Have you noticed the letterheads in the unsolicited mail you receive increasingly bearing the FSC logo, proclaiming environmental credentials with the use of post-consumer waste and/or that its origin is an independently certified sustainable forest?
I have, and it set me thinking. FSC started out with high ideals yet little support but they were not deterred by the negativity and sometimes hostility they encountered.
The gradually increasing and multi-farious environmental requirements and pressures being brought to bear on companies, large and small, together with the corporate social responsibility agenda has forced them (some would insist ‘encouraged’ is more appropriate, but then, in the world of CSR, ‘voluntary’ takes on a whole new meaning too!) to incorporate a number of voluntary schemes into their everyday activities.
One voluntary scheme that it is incredibly simple for everyone to subscribe to is using FSC certified paper. And it is this product more than anything that has served to increase global awareness of FSC.
And turn to the back cover of a copy of any of the latest blockbuster paperbacks and there it is again! And from what are those ubiquitous items made? Disappointing if your answer was paper! They are made from wood!
So now, imagine; if all wood, wood-based and wood derived products, every single one, eventually carried a ‘wood’ logo. Start making a list now, perhaps TTJ will put it on its website, and let’s see how long it takes us to get to 500 – and the rest!
What messages there are to tell – like linking the importance of forest certification to the global reliance on wood. And maybe development of a charitable fund entitled say ‘My wood – your wood’ to help put back in regions plagued with illegal logging and no reforestation programmes?
What PR there is to be had if such cross-industry collaboration and I don’t mean in just the UK, really could be realised!
