FSC Certification: Is It Worth It?

For Dale Wymore, earning chain-of-custody certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) was the most natural thing in the world.
“One of our strategic priorities on campus is a sustainability initiative, and so really [we were] just trying to follow the guiding principals of the university,” says Wymore, manager of Printing Services at California State University-Chico.

Across the country at Messiah College, in Grantham, Pa., the view is a bit different.

“The issue of the environment is important,” says Dwayne Magee, director of the College Press. “But having the certification in our shop isn’t a huge issue.”

Over the past year, a handful of in-plants—mostly in higher-ed—have earned FSC chain-of-custody certification. By making the extra effort to promote sustainability, they are setting a great example and improving the image of their in-plants and their parent organizations.

Yet many other in-plants—no less concerned about the environment—question the benefits of certification from programs like the FSC, the Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI) or others. They are recycling, using vegetable-based inks, eliminating chemicals and even using FSC-certified papers, but they feel the extra expense of certification, especially in a time of cutbacks, is not worth it.

“I don’t know that I could justify [the cost] just to be allowed to print some silly logo,” says Don Harty, former assistant director of campus services at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He echoes the view of many who wonder why they need to go through the hassle and expense of FSC certification just to show they care about the environment.

The Payback

Those that got the certification, though, say the cost and minimal extra work are more than paid back through an improved image, an alignment with the organization’s priorities and a sense of doing the right thing.

“FSC and sustainability hits on my personal values, and it touches on our customers’ values,” notes Jean-Luc Devis, Washington State Printer. Sustainability is a hot topic in the Pacific Northwest, he explains. This prompted the in-plant to become the first government printer to receive its FSC certification. Another in-plant in the Evergreen State, Washington State University, took the lead in the FSC movement and became the first in-plant to achieve certification, about a year ago.

Though most FSC-certified in-plants are on the West Coast, particularly in California, a few East Coast shops have gotten certified as well, including Penn State and Berea College. Mark Evers, Northeast regional sales manager for SGS, an FSC-accredited certifier, says the Northeast is a hotbed of FSC activity. He lauds certification as a great way for an in-plant to bring praise to its parent organization.

“It shows that the college or university or company...they’re voluntarily doing something to help the environment,” he says.

Scoring environmental points for his parent company was certainly on Mike Cranor’s mind when he pushed for his in-plant at Conoco-Phillips to get certified. The oil company has been making an effort to improve its public image, so the shop’s FSC certification came at a good time.

“Anything we could do as a print shop to put our best foot forward, that’s what we wanted to do,” he says. But it’s more than just a show; he firmly believes in the importance of using paper from sustainably managed forests.

“It just made sense,” he says.

Following the Organization’s Lead

Though Cranor’s in-plant took the initiative in getting certified, other shops have felt more or less compelled to do it because of their organizations’ strong focus on the environment.

“The campus here is real heavy into sustainability,” remarks Melvin Cooper, director of Printing Services at Berea College, in Berea, Ky. The four-employee in-plant received both its FSC and SFI certifications last summer. “If I hadn’t taken the initiative and done it, there would have been some questions asked as to why.”

Because sustainability is such a big issue at the college, getting the extra money to pay for the certification (about $2,500 in his case, Cooper says) was not a problem.

“I was talking to the president and explained it, and the cost, and his comment was ‘We need to put our money where our mouth is,’ ” Cooper says.

Abbas Badani, director of Penn State’s Multimedia & Print Center, called his in-plant’s certification a “strategic defensive move.” Sustainability is a critical strategic initiative at the central Pennsylvania university, so his shop got certified to support those objectives. But it was also a wise business decision, he notes.

“A lot of our clients are asking for it,” he says. To avoid losing their business, the in-plant got its FSC certification last May.

Others agree that their certification has paid off somewhat.

“It does give us a little bit of a competitive edge,” notes Wymore, of CSU-Chico, adding that none of her local printers are certified. Customers who want to show their support for sustainability by having the FSC logo on their work have to use the in-plant.

