SFI
FORESTRY
CONFIDENCE MEDIUM · ANALYSIS ONLY, NOT AN AUDIT OR CERTIFICATION
Our read
SFI began as a programme of the American Forest and Paper Association and is routinely described as it was two decades ago. That description is now out of date. SFI Inc. is a 501(c)(3) with an 18-member board split evenly between environmental, social and economic sectors, and standards revisions require an 80 percent supermajority including at least two directors from each sector. Audits run under ISO/IEC 17065 by bodies accredited by ANAB or the Standards Council of Canada, and public summary audit reports go up within 90 days. Where SFI is not equivalent to FSC is scope and claim strength. The forest management standard covers only the United States and Canada. More importantly, most SFI marks a shopper sees are Certified Sourcing, and SFI's own documentation states that label "does not make claims about certified forest content". A secondary producer needs two-thirds certified sourcing, with the remaining third only required to be non-controversial, and the percentage may be a rolling average over a year. The frequent error is reading an SFI Certified Sourcing label as equivalent to an SFI or FSC chain-of-custody claim. It is a procurement claim.
What it covers
- SFI Forest Management Standard for owned and managed forestland in the United States and Canada
- SFI Fiber Sourcing Standard governing how a mill procures wood from non-certified landowners, which no other forest scheme requires
- SFI Chain-of-Custody Standard with physical separation, percentage and credit methods
- SFI Certified Sourcing Standard and label, a procurement claim rather than a certified forest content claim
- a controversial sources exclusion list covering illegal logging, CITES species, conflict timber, conversion in regions of forest decline, and activities not meeting the spirit of the ILO Declaration and UNDRIP
- genetically modified trees via forest tree biotechnology listed as a controversial source
- third-party audits by certification bodies accredited by ANAB or the Standards Council of Canada under ISO/IEC 17065
- public summary audit reports posted to the SFI website within 90 days
What it leaves out
Not a criticism of the scheme. A standard is a scope, and this is where this one ends.
- the SFI Certified Sourcing label, the one most often seen on paper and packaging, explicitly makes no claim about certified forest content
- under the Certified Sourcing Standard a secondary producer needs only two-thirds certified sourcing by weight; the other third merely has to be non-controversial
- chain of custody permits both percentage and credit methods, so a certified claim can rest on volume accounting rather than the physical fibre in the pack
- the certified sourcing percentage may be a rolling average calculated over a period of up to one year
- primary producers may treat under 5 percent of raw material from secondary sources as de minimis with no certification of that portion
- the forest management and fiber sourcing standards apply only to the United States and Canada
- no free, prior and informed consent requirement in FSC's terms; the standard requires meeting the spirit of UNDRIP
- no greenhouse gas accounting or Scope 3 requirement in the chain of custody standard
The scheme
| Issued by | Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI), Washington DC and Ottawa; a 501(c)(3) non-profit, PEFC-endorsed |
|---|---|
| Where it applies | United States and Canada for forest management and fiber sourcing; chain of custody and certified sourcing extend to organizations outside the United States and Canada |
| Audit and renewal | Recertification every five years, with surveillance audits between. A chain-of-custody surveillance audit may be waived with certification body approval if no certified product was sold in the period. |
| Cost | Not published. Audit fees are set commercially by the accredited certification body; SFI charges separate label use and licensing fees. |
What we read
SFI 2022 Standards and Rules, comprising Section 2 SFI 2022 Forest Management Standard, Section 3 SFI 2022 Fiber Sourcing Standard, Section 4 SFI 2022 Chain-of-Custody Standard, Section 5 SFI 2022 Certified Sourcing Standard, plus the SFI 2022 Audit Procedures and Auditor Qualifications and Accreditation section
- what_it_omits (Certified Sourcing label makes no certified content claim) — The SFI-certified Sourcing label does not make claims about certified forest content.
- what_it_omits (two-thirds rule) — They must account for at least two-thirds by weight of the wood or wood fiber ... The other one-third cannot come from controversial sources.
- what_it_omits (rolling average up to one year) — The period over which the rolling average is calculated shall not exceed one year.
- what_it_omits (de minimis 5 percent) — If less than 5% by weight of a manufacturing unit's raw material supply comes from secondary sources, these sources are considered de minimis
- what_it_covers (chain of custody percentage and credit methods) — Certified Organizations shall use either the Percentage Method or the Credit Method.
- what_it_covers, independence_score (accreditation) — All certification bodies must be accredited by a member of the International Accreditation Forum — ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB) or the Standards Council of Canada (SCC).
- yko_assessment (current governance) — The 18-member SFI Board of Directors ... Six directors from non-profit environmental/conservation organizations ... Six directors from community or social interest groups ... Six directors from the forest, paper and wood products industry
- yko_assessment (supermajority for standard revision) — a minimum of eighty percent of those present, which must include at least two representatives of each Sector [environmental, social, economic] is required to approve any action of the Board
- enforcement_score (public summary audit reports) — The public audit summary report shall be posted to the SFI website within 90 days of the certificate being issued.
- renewal_period — Certified Organizations shall recertify their programs ... every five years
- what_it_covers (controversial sources list) — Illegal Logging including trade in CITES ... Conflict Timber ... Genetically modified trees via forest tree biotechnology.
- issuer (PEFC endorsement) — PEFC GD 1007, Endorsement and Mutual Recognition of Certification Systems and their Revision
What we could not establish
All standard content, governance structure, accreditation and audit findings are quoted directly from the SFI 2022 Standards and Rules and are high confidence. The statement that SFI originated as a programme of the American Forest and Paper Association is historical background that I could not source in this session: SFI's current website has no history page, forests.org/about and forests.org/who-we-are do not mention AF&PA, and the search budget was exhausted. It is included in the assessment because the brief asked for it, but it is not cited and should be confirmed before publication. Likewise, the year SFI Inc. became a separate organisation is not asserted here. Enforcement scored 3 rather than 4 because SFI publishes summary audit reports and a certified-organizations register but I could not locate a published register of suspensions or decertifications. No independent NGO or academic comparison of SFI and FSC is cited; the equivalence discussion here is derived from the two schemes' own standards.
Who holds it
Scored companies carrying this mark, highest first. Holding it is not the same as scoring well — the mark is one input of six.
| Company | Scope held | YKO score |
|---|---|---|
| Kellogg's | SFI | 16.3 |
| Vanity Fair (napkins) | Not stated | 15 |
| Quilted Northern | Not stated | 14.5 |
If you hold this certification, it is already on your record. What a buyer cannot see there yet is the evidence behind the parts this standard does not reach.