David Ford, biz consultant and forest advocate, answers questions | Grist | InterActivist

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David Ford, head of Metafore.

What is the most effective way to convince a Fortune 500 CEO that eco-friendly practices are good for the corporation? -- Andrew Fridley, Portland, Ore.

In my experience, the most effective approach is to demonstrate to the CEO the business value of changing practices. You have to build a case beyond just risk mitigation. To really get the CEO's attention, you need to demonstrate how changing practices will improve shareholder value, as that is one of the CEO's primary responsibilities. One approach is to provide stories of other business successes, especially from competitors. Another motivator is appealing to the CEO's desire to leave a legacy of his or her tenure. Find out what motivates the CEO and appeal to those desires or needs.

What are your thoughts about urban forests -- not street trees, but honest-to-God forests in cities? -- Jan Danforth, Baltimore, Md.

I happen to live in a city (Portland, Ore.) with the largest urban forest in the U.S. -- Forest Park. I think it is fantastic! Our urban society is growing more disconnected from our natural resources that contribute to our quality of life. Street trees and those in our backyards play an important role, too. They add beauty and habitat for birds and other small animals, and they provide shade that can save energy.

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How do you educate consumers to really think about their impacts and understand economic and ecological trade-offs? And, perhaps more importantly, how do you get them to want to think about the trade-offs? -- Tim Baker, Eureka, Calif.

With a lot of money over a long period of time! Actually, Metafore's approach is to work with businesses who sell products and services to the end consumers. We believe that leadership businesses acting in responsible ways are in a good position to inform their customers and influence their competitors. In some respects, I believe that responsible businesses should not offer their customers a product that encompasses a poor environmental or social choice.

I temp in offices and get the menial tasks like copying. Whenever I suggest scanning or emailing instead, I get some line like "scanners are too slow." Is there some more forest-friendly way to deal with the must-have-multiple-copies dilemma? -- Tracy Price, Jamaica Plain, Mass.

Scanners too slow?! This is 2006 -- the age of one-gigabyte memory sticks, iPods, and HP scanners that are fast and accurate! However, it is not always easy to get people to change.

The reality is that our society will continue to use paper -- and using paper is better than using clay tablets -- so society has made some progress. When companies do use paper, they make sure it is coming from well-managed forests that are third-party certified and/or it includes some recycled content. We want to use wood fiber efficiently. And later this summer, be on the lookout for Metafore's Environmental Paper Assessment Tool, which will allow buyers to assess and compare online the environmental footprint of paper using a lifecycle approach.

Are you doing anything to bolster the market for low-grade wood in order to promote good forest management? Do you put weight behind retaining mills and paper companies? Also, do you consider the bioenergy sector as a market for low-grade wood? What's your take on the export market, where the majority of our wood (particularly the really good grades) goes? -- Artem Treyger, Syracuse, N.Y.

Yes, we have done some research and writing about the importance of valuing all of the tree, even the boards with beautiful and unique colors and knots (so-called low-grade). One example of our work has been to communicate to leaders in the design and architecture world about the impacts of only specifying first- and second-grade lumber; we challenge them to design using all the grades that would typically come from a tree.

We need to retain mills in the U.S. to meet our domestic needs and to help ensure quality forest management continues on private and some public lands. If all the mills go away, the small family forestland owners will be the most impacted.

I do believe that wood fiber from well-managed forests can help meet our energy needs. It is a renewable resource and can help us shift away from our oil-based economy -- and the sooner the better!

I am a supporter of free and fair trade. We seem to do fine on the free part and not so good on the fair part.

According to the timber industry's American Forest and Paper Association, Metafore has judged the AFPA's forest certification program, Sustainable Forestry Initiative, to be a credible option worthy of the buying public's trust. Yet most of the world's leading environmental groups, who favor certification under the Forest Stewardship Council, would dispute such a judgment. What is Metafore's position on the relative merits of the two programs? -- Bill Mankin, Washington, D.C.

As you know, there are now many competing certification systems operating in the world. The origins and purposes of these systems are different, and each offers the business user unique features. Metafore offers extensive objective information about the key certification systems operating in North America.

I believe your question relates to a Metafore publication from 2004 entitled: Matching Business Values with Forest Certification Systems [PDF]. This publication offers a business-driven approach for incorporating forest certification into responsible forest-products purchasing practices. It is designed to help business procurement personnel arrive at their own conclusions on certification and then mesh their corporate values with the attributes available within the various certification systems.

As part of this publication, Metafore advises business users to consider only credible independent third-party systems. Credibility, in this sense, is addressed only in terms of the independent nature of certification systems. This refers to their ability to develop, promote, and implement standards in an open, transparent, and reasonably unbiased manner. It does not address the level of on-the-ground performance required by the standards produced by the systems. In addition, we identified the key elements of credible independent third-party certification schemes. These elements include governance, standardization, accreditation, verification, and tracking and labeling.

