry is hearing very little about the Lacey Act in Congress, so the focus has shifted to Lacey enforcement funding. “When a final determination is made by the Department of Justice in the Lumber Liquidators-Lacey matter, another important precedent for ‘due care’ will be put forth. I think it will significantly affect the future of global forestry in a positive way.
Onshoring
The U.S. has a great sustainability story, according to some executives, which makes U.S. products desirable not just domestically, but throughout the world. As a consequence, U.S. exports are rising dramatically as demand for domestic oak—both red and white—increases abroad. Martin said this presents a real opportunity for domestic manufacturers as the U.S. housing market improves. “The downside is that demand has been a serious concern in recent months, as availability has not been able to keep pace.”
Finkell said he believes the tide is slowly turning in favor of American manufacturers, which coincided with his decision to build a new wood flooring company. “At American OEM, we believe in the environmental attributes of the American forest,” he noted. “We believe it will win out over questionable foreign sources eventually, especially the cheapest Chinese sources.”
NWFA efforts
The NWFA continues to promote its Responsible Procurement Program (RPP), a step-wise approach to FSC certification. Because most wood floors are used primarily in residential construction, and LEED is mainly focused on commercial construction, NWFA has started to focus on RPP’s inclusion in residential green building programs. “We’ve been met with success in this area and RPP is currently recognized by Earth Advantage, which has certified more than 13,800 homes; Build It Green, which has certified more than 17,000 homes; and the Collaborative for High Performance Schools, which has certified more than 80 schools,” Martin explained.
In recent years, NWFA has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund-Global Forest Trade Network (WWF-GFTN) to further the goal of environmental sustainability in the wood products industry. WWF-GFTN has presented education at the NWFA Expo and has conducted webinars for members to promote responsible wood sourcing. “And we [recently] had a conference call to schedule a webinar about companies in China sourcing [illegally logged] oak and ash from the Russian far east,” Martin said. The webinar will take place in early November.