And even if you do, retailers can’t always provide informed answers about their wood products. Take a walk on the wild side and choose greener woods—FSC-certified, sustainable, antique or reclaimed. 

“Wood is natural, renewable and biodegradable, but that doesn’t make that bookcase soft on the earth. Indeed, wood furniture in general is teeming with toxins. It’s coated in varnishes, glues, waxes and paints that release smog-inducing, lung-irritating VOCs,” writes Adria Vasil, in ECOHOLIC: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products and Services in Canada. 

Worse still, Vasil writes that most Canadian lumber may be sourced from the boreal or ancient forest systems. “So that lovely coffee table in your living room might be the last incarnation of a 100-year-old tree. What can you do to avoid this? Look for wood products that are old-growth-free. The FSC label is trustworthy, but FSC-certified furniture is hard to come by.” 

Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) 

What is FSC? It’s the Forest Stewardship Council, an international, non-profit organization that supports “environmentally-appropriate, socially-beneficial, and economically-viable management of the world’s forests.”  

In 1993, FSC was founded in Toronto, Ontario, by representatives of environmental groups, the timber industry, the forestry profession, Aboriginal organizations, and community forestry groups from more than 25 countries.  Currently, there are 100 million hectares in over 80 countries certified to FSC standards. Thousands of products are produced using FSC certified fibre and carry the FSC “check-tree” logo.  

For consumers, FSC is a forest certification and labeling system for paper and wood products that are created from responsibly managed forests and verified recycled sources. These forests are certified according to strict environmental and social standards.  

This means that this controlled wood has been verified and cannot come from:

• Areas of social conflict and illegal logging
• Genetically modified trees 
• High-conservation value forests
• Large scale conversions which replace native tree species with faster growing non-native species.

 “Forests mitigate climate change, are a source and store of freshwater, provide habitat for wildlife, and are of great cultural and social importance to First Nations peoples and society,” says FSC Canada. “Forests also provide fibre for the 350 million tons of paper and 1.5 billion m3 of wood consumed globally per year.”

 “While recycling can reduce the need for fresh wood fibre, there isn’t enough recycled fibre to meet society’s demands, and the reality is that forests remain the anchor of the wood and paper supply chain. 

When purchasing paper or wood products, make sure you are choosing products that are FSC-certified from verified recycled sources or well-managed forests—a renewable and responsible resource—for all, forever.” 

Finding FSC-certified products in the market can be challenging.   Every day though, more FSC products are becoming available.  Besides asking local retailers, you can also check the international FSC products database (http://www.fsc-info.org). 

FSC Canada website has a list of Canadian manufacturers and suppliers of FSC-certified wood products by province.  In its list of retailers selling FSC-certified products, FSC Canada includes Home Depot and IKEA. 

IKEA

“Wood is an excellent material from a quality and environmental perspective, as long as it is legally produced and comes from responsibly managed forests,” says IKEA. “IKEA does not accept wood that is illegally logged or comes from intact natural forests. Our long-term goal is to source all wood for IKEA products from forests certified as responsibly managed.”

Although not all IKEA products are FSC-certified, the IKEA group ”supports forest projects that promote the development of responsible forestry in our primary wood sourcing countries.”  IKEA works with WWF Conservation, Sow a Seed project and Rainforest Alliance to increase the availability of certified wood. 

The antique and reclaimed ones

There are Canadian businesses, like custom, hardwood flooring company Historic & Classic Woods, that specialize in wood products made from antique and reclaimed wood. “The antique woods are derived from old barns and other like structures while our reclaimed woods are recovered from trees destined for the fireplace or landfill site as a result of urban sprawl or disease,” says Historic & Classic Woods.   

The company wants “eco-minded” consumers to support its stance on knocking out global deforestation, illegal logging, and reducing the damage inflicted on the North American forest industry by alien species such as Dutch Elm Disease, The Chestnut Blight and various beetle invasions. 

 “(The company) is committed to doing its part to ensure a healthy, balanced North American forest industry and to leave a zero footprint on the global forest community.  HC Woods challenges everyone to leave a zero footprint.”

BC-based Second Wind Timber specializes in architectural wood products manufactured entirely from recycled antique timber. 

These products include timber framing, wide plank flooring, handcrafted wood doors/main entries and custom millwork.

The company obtains the timber from dismantling old commercial and industrial structures slated for demolition like a sawmill, wharf, cannery or warehouse.  Much of the wood was originally harvested in the 1800s or 1900s cut from huge old growth West Coast forests. 

“Reclaimed old growth timber is prized for its size, history, beauty, density and stability,” says Second Wind Timber. “One of the best reasons to use reclaimed timber in your project is that it supports sustainability and environmental responsibility.” 

 “Buying reclaimed timber is one of the limited options available to environmentally responsible consumers who want to use old growth timber.”

Sustainable bamboo

Rapidly renewable and exotic, sustainable material bamboo is growing in popularity in Alberta, from furniture to flooring.  In Calgary, Domaine Fine Furnishings & Design has just introduced the Maria Yee Ecoluxury line of bamboo furnishings.

 “Bamboo flooring is trendy, stylish and also a green product as it takes only six years for bamboo plants to grow,” says Mike Morrison, co-owner of Calgary-based Exotic Flooring Warehouse.  

Kensington Carpet One Floor & Home is a dealer of Teragren Fine Bamboo Flooring, Panels & Veneer. “We’re extremely excited about our continued growth year over year and the increasing demand for environmentally friendly bamboo products,” says David Knight, Teragren president and CEO. “It’s very rewarding to achieve what has always been our goal: to create a company that is not only environmentally, but also economically and socially responsible.” 

Edmonton sustainable interior designer Stephani Carter, of firm EcoAmmo, says bamboo flooring can have positive and negative aspects for the Alberta market.  

Bamboo is a very strong hard wood, she says, even though it is classified as a grass. A rapidly renewable resource, it has less than a 10-year harvest cycle, the classification LEED uses. 

“Bamboo is grown in very humid areas and it may need extra time to acclimatize before installing in Alberta as it could shrink or warp,” says Carter, a co-founder of Green Alberta.  She adds that bamboo has to be shipped to Alberta since it’s not yet grown here in greenhouses. 

“Bamboo is now very popular and there are stories of companies cutting down existing forests with well-developed ecosystems to plant monocultures of bamboo crops.  CL

Facts on FSC

Canada is the world leader in FSC certification.  Over 25 per cent of the world’s FSC-certified forests are in Canada. 

The largest FSC-certification is 5.5 million hectares is in Alberta. 

FSC certified forests represent the equivalent of 7 per cent of the world’s productive forests. 

FSC is the fastest growing forest certification system in the world (UN FAO, 2007)

With over 7,500 certificates, the number of companies along the forest product supply chain committing to FSC certification peaked at 40 per cent in 2007. 

The value of FSC labeled sales is estimated at over $20 billion USD. 

Source: Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) WEBSITES

For more information, check out the following websites:

www.randomhouse.ca

www.ecoholic.ca

www.fsccanada.org

www.fsc.org

www.fsc-info.org

www.ikea.ca

www.historicwoods.ca

www.illegal-logging.info

www.exoticpests.gc.ca

www.secondwindtimber.com

www.domainefurnishings.com

www.exoticflooringwarehouse.com

www.kensingtoncarpetone.ca

www.teragren.com

www.ecoammo.com

www.greenalberta.ca