So within this context, we believe that all three major systems operating in North America -- FSC, CSA, and SFI -- are credible and we recognize that each system offers business buyers unique features.

Does the certification process (e.g., FSC) really provide for sustainable forests, or is it only a check that forests are well-managed or that products are not made of illegal timber? What is your view on reaching any real level of sustainability? -- Rick Gregory, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Sustainability is a concept, an ideal, a moving target ... and we are still trying to define it related to forests. Forest certification does not ensure sustainability of our forests; rather it is a measuring stick to evaluate performance against a set of standards. It provides an opportunity to learn and improve practices over time. I am not sure what a real level of sustainability is ... however, I believe that open and transparent discussion and collaborative approaches to problem solving will move us in the right direction.

Where do you stand on clear-cutting as a forestry practice? What can you and Metafore do to help bring about forest areas "representing all stages of forest succession, particularly the mature forest" (to quote A. Starker Leopold)? -- Ruth S. Sperling, Pearblossom, Calif.

I have a degree in forest management and have worked as a forester applying management prescriptions. I believe that clear-cutting is a legitimate forest management tool. I also believe that clear-cutting has been overused and misused. As more businesses that buy wood and paper products ask for their products to come from independent third-party certified forestlands, diversity of forests will improve, including age-class distribution over the landscape.

Tree farmers who practice sustainable methods rely on good land stewardship to provide income for themselves and their heirs. When the government allows the logging of public lands, this deprives the tree farmer of income by driving down the price of forest products. It seems to me that the big timber-product interests try to align the tree farmers with those who are working against their best interests. Has any effort been made to educate the tree farmers about this? -- Sylvia Pesek, Haynesville, La.

I am a strong supporter of small family forestland ownership, a member of the Oregon Small Woodland Association, and a board member of Family Forests of Oregon, a fledgling nonprofit. I believe that both private and public lands need to contribute to a healthy and diverse forest land base in the U.S. Walking away from some level of forest management on a portion of public lands is not rational in my view. Public lands that are in poor condition and that are contiguous to private lands create threats to those lands. Fire, insects, and disease do not recognize boundaries on maps. I also agree that public timber offerings that do not recognize market needs and trends can really hurt private timber owners. These are challenging questions that we can find answers to through collaborative discussion and cooperation among affected stakeholders.

I have given up trying to make the charities I contribute to stop sending me envelopes full of generally useless crap. How do we get these folks to be more tree-friendly? -- Bob Howe, West Shokan, N.Y.

Suggest to your charities that they do what Bank of America is now doing: offering their customers (or in your case -- contributors) a choice to either receive materials through the mail or via email. And ask for electronic contribution methods as well. The more of you who ask, the greater the likelihood that they will improve their practices.

As a veteran forest firefighter and now a forest advocate, how do you feel about President Bush's "Healthy Forests" initiative? -- Brendan Sweeny, Narragansett, R.I.

I do not know enough about the initiative to comment. I do support a balanced approach that includes rational forest management, including the salvage of a portion of dead and dying trees on public lands and restoration of degraded forestlands, as well as forest wilderness. I also support forest certification as a means to create transparency.

Have you heard of Green Seal? They seem to be relatively in line with your company's mission. What do you think of them? -- Patrick Aberg, Washington, D.C.

Yes, I have heard of Green Seal and have met some of their team. I am aware of their certification programs. I do see alignment in our approaches and think they are valuable contributors of tools that help businesses align their actions to achieve environmental and social progress.

Have you heard about a wonderfully designed plan called The Natural Step? -- Beverly Smith, Cottonwood, Ariz.

Yes, I have had the pleasure of meeting the founder, Karl-Henrik Robert, during one of his visits to Portland. Metafore is a member of the Oregon Natural Step network, and many of our staff have been through the introductory training on the approach and system conditions.

Is there any clear analysis that shows the embodied energy and/or lifecycle analysis of engineered wood products? -- Boone Guyton, Alexander, N.C.

I suggest you start by looking at the Engineered Wood Association website.

What's your favorite Grateful Dead performing year? I think '77 was mind-blowing. -- Patrick Aberg, Washington, D.C.

I would have to say 1972 ... my first-ever show was that year. They were just back from Europe, and they were incredible! I have seen more shows than I can count on my fingers and toes. One of the more interesting ones was the summer of 1987; the venue was Telluride, Colo., and it was during the Harmonic Convergence. The town was closed to car traffic for the three-day event -- 10,000-plus deadheads took over the town. The shows were held in a huge meadow just outside of town, and the most interesting moment was at sunrise the second day when the majority of people there assembled at dawn for a chanting session.

Questions from Grist editors | Questions from readers

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David Ford, biz consultant and forest advocate, answers readers' questions