Forging Transparency Pathways to Responsible Wood With Evan Schmidt and Oliver Ogden, Sustainable Northwest

For a material as seemingly straightforward and simple as wood, it has a very complex, layered and often opaque supply chain. While certifications like FSC, SFI and PEFC may tell you the wood came from responsibly managed forests, it's a very small part of the story. Like organic labels on produce, these certifications can offer some peace of mind, but they don't tell you the lineage, where specifically the wood came from, the forest management practices, or how it was handled along its journey. As the use of wood and mass timber continues to grow, sustainability leaders across the design and construction industry are starting to require more transparency to meet rigorous sustainability goals. And that's where organizations like Sustainable Northwest come in. This environmental conservation nonprofit does many things, but one of them is connecting responsible forest owners with buyers and specifiers, creating transparent, regional supply chain networks…from forest to frame.

Seeing the impact Sustainable Northwest was having on forestry, mass timber and local, rural economies, compelled Evan Schmidt and Oliver Ogden to join the organization as part of the wood market team. Though each took different paths to the nonprofit, they ultimately started from the same place: a lifelong passion for nature.

In this episode, Evan and Oliver discuss some of the challenges and barriers that exist in the responsible wood procurement process, how they're working to connect responsible forest and land owners with designers and builders, and how those person-to-person connections impact the wood products industry.