What is the Forest Stewardship Council? 
When setting the standards for responsible forestry through inter-governmental bodies proved frustrating and unsuccessful, a group of loggers, foresters, environmentalists and sociologists founded the Forest Stewardship Council in 1993. In the absence of any third-party governing bodies or international laws, they aimed to better define the standards of “a well-managed forestry”.

Today, the Forest Stewardship Council identifies audits and reinforces the requirements of responsible forestry. These requirements reflect the ability to balance social, environmental and economic concerns in order to profitably and safely log our forests for wood products, pulp and paper.

 What is FSC Certification?
Paper certified by SmartWood according to the FSC standards means that it has been sourced from certified forests, produced by certified mils, distributed by certified merchants and printed on by certified printers. This chain of custody is preserved in to preserve the source of the paper fiber as well as to standardize activities of each party involved throughout the supply chain. The chain of custody is maintained through annual audits to monitor and reinforce compliance.

Types is FSC Certification?

There are several types of FSC labels a product can bear, depending upon its fiber components:

These FSC Product groups contain a mixture of FSC certified material and other controlled sources.
This FSC product group contains 100% consumer reclaimed materials.	This FSC product contains 100% certified materials.

 The product labeling system is FSC’s main tool for achieving its mission and therefore absolutely essential to FSC’s mission that the authority, integrity and credibility of the Trademark is maintained. Therefore, it is important to ensure you have bought your paper from a certified merchant and printer.
Supporting FSC recognizes that responsible forestry is not just about replenishing what we take from the forest. It’s also about minimizing the disruption to biodiversity, stopping the use of widespread pesticides, protecting forestry of old-growth forest to even ensuring local, indigenous control over our woodlands.

As of May 2007, FSC has certified 226.3 million acres (91.6 million hectares) of forest in 73 countries and issued 5.806 chain of custody certificates globally (FSC 2007). Hudson Valley Paper Company became a FSC Certified Merchant in 2007.

The greater the demand for FSC certified paper, the greater the need for all parties in the supply chain to revise their practices to preserve our environment. Your purchases can influence an industry, so make your paper choices wisely.