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I've read some interesting articles recently about the potential decline of FSC and other third party certification outfits and it got me thinking. Since PSI has been both SFI and FSC certified for a few years now, I've been able to see the proverbial trees in the forest. My take? Anybody that thinks using FSC certified material actually helps the environment is barking up the wrong tree. I've always thought of PSI as a very environmentally aware company. As a matter of fact, I think that environmental concern is high with a lot of companies these days, and not because some third party told us to be that way but because it is good for our country, good for our souls. Call me naive, but I also believe that the total environment in which we live is vastly improved over what it was 80-100 years ago, and that the overall tendency for us is to try to improve our condition, not make it worse. Am I a pollyanna? Maybe. Maybe not.
 I used to work for Greenpeace a long time ago; My green cred is still fairly solid. That's why what I'm about to say might come as a little shock, but for those of us that work in these trenches every day, it probably won't: FSC is a marketing scam, pure and simple. It is an attempt to make money off of people's vulnerabilities and an extortion scheme designed to bully printers into paying exhorbitant fees in order to proclaim some sort of make believe enviornmental benefit. If you think that because something has an FSC logo on it, old growth timber has been saved and a baby owl is smiling, think again. When it comes to printing and paper usage, FSC is a racket - no better than organized crime. It is a naked attempt to muscle its way into the middle of the client/customer relation much like the original reverse auction sites did back in the day. In my opinion, FSC does nothing for a printer but destroy value.




I can hear the wails out of certain sales offices now. “You haven’t done enough to sell the value. You haven’t properly sold the benefits of FSC!” But what I ask is, “What benefits, and to whom BESIDES FSC itself?’ Honestly now, is the only benefit the fact that I can try to charge a client a little more to use FSC certified material? Shouldn’t it be, “This will help ensure a better future..” when in fact, FSC is a load of junk when it comes to US forestry products. When I look at anything PSI does, I always try to approach it from a value perspective - like how will this help improve what we do for the customer. How will this show value? So when the whole third party forestry certification thing came up a few years ago, PSI was at the forefront: we were certified to both the FSC and SFI standard years ago. Great, I thought. We can help assuage concerns about virgin paper/recycled paper and give customers some peace of mind.. But what I found is that no customer would pay for the increased cost to have their job produced on certified paper. And then when we finally had someone that might, FSC demanded that we send the artwork to them to have the label placement approved.. Our customers demand security: they trust that I don't let their digital art out in the wild. So for FSC to demand that I send sensitive information to them, prerelease, for THEIR approval doomed the deal.
So, am I the only one that believes FSC is a worthless scam? No, I'm not.
I know this from my dealings with other printers, from the suppliers, from our vendors involved in the paper and pulp industry, from customers who have seen the dark side of the scam. We all really know this. Leave the marketing dudes outside for a minute. Don’t listen to their “It’s a way to differentiate” or “Ecomagination” hype and bombast. Think about it – US forestry products, and especially the paper industry itself, has always been very proactive and oriented towards its own future survival. The paper and pulp industry knows it needs to manage its forests and the trees of private landowners in a way that will sustain the industry in the long term. The US forestry industry is just like and no different than any other farming industry. Same as corn rotates land and crops, the paper industry does the same. They plant trees, and then harvest these trees 20 years later, and then plant more on a different patch and keep the cycle going.
So the question is how did we get so weak and naïve to think that we needed to let a thuggish organization like FSC dictate to us what is right and proper within our industry? When did we get so sheepish as to allow this marketing machine to run roughshod over the relationship? At one point did we decide to allow a third party to hijack our business processes all in an imagined charade that destroys value and adds nothing but a cost? An FSC certification means nothing more than “Hey, I’m dumb enough to pay this group a lot of money so I can use their logo. Don’t actually think about what it really means. Just blindly believe that the FSC logo means cuddles and grins all around!”
So I'm here to say no more for PSI. I will not spend any more money on a bully organization that does nothing but add a cost to my business, that shows no concern about its own customers much less mine, that attempts to hijack the relationship for its own gain. FSC destroys value; a green gimmick imagined by a bloated bureaucracy that exists only to feed itself. If one wants to choose the better of two evils, SFI is a much better option for PSI and our customers as they at least seem to value their customers, act like we matter - like our processes matter - that we might understand what it takes to make our customers happy. SFI understands the pace of business, the fast moving and nimble decision making that has to be done in order to meet deadlines. FSC is bloated and monolithic. SFI cares about the US forestry business, the small farmer, the small landowner. FSC is trenchant and righteous. SFI understands the business relationship here in the US far better than FSC. FSC cares not one whit for printers, for printing, for the companies that use printing. FSC only cares about itself and its own righteousness. A hypocritical and disgusting mockery of our own uniquely human desire to do good instead of bad, FSC is a waste of money, time, and effort when it comes to printing and paper.
But make no mistake: I think all third party certification schemes are a waste of time, money, and effort. I saw a new one a few days ago: Ancient Forest Friendly. It had a cute little logo with tree rings..
[sarcasm]Ahhhh. I feel better already![/end sarcasm] Honestly. When does it stop? PEFC, FSC, SFI, Ancient Forest Friendly, ad nauseum.. All these money making outfits claiming non-profit status, trying to embed themselves on the blood trail of commerce, like dollar-loving parastic leeches dragging themselves from the guilt-swamp of the consumer, praying on our desire to do no harm. But in the end these organizations do nothing but destroy value by adding nothing but a cost to the equation. No trees are saved, no ancient forests kept safe..
So the useless FSC logo will soon be coming down from our site. Good riddance. The sooner we as an industry and as a people start using our head instead of letting the marketing people at FSC twist our heart the better off we all will be..
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