Avant Guard and the environment
Over the past twenty years our society has become increasingly conscious about ecology. Today the environment and its preservation is a major concern to most informed citizens. Avant Guard is also concerned and this is why we have introduced our Silhouette Certified brand which allows homeowners 100% assurance that all of their environmental concerns are being addressed through inspection by an independent GREEN THIRD PARTY.
As a manufacturer of Hardwood Flooring we are ever so conscious of the impact of our activities on the environment. For instance in our manufacturing facilities we take care when using the forest's precious resource. We optimize the yield from each board of lumber and draw energy from the remaining wood waste to power dry-kilns. Nothing is wasted. We use no formaldehyde in our products and emit no pollutants.
We believe that the use of wood in construction and decoration is truly the best and also the most environmentally friendly choice a consumer can make. This of course is only the case when the wood being used is sourced from timberland which is effectively managed. Our objective is to respect all laws when sourcing our raw material whether it comes from North American or from another continent.
As global citizens we expect every national government to effectively manage and protect their respective forest land; however it has been pointed out by many environmental groups that depending on the nation, proper environmental forest management and its enforcement is not always high on the agenda. As a small to medium sized company we are unable to examine the forest harvesting practices of every board foot of lumber used in our production. It's fair to say that this is also the case for virtually every other hardwood flooring producer. This is why we feel that consumers deserve to make an educated choice when buying a hardwood floor. The only way to be positive that the floor you buy is 100% GREEN is to have it certified as being so by the most credible third-party the Forest Stewardship Council or FSC.
About forest certification & the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
A growing number of lumber producers and hardwood flooring manufacturers are making various environmental claims. Some are accurate, but others are misleading or exaggerated. How can today's consumer distinguish a genuine ecological forest product from one that has been "green-washed"? The answer is credible, independent certification for forestry and forest products.
Forest certification is a voluntary process that ensures consumers that the wood products they buy were grown and harvested in a way that protects forests for the long term. Certifiers assess the on-the-ground forest practices of a given operation against a strict set of environmental and social criteria. Operations that meet those standards may identify their products as originating from a well-managed source. The certifier also tracks the "chain of custody" of the certified wood to ensure that it is kept separate from non-certified material at each stage of processing and distribution from forest to end user.
FSC stands for The Forest Stewardship Council and is a not-for-profit organization that accredits certifiers whose programs conform to its internationally recognized Principles and Criteria, thereby providing a consistent and credible framework for independent certification efforts worldwide.
FSC certification enjoys the support of most major environmental groups, including World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Alliance, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and Greenpeace Canada.
In order to be FSC certified, a company must:
- Meet all applicable laws
- Have legally established rights to harvest
- Respect indigenous rights
- Maintain community well-being
- Conserve economic resources
- Protect biological diversity
- Have a written management plan
- Engage in regular monitoring
- Maintain high conservation value forests
- Manage plantations to alleviate pressures on natural forests
The success of FSC certification has spawned competing initiatives, most of which were created and are backed by forest products industry trade groups that view FSC certification as a threat to their business interests. For instance, the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) created the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) to certify the forest lands of all of its member companies (including the major US-based forest products companies such as Weyerhaeuser, International Paper, Louisiana Pacific, and Georgia Pacific) to a standard that is widely criticized as offering inadequate environmental protections and providing a green stamp to industrial forest practices like large-scale clear cuts (often at the expense of natural forest) and chemically-intensive monoculture tree-farming. For these reasons, the LEED rating system of the Green Building council only offers credit for FSC-certified wood products, and many major environmental groups support the FSC while actively opposing the SFI and similar industry based initiatives.
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