The Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) is chartered in short to protect the world’s forests. These are not people chaining themselves to trees or laying in front of bulldozers, the FSC is a qualified group that is scientifically driven to achieve the goal of sustainable forestry. What is sustainable forestry? Simply put, they (we) want the forests to exist as a natural and economic resource indefinitely. Those of us in the woodworking industries obviously require, can anyone guess? … Wood! … Without wood, we are out of business and our art-forms and trades cease to exist. Therefore industry and environmentalists are partnering to ensure our future. A careful balance of harvest and preservation, reforestation, management, and general usage is required to achieve this end.

Artisans is pleased to announce that Klise Manufacturing is now FSC certified. You may have heard the term “Chain of Custody” before, most likely the last time you watched an episode of CSI. FSC Certification begins with the establishment of supply chain, manufacturing, inventory control, and shipping procedures that facilitate the movement of raw lumber and finished products through their lifecycle and delivery stages. This establishes a clear chain of custody, each step from the forest through the delivery to the end user is registered, and traceable.

Klise is our source for over 5,000 unique, high quality, solid wood machine and hand carved products including moldings, corbels, appliqués, rosettes, panels, columns, feet, and other unique items. Tracy Sianta, Director of Marketing and Sales for Klise, plays an active role in our industries environmental relations, she  serves on the board of  the West Michigan Forest Products Society (Great Lakes Region) and is responsible for ensuring that Klise does their part for sustainable forestry.

At the first stages of manufacturing wood products, an FSC Organization ensures that their raw materials are obtained from FSC certified lumber yards; sourcing is allowed from other venues but materials bearing the FSC logo cannot intermingle with materials from other sources. The manufacturing and inventory procedures are all geared towards ensuring that FSC sourced material is tracked and segregated through every process. Any break in the chain of custody, and the product can no longer bear the FSC logo.

Let’s review case in point: Artisans of the Valley is not (yet) FSC Certified. We therefore cannot handle a wood product, made by Klise or anyone else, in our shop and still proclaim that it is FSC Certified. Artisans would therefore stay outside the handling process by requesting that Klise drop ship all products requiring an FSC Certification directly to the end user.

That said, a drop ship won’t make sense for small times that will be intertwined into our commissions, as the FSC Certification must be proven against ALL materials in a given commission before it can be stated FSC Certified. We can assure our clients that we are purchasing our lumber from various sustainable and local sources, and are actively aware the need for good forestry practices in our industry.

Where does a drop ship make sense? Well it should be obvious that repeatedly transporting the same goods, especially if the route involves back tracking, is wasteful in both cost and resource usage. Therefore larger orders say 1,000 feet of molding to California; this we’d request that Klise (based in Michigan) ship directly to our client in California. New Jersey may be the garden state, but we’re thinking the molding really won’t be too upset when it skips the site seeing expedition!

FSC Certification comes with an ongoing responsibility, annual audits are required, and periodic inspections or verifications may be conducted. Organizations are required to maintain clear and concise record keeping, and to present all chain of custody documentation to a client upon request.

Klise is pioneering their industry into the next level of environmental consciousness, this is an important milestone in their commitment to sustainable forestry. We will keep you posted on our activities surrounding certification programs, how are affiliates and suppliers are achieving their environmental goals, and in general with news and updates from the woodworking and artistic industries.

There’s still a lot of green left on our planet – let’s do our best to try to keep it that way!

For More information on Artisans Architectural Products

Artians of the Valley

www.artisansofthevalley.com

woodworkers@artisansofthevalley.com

609-637-0450