The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) has established the NWFA Responsible Procurement Program (RPP) to recognize wood flooring companies that work to sustain the world’s forests.  The goal of the RPP is to harness the power of the wood flooring industry to promote environmentally and socially responsible forest management.

The program is supported by the Forest Stewardship Council-US and the FSC Family Forest Alliance, which recognizes the NWFA RPP as a valid incremental approach toward socially and environmentally responsible forestry.  The program is transitional to higher levels of environmental responsibility based on three tiers of increasing voluntary participation and associated certification.

Tier One is the entry-level stage, and requires company commitment to key program criteria:

1.            Develop and adopt a Responsible Procurement Policy that conforms to RPP requirements.

2.            Source domestic raw materials from forests identified as renewing by the USDA Forest Service.

3.            Participate in NWFA Chain of Custody Program, which traces wood to renewing forests.

4.            Conform to FSC criteria for controlled wood.

5.            Use the “NWFA Verified from US Renewing Forests” logo in off-product materials and marketing only for domestically sourced materials.

6.            Provide independent verification for legal harvesting of raw materials sourced outside the US.

7.            Use the “NWFA Verified Legal Import” logo in off-product materials and marketing only for imported materials.

8.            Advance to Tier Two within three years.

Tier Two is the transitional-level stage, and requires company commitment to key program criteria:

1.             Obtain FSC Chain of Custody certification, requiring an annual on-site audit.

2.             Source raw materials from FSC-certified forests and establish targets to increase use of FSC-certified materials.

3.             Verify all raw materials sourced outside the US at high risk for illegal logging have VLO certification.

4.             Join the FSC Procurement group to help increase availability of FSC-certified wood.

5.             Meet FSC controlled wood standards within two years of entering Tier Two.

Tier three is the highest-level stage, and requires company commitment to key program criteria:

1.             Meet all Tier One and Tier Two requirements.

2.             Achieve at least 50% sales in FSC-certified wood.

3.             Meet FSC controlled wood standards for all non FSC-certified wood.

 

Quality assurance for the NWFA RPP is provided by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS).

The National Wood Flooring Association is a non-profit trade organization, with more than 4,000 members world-wide, dedicated to educating consumers, architects, designers, specifiers and builders in the uses and benefits of wood flooring.