SEATTLE—ForestEthics, a forest protection organization whose mission includes educating consumers about environmentally harmful forestry practices, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) asking the agency to investigate the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)’s claim to be a “green” certifier of forest products. The complaint argues that SFI’s claim that it is an independent, nonprofit public charity is deceptive and misleading because SFI is substantially governed and financed by the timber industry and because its vague and ambiguous forestry standards are developed and approved by timber industry personnel in a closed process.
ForestEthics’ complaint is based on the FTC’s recently revised “Green Guides” and is joined by more than 2,800 individual consumers filing their own complaints, and supported by more than 8,000 who signed a petition demanding that the FTC take action. This is the largest number of Green Guides complaints concerning a single scheme that the FTC has ever received.
News of this FTC complaint follows closely on the heels of four more major U.S. companies, Hewlett Packard, Office Depot, Southwest, and Cricket, announcing plans to move away from the SFI.
Campaign Began in 2009
ForestEthics began its campaign by filing complaints with the IRS and FTC in 2009. Since then, 24 companies have moved away from the SFI. In April, the SFI sent a “cease and desist” letter—a threat to sue—to ForestEthics. But, if sued, ForestEthics intends to vigorously stand by its First Amendment right to challenge SFI with truthful facts and opinion and to report SFI to consumer protection government agencies.
“The Sustainable Forestry Initiative label is the timber industry’s cynical effort to get a piece of the highly valuable green marketplace in the United States, which is currently valued at $500 billion dollars annually,” said Aaron Sanger of ForestEthics. “We have demonstrable proof that in many regions of the U.S. and Canada, SFI offers virtually no environmental protection beyond that already required by state and federal laws and worse, it offers cover and false marketing for companies trying to take advantage of consumers’ best intentions. It’s no surprise that the SFI is trying to intimidate ForestEthics with threats of a lawsuit—the green marketplace is growing more valuable by the day. Our Federal Trade Commission complaint today is proof positive that we will not be bullied.”
The complaint submitted by ForestEthics (22 pages in length with 858 pages of supporting documentation) centers around the following: The FTC’s Green Guides forbids deceptive claims of independence. The SFI claims that it is independent, but it has direct material connections to the forestry and paper products industry.
In 2011, 93 percent of SFI’s funding came from SFI “program participants”—logging giants such as Weyerhaeuser, Plum Creek, and Rayonier.
To view ForestEthics’ FTC complaint against SFI, click here.
