Organization: Weyerhaeuser Co.

Year: 2010

Description: WHEREAS: Weyerhaeuser Company is committed to sustainable forestry and “certifying products to credible sustainable forestry standards is an essential part of this commitment”. The company participates in the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certification scheme in the United States and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standard within Canada.
 
Weyerhaeuser has chosen not to pursue participation in the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certification scheme in North America despite strong indications of growing market demand for products certified to this standard.
 
The area of US and Canadian forest certified to FSC’s standards surpassed the 100 million acre (40 million hectare) mark in June 2009. This representing 40 percent growth since January 2008, the milestone has helped solidify FSC’s position as the fastest-growing forest certification system in the world (http://www.fsc.org/news.html?&no_cache=1&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=167&cHash=475495 ed34 and http://timber.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/FPAMR2008.pdf).
 
Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, started giving preferential treatment to FSC certified products in 1999 and has slowly transitioned many vendors to FSC certified wood.
 
Home Depot’s Canadian competitor, RONA, has gone even further with a wood procurement policy that sets a target of 25% of lumber sold in RONA stores will be FSC certified by 2012. While RONA recognizes all certification schemes, the company has stated a preference for FSC because this standard better meets RONA’s requirements on relationships with Indigenous People and biodiversity conservation (http://rona.ca/rona/img/ATTACHMENT1227276300732.pdf).
 
Lowe’s wood procurement policy also commits to wood products from independently certified, well-managed forests, recognizing that the FSC certification system has the highest certification criteria standards and will be given preference over other schemes.
 
IKEA’s short-term goal is that 30% of the wood material used in IKEA products shall be certified according to Level 4 of IKEA’s staircase model. Currently, FSC is the only Level 4 certification scheme recognized by IKEA (http://www.ikea-group.ikea.com/repository/documents/1170.pdf).
 
In September 2009, Weyerhaeuser delivered its first FSC certified product in Europe, which represents a key product in a wider company strategy to develop markets in Europe for high quality sustainable and certified timber products (http://www.designbuild-network.com/contractors/construct_materials/weyer haeuser/press3.html).
 
Forest industry peers such as Tembec are aggressively pursuing the FSC market in North America. As of October 31, 2007, 100% of Tembec’s FSC-commitment area was FSC certified, up from 57% in 2004.
 
RESOLVED: The Board of Directors provide a report to shareholders by September 2010, prepared at reasonable cost and omitting proprietary information, describing the costs and benefits of incorporating FSC certified wood-products into Weyerhaeuser’s North American corporate strategy.
 
Supporting Statement: Weyerhaeuser shows a strong commitment to forestry certification through support for SFI and CSA in North America. However, the company has failed to provide a compelling argument as to why FSC cannot also be supported. There is concern that the company may be missing out on business opportunities as demand for FSC continues to grow. The report requested will provide assurance to investors that the company has comprehensively considered key market trends relating to certified forest products; procurement policies throughout Weyerhaeuser’s supply chain that apply to certified forest products; and the rationale for the current approach to FSC certification in North America.