the Wholesalerc grcw sales thrcugh enln$ ehaln chai n-of-custody ceftfication

NXIOUS to differentiate themselves in a depressed commodity market, lumber wholesalers have begun turning a darker shade of green.

Some distributors are adding green products as a sideline to their standard offerings. Others are completely remaking their companies-or founding new ones. Some are jumping on the bandwagon now that environmental friendliness is starting to sell; others have been at it for years.

A mix of wholesalers share their stories of becoming chain-of-custody certified and figuring out how to track down supply and stir up demand among dealers.

The ilew l$d in Town

Blake Ridgway

Natural Forest Distribution, Santa Rosa, Ca.

L. Wtry did you decide to pursue a "green" image?

Mead Clark Lumber is a retailer in a perfect market, the San Francisco Bay Area. It started into FSC about two-anda-half years ago. We had been trying to get FSC products for about 10 years. Sourcing was a total pain, pricing was ridiculous, everything you'd heard. Retailers were forced to buy an entire truckload, by special order, and then wait 30 days for it. So the family that owns Mead Clark realized there was a great opportunity to help other yards locate FSC products and seven months ago formed a separate wholesale company, Natural Forest Di stribution.

2.Wttutwere your firsr steps toward making yourself known as a green wholesaler?

We became FSC chain-of-custody certified and began a_egressively looking for suppliers. We started with Potlatch, which has an ongoing supply of quality products, and then Roseburg. But after that, the options slowly eroded. So we went to the land ownership and forest management level, and then solicited manufacturers to produce FSC-certified lines. We said, "You get ceftified. You make it. We'll buy it-and we'll pay you more." We kept after Ainsworth for about a year and finally convinced them to run three (certified) OSB products. A producer in Idaho is now making FSC-certified glulams. In a time of mill closures, plants see it as an opportunity for growth.

We've launched a website (www. fscsales.com), joined the Green Building Council and Build It Green, educated our sales and yard staffs, and are rolling out a marketing campaign.

3. tto* did your third-party, chainof-custody certification process go?

Very smoothly. Everything was real simple. because we were starting from scratch. We didn't have to worry about mingling inventories. Everything we stock is FSC certified. The representative from (third-party certifier) SmartWood said we'd already been certified, with Mead Clark. But we said we wanted another certification. We want Natural Forest Distribution to be completely autonomous.

4. wnut types of green products are you now offering?

K.D. Douglas fir dimension and pre-cuts, green DF and K.D. timbers, borate treated DF, DF and SYP plywood, OSB sheathing, radiant barrier and subfloor, glue-laminated beams, and K.D. inland red cedar boards, dimension, siding, pattern stock, and decking.

5. Have customers been receptive?

We're off to a great start. We've sold to 28 different lumbervards in five states, including fellow wholesalers. We have to stress to Mead Clark's competitors that we're not attcmpting to steal their eustomers. We're here to help dealers source FSC-certif ied products.

With certified wood. there have always been three big disconnects: availability, credibility and price. We've pretty much hurdled the first two; we have just under 3 million bd. ft., all of it FSC certified, in our yard right now. The hardest part is price. But we're bringing that down. When we first started, FSC-certified products were 3oc/c Io 40c/c more. Now. some products, Iike glulams, are just 5% more.

We're really trying to concentrate on quality. If people are going to pay more for it, it has to be better, not just certifed.

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Larrr- Perc'ivalle

EcrrlhSottrce I:orcst I)rorlut'ts, Oaklund, Ca.

1. Wtry did you decide to pursue a "greent'image?

Bcsed in Annopolis, MD, Fletcher Wood Solutions is the lorgest monufocturer o{ defect-free, oppeoronce grode rodioto pine products in New Zeolcnd. Distributing our cleor boords, mouldings, LIFESPAN treoted wood, ond lumber to the North Americon morket through our proven ond completely integroted supply choin, Fletcher Wood Solutions mointoins direct occess to one of the lorgest FSC certified pine plontotion forests in the world.

We began as a traditional wholesaler, Plywood And Lumber Sales. The owner, Jeff Hunt, has always been somewhat of an environmentalist-he's an old hippieand we're in Northern California, so we were always envi-

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The National Association of Home Builders promises its new National Green Building Standard will maintain the flexibility of green building practices, while providing a common national benchmark for builders and remodelers.

Called the first true consensus-based standard for residential green building, it is awaiting final comments and expected to be approved by ANSI and published by NAHB and ICC this spring.

The standard is based on the three-year-old NAHB Model Green Home Building Guidelines, but enhanced to include residential remodeling, multifamily building, and lot and site development. It requires builders to include features in seven categories-energy, water and resource efficiency, lot and site development, indoor environmental quality, and homeowner educationand adds a fourlh higher certification level to the guidelines' existing levels.

The standard will, said developer Miles Haber, "make it easier for builders to build green. Having this information available in an ANSI standard means that it's in the language that builders don't need a special consultant to understand."

ronmentally conscious. But it was in about 1996 that we started to get involved with certification. We were looking for ways to distinguish ourselves. In 1991 , we became one of the first to be FSC chain-of-custody certified. Our original C-O-C number was 26.

EarthSource started as a way to distinguish the certified products from the non-certified. It evolved into a division of PALS. What we're moving toward this year, because so many of our products are green now. is concentrating on EarthSource and letting the PALS name fade into the background.

2. Sin"" you were one of the early ones, was the thirdparty, chain-of-custody certification process difficult?

No, the process was not difficult. Back in the early days, the difficulties were in finding FSC-certified stock and in overcoming the misconceptions that the quality was not as good and that the price was 4O7o higher.

There was very little stock. We used to tell customers, "You can have any lumber you want-as long as it's cherry or maple." Once in a while, we'd get a little poplar. What we did was start to encourage our manufacturers to get certified. Columbia Forest Products became certified, that helped. Then States Industries, then Mount Baker Plywood. Columbia, States and Mount Baker would have become certified without our encouragement, but I think it helped them to know that they had a distributor that was willing to take a stocking position with FSC-certified product.

On the other side, we worked with designers and architects to specify FSC-certified materials. The manufacturers began to take notice when FSC started being spec'ed into big projects. When LEED hit, it really took off.

3. Wtrat types of green products do you offer?

We carry a whole line of FSC-certified hardwood lumber and hardwood plywood. The majority of our plywoods are using non-urea-based (NAUF) binders. We also offer certified particleboard, melamine, oak, cherry, poplar and tropical hardwoods.

4. Have customers been receptive to the new you and your green offerings?

It was an evolution. There was a certain core clientele that, given the choice, would always take the certified. Another group was slower to react; they held on to those misconceptions about quality and price.

But there was a time when virtually anybody who wanted FSC came to us. We were the only game in town. We blazed the trail for everyone else.