KENTWOOD EXPANDS SELECTION OF FSC PRODUCTS
Kentwood has announced a further expansion of the company’s FSC certified product line, says Brady Page, Kentwood’s VP of Sales & Marketing. “In the next few months we will be converting many of our most popular engineered styles to FSC certified status, including many of our Antiqued, Specialty and Hand-Scraped products. This is another step in our ongoing efforts to offer more FSC certified products to our customers, not as special order items, but as standard products in the Kentwood family.”
The FSC – Forest Stewardship Council – is an international non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging responsible management of the world’s forests. Established in 1993, FSC has become one of the most respected and recognized certification programs in the international wood-products marketplace, and the familiar FSC tree logo can be found on thousands of wood and wood-based products throughout the world.
One of the reasons that FSC has earned such high and wide-ranging respect is that its certification system is one of the most thorough and rigorous in the industry, enforcing strict guidelines for both the operations ‘in the woods’ and also for the subsequent manufacturing and distribution phases. Another distinctive feature of the FSC’s mandate is that it considers the social aspects of forest management as well as the environmental ones. In order for a product to carry FSC certification, every stage of the wood’s harvest and manufacture must be carried out in accordance with FSC’s strict guidelines.
As green building practices become more widespread, builders and developers are increasingly choosing FSC certified products for their projects, as they contribute to sustainability goals in building initiatives like the US Green Building Council’s LEED program.
For consumers in a marketplace awash with vague and often confusing claims of greenness and sustainability, the FSC logo offers a reliable and trusted symbol of environmental responsibility. “Having the FSC certified logo on our product is a very powerful statement to contemporary consumers,” says Page, “It lets them know immediately that this product is a genuinely responsible choice, endorsed by an objective and highly respected source.” (For more information on FSC and its programs, please visit www.fsc.org.)
Kentwood first began manufacturing FSC certified products several years ago as custom ordered products for large residential projects. The company was anxious to add FSC certified items to its standard product catalog, but first had to ensure that it had sufficient supply of both FSC-approved material and manufacturing capacity to meet the anticipated market demand. In time, the FSC’s international certification program grew, supplies of FSC certified material increased, and, in 2008, Kentwood began introducing FSC certified products into its line-up. “In a perfect world, we’d be able to make our entire product line FSC certified right now, but to do it properly both in respect to FSC regulations and Kentwood’s commitment to production quality, it must be a gradual process,” says Elizabeth Baldwin, the company’s Environmental Compliance Officer. “We’re working continually with our various partners and as capacity and supply conditions improve, we’ll continue to expand our FSC product selection.”
“The important thing to me is that we are actually making and selling FSC certified products, not just saying that we could do it, or would do it if asked,” adds Page. “Thinking FSC is part of our day to day business at every level, not some kind of special order. I think that shows a higher level of commitment than a lot of other manufacturers.”
Kentwood's FSC certified products are manufactured and distributed under certificates SCS-COC-00868 and SCS-COC-001760.