We source about 35 percent of the wood used to make our products from our own Sustainable Forestry Initiative®-certified forests, about 25 percent from other certified landowners, and around 40 percent from noncertified landowners — typically small, family-owned forests. Whether it comes from a certified forest or not, it is important that all the wood used to make our products is from legal, noncontroversial and responsible sources.    

LEGAL AND NONCONTROVERSIAL 

It is our long-standing policy and practice to ensure that we, and all our wood suppliers, comply with all laws, and that our procurement practices do not cause or encourage destruction of forest areas at risk of loss from unsustainable forest management practices. We conduct risk assessments of our wood supply area, track our wood sources and operate a due diligence system to maintain compliance with domestic and international laws and avoid sourcing wood from controversial sources. We are also guided by our own Wood Procurement Policy and our associated Sustainable Forestry Policy.   

RESPONSIBLE 

While avoiding illegal and controversial sources of wood is important, it is just a first step. That is why we certify all our manufacturing facilities to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Fiber or Certified Sourcing Standards, which ensures we implement effective due diligence programs and help expand the practice of responsible forestry to noncertified forests.    

We monitor for patterns and trends related to how sustainable forestry practices are being implemented in our wood supply area and actively promote those practices through outreach and education to landowners, loggers and communities. Some of the steps we take, such as requiring our suppliers to follow best management practices to protect water quality and use trained loggers in harvesting, help us verify that all the wood in our products is from responsible, legal and noncontroversial sources. We communicate this assurance to our customers by using the "SFI® Certified Sourcing" label on our products, and we encourage you to look for this label the next time you are buying a wood product.   

SFI Logo

SUSTAINABLE and TRACEABLE 

Most of our wood comes from North American forests that are certified through third-party auditing to recognized forest management standards, such as SFI or the American Tree Farm System. 

We hold chain-of-custody certification under the SFI and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) standards at select mills. These programs allow us to provide customers with a verified claim that the wood products they buy from us come from certified, sustainably managed forests. Chain-of-custody is an accounting system that tracks wood fiber from a certified forest through the different stages of production to a customer’s own chain-of-custody program. This process ensures true traceability from forest to product.  

Learn more about the SFI, ATFS and PEFC certification programs and view our certificates.