“It’s created a unique niche, which now gets folks using our services,” agrees Devis, of the Washington State Department of Printing.

Few would say their certification has brought a flood of new business, though. Devis feels the value is more long-term.

“You may not see the payoff immediately, but you at least position yourself in a favorable light,” he says.

And that “favorable light” is a good promotional tool, notes Cooper. When his shop’s certification was announced to faculty and staff, he says, “I actually got applause.”

Is Using FSC Paper Good Enough?

Those without FSC certification, however, say they get just as much mileage out of simply using papers that have been FSC certified.

“We communicate regularly that all of our papers are SFI- or FSC-certified papers,” notes Magee, of Messiah College. He gets positive feedback from faculty as a result.

Harty is also marketing his in-plant’s use of certified papers at UNCW, and he says his university’s sustaina-bility committee is satisfied with this approach.

“It’s working very well for us,” he says.

There’s just one small snag. Anyone who promotes the fact that they use “FSC-certified” papers is doing so against the wishes of FSC.

“No FSC claims can be made by non-FSC certified printers,” notes Emily Jaklitsch, chain-of-custody manager at FSC. “We obviously cannot patrol verbal claims but on-product and promotional claims are monitored. FSC claims, on-product or promotional, can only be made by FSC-certified organizations.”

Only FSC certification of the printer, she explains, ensures the printer is third-party verified to have a tracking system in place to ensure the FSC-labeled paper is really FSC-certified paper from an FSC-certified supplier. Chain-of-custody certification is all about tracking products from the forest to the end user, she says.

Some in-plants, though, question who the “end user” really is.

“I’m not sure I’m in agreement that a shop should have to be certified as an end user,” says Magee. “I feel like that’s just extra money in the hands of someone behind a desk somewhere.”

Harty notes that his paper cartons carry the FSC logo, so he should be able to tout that fact.

“Until it got to me, it has met every bit of that criteria. Why does the printer need to be a part of that chain of custody?” he asks.

They both point to many environmentally conscious changes they have initiated in their in-plants, like recycling, eliminating chemistry and encouraging duplexing. Actions are what matter, they say, not certifi-cations.

“More important than the logo...is communicating that we’re sensitive to this kind of thing,” says Magee.

As an alternative to FSC certification, Magee is looking into the Sustainable Green Printing Partnership. (SGPpartnership.org)

Just Like the ISO Frenzy?

Part of Magee’s skepticism about FSC may stem from his experiences working at an AlphaGraphics printing franchise. A few years ago, that company decided to get all of its shops certified using the ISO 9000 standard.

“It was as big as FSC is now,” he says. “The promise was, ‘you’re going to double your work.’ After we [got] certified, for probably the next eight years, I did not get one customer [as a result]. And even if I marketed it and said, ‘Hey, we’re ISO certified,’ people just stared at you and said, ‘What does that mean?’ ”

Magee’s ISO experience is mirrored by that of Tony Wenzinger, director of Postal and Print Services at the University of Findlay, in Findlay, Ohio. In a previous job, his employer spent thousands of dollars on ISO training, which was all the rage at the time. Business did not increase as a result, and the company’s commitment to ISO eventually fizzled.

“As time goes on, if you don’t have that continued push to really follow through with it, it gets pushed to the back burner,” he says. He worries that the current FSC frenzy may follow that same path.

Those in-plants that have the certification, though, find it hard to imagine their commitment fading. Unlike with ISO, FSC certification is not linked to bringing in business, but to supporting the sustainable goals of their parent organizations—and by all signs, the modern environmental movement is just getting started. The more an in-plant can do to support its parent organization’s commitment, the more successful the in-plant will be.

As CSU-Chico’s Dale Wymore sees it, “We’re doing our part for the campus.”

And if FSC certification is what the campus wants, that’s what the in-plant must provide.