[Greenbuilding] Is Lyptus green?

Jason Holstine jason at amicusgreen.com
Mon Feb 28 23:43:40 CST 2011


If you haven¹t heard of it, Lyptus is a eucalyptus wood brand by
Weyerhaeuser grown in coastal Brazil. It¹s primary green attribute is rapid
growth‹harvestable in 14-16 years. However, I¹ve always  understood it to be
a greenwash b/c it¹s a non-tropical wood grown in tropical land, meaning the
soil must be poor and need heavy pesticide and fertilizer. And it¹s not FSC.
They reclaim slash-and-burn land.

However, I had a call with a Weyerhauser sr rep who provided some
documentation claiming it¹s really quite sustainable on a number of
attributes.

Getting right to the point about FSC, they explained that the material is
³FSC Controlled Wood²--even though the material isn¹t FSC stamped, they have
COC and can have the material stamped if needed. Specific claim:

FSC Controlled Wood ­ Weyerhaeuser South America Sales & Marketing has FSC
Chain of Custody and a completed FSC Controlled Wood risk assessment. This
allows Lyptus products to be considered FSC Controlled Wood. This means that
although the Lyptus forests are not themselves FSC certified, the forests
meet a minimum requirement of being well-managed and controlled relating to:
a) Illegally harvested wood;
b) Wood harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights;
c) Wood harvested in forests where high conservation values are threatened
by management activities;
d) Wood harvested in forests being converted to plantations or non-forest
use;
e) Wood from forests in which genetically modified trees are planted.

FSC COC is QMI-COC-001043 and  QMI-CW-001043  Mixed Sources.  They told me
they chose not to invest in FSC labels b/c they elected PEFC and Cerflor
instead.

They also said the only pesticide is a pre-emergent in the hybrid seed‹no
fertilizer or pesticide during operations/harvesting. And when they
reclaimed this old land, they created a reserve of 300,000 hectares of old
tropical natives that ring the plantation.

So should we consider this FSC quality wood? Do these claims seem legit?
What¹s the consensus of whether this product is a legitimate claim or a
greenwash?



Jason Holstine
Amicus Green Building Center


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