Sierra Pacific wins 'green' award

Sierra Pacific Industries was recognized Thursday, Sept. 25, at a ceremony in Minneapolis for raising awareness about the benefits of its Sustainable Forestry Initiative® Inc. (SFI) certification, especially in the residential and commercial green building markets.

Mark Pawlicki, director of government affairs, accepted an SFI President's Award for Sierra Pacific Industries' leadership in working with architects, builders and designers to show how SFI certification supports green building activities. The company has 15 architectural specialists across the western United States who work in partnership with architects and help them understand the value of choosing SFI-certified wood.

"Sierra Pacific Industries is providing the facts about forest certification directly to building professionals, and has even produced a module on SFI certification as part of continuing education activities through the American Institute of Architects," said SFI Inc. President and CEO Kathy Abusow.

"We find that when our customers take a closer look at SFI certification, they soon discover it represents a sound environmental choice, one that is recognized under green building rating programs around the world," Pawlicki said.

Sierra Pacific Industries owns nearly two million acres of timberland (800,000 hectares) in California and Washington, which are certified to the SFI 2005-2009 Standard. It was the first lumber manufacturer in the United States to have all of its sawmills certified to the SFI chain-of-custody standard. The company has featured the SFI label on its products for years, and its award-winning promotional materials inform green building market participants about SFI certification.

Sierra Pacific Industries was one of five companies honored with an SFI President's award at the SFI Inc. annual conference in Minneapolis. Harden Furniture Inc., JELD-WEN Windows and Doors, National Envelope and Smead Manufacturing Company were also recognized for their work in supporting SFI Inc. and forest certification.

"The strength of the SFI program is our comprehensive forest, chain-of-custody and fiber sourcing certification, and support from companies that recognize the value of third-party certification to meet their environmental, social and customer service goals," Abusow said.

SFI Inc. is a 501c(3) non-profit charitable organization, and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program (www.sfiprogram.org), that is internationally recognized and among the largest in the world. It is one of the fastest growing forest certification programs with 150 million acres (60 million hectares) of SFI-certified forests across North America. The SFI Standard also includes unique fiber sourcing requirements that promote responsible forest management on all suppliers' lands and a chain-of-custody certification, which can communicate to buyers how much certified fiber is in a specific product. The SFI forest standard is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, a global umbrella organization that has strict requirements for endorsement.

SFI Inc. is governed by a three-chamber board of directors representing environmental, social and economic sectors equally.