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ENLARGE
Lumber buyer Kennan Pardini, left, and general manager Jeff Pardini of Hills Flat Lumber Co. have received certification for the family store by the Forestry Stewardship Council for sustainably grown lumber from Oregon and Washington.
Hills Flat Lumber Co. appears to be the first lumber store in western Nevada County to stock lumber certified to be from responsibly managed forests.
The certification for the Pardini-family stores in Grass Valley and Colfax comes through Scientific Certification Systems, a third-party certifier that inspects sites for meeting the standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council for managing and harvesting timberland in environmentally, socially and economically responsible ways.
Standards used by the council “make a lot of sense in forest management,” co-owner Jeff Pardini said. “This is something we felt was the right thing to do.”
Hills Flat's certification comes six months after the Dec. 15 certification for Meeks Lumber and Hardware, in Grass Valley. Meeks has been supplying lot orders of Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood to builders, but does not stock materials in the store, contractor sales manager Dean Kruschke said.
Both businesses are serving a small but growing market in Nevada County for products that can lead to recognition for sustainability in materials, processes, energy consumption, water use and landscaping.
“FSC-certified products can be used to earn points in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and other green certification programs,” Meeks officials said in a statement. “This certification could encourage more local green projects that may not otherwise go forward, because the project owners find it too difficult or costly to get truckloads of certified lumber.”
Hills Flat also can now supply lot orders of FSC-certified wood products.
In addition, by stocking basic building materials in the store that are certified, including 2-by-4s through 2-by-12s, some 4-by's and plywood, Hills Flat also can supply builders with smaller needs and people with home jobs, Pardini said.
Certified products are marked with a painted logo showing a tree and the initials F.S.C. They must be stored in separate bins where they cannot be confused with noncertified products, which Hills Flat will continue to carry.
The Forest Stewardship Council was founded in the wake of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Loggers, foresters, environmentalists and sociologists created the program based in Bonn, Germany, in 1993 to define responsible forestry practices, according to the Web site of the nonprofit's American, www.fscus.org.
FSC standards protect the rights of indigenous people living in timbered lands; economic viability and environmental and social benefits of forests; and biological diversity, water resources, soils and unique and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, the FSC Web site reports.
A management plan must show how a lumber company carries out those protections and monitors the forest and its yield.
“The FSC standards represent the world's strongest system for guiding forest management toward sustainable outcomes,” the Web site states.
A retail business receiving certification must show how it tracks the movement of wood products to assure customers they get what they are paying for.
The wood being sold at Hills Flat is grown in FSC-certified forests in Oregon and Washington, Pardini said.
FSC-certified lumber costs more than noncertified products, and the certification comes at a time the lumber industry is seeing 26-year-lows in pricing.
“Prices are cheaper than in 1983 when I started working at the store full-time,” Pardini said. “The cost of production is higher, but (mills) are trying to keep people working.”
Despite the commitment of the two businesses to the certification, it remains to be seen whether consumer interest in the products will survive the recession.
“There's not a ton (of demand)” for certified products, Meeks' Kruschke said. “We work hard at buying from responsible, renewable resources. FSC is just a progression from that.”
“If it's not supported, it's going to go away,” Pardini said.
To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.
The certification for the Pardini-family stores in Grass Valley and Colfax comes through Scientific Certification Systems, a third-party certifier that inspects sites for meeting the standards set by the Forest Stewardship Council for managing and harvesting timberland in environmentally, socially and economically responsible ways.
Standards used by the council “make a lot of sense in forest management,” co-owner Jeff Pardini said. “This is something we felt was the right thing to do.”
Hills Flat's certification comes six months after the Dec. 15 certification for Meeks Lumber and Hardware, in Grass Valley. Meeks has been supplying lot orders of Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood to builders, but does not stock materials in the store, contractor sales manager Dean Kruschke said.
Both businesses are serving a small but growing market in Nevada County for products that can lead to recognition for sustainability in materials, processes, energy consumption, water use and landscaping.
“FSC-certified products can be used to earn points in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and other green certification programs,” Meeks officials said in a statement. “This certification could encourage more local green projects that may not otherwise go forward, because the project owners find it too difficult or costly to get truckloads of certified lumber.”
Hills Flat also can now supply lot orders of FSC-certified wood products.
In addition, by stocking basic building materials in the store that are certified, including 2-by-4s through 2-by-12s, some 4-by's and plywood, Hills Flat also can supply builders with smaller needs and people with home jobs, Pardini said.
Certified products are marked with a painted logo showing a tree and the initials F.S.C. They must be stored in separate bins where they cannot be confused with noncertified products, which Hills Flat will continue to carry.
The Forest Stewardship Council was founded in the wake of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Loggers, foresters, environmentalists and sociologists created the program based in Bonn, Germany, in 1993 to define responsible forestry practices, according to the Web site of the nonprofit's American, www.fscus.org.
FSC standards protect the rights of indigenous people living in timbered lands; economic viability and environmental and social benefits of forests; and biological diversity, water resources, soils and unique and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, the FSC Web site reports.
A management plan must show how a lumber company carries out those protections and monitors the forest and its yield.
“The FSC standards represent the world's strongest system for guiding forest management toward sustainable outcomes,” the Web site states.
A retail business receiving certification must show how it tracks the movement of wood products to assure customers they get what they are paying for.
The wood being sold at Hills Flat is grown in FSC-certified forests in Oregon and Washington, Pardini said.
FSC-certified lumber costs more than noncertified products, and the certification comes at a time the lumber industry is seeing 26-year-lows in pricing.
“Prices are cheaper than in 1983 when I started working at the store full-time,” Pardini said. “The cost of production is higher, but (mills) are trying to keep people working.”
Despite the commitment of the two businesses to the certification, it remains to be seen whether consumer interest in the products will survive the recession.
“There's not a ton (of demand)” for certified products, Meeks' Kruschke said. “We work hard at buying from responsible, renewable resources. FSC is just a progression from that.”
“If it's not supported, it's going to go away,” Pardini said.
To contact City Editor Trina Kleist, e-mail tkleist@theunion.com or call 477-4230.
