North American and Canadian communities planted 200,000 trees on Wednesday as part of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative's (SFI) challenge to break the Guinness World Record for the most trees planted in one hour by small teams. An American National Standards Institute (ANSI) organizational member, SFI has as its mission to promote responsible forest management and sustainable communities. In partnership with SFI, ANSI accredits certification bodies operating under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Chain of Custody (SFI CoC) and/or the PEFC Chain of Custody (PEFC CoC) programs to authenticate the traceability of wood products.
The ANSI-SFI partnership was designed to strengthen sustainable forestry practices and provide an assurance to customers and consumers that suppliers are respectful of environmental concerns and committed to the use of resources from well-managed forests. It also helps provide global recognition for SFI's certification process [see related article].
SFI's tree-planting initiative included more than 1,100 participants from 28 communities, including industry representatives, community organizations, youth groups, conservation groups, and SFI Implementation Committees in four different time zones. Each team of 25 to 100 planted trees at the same time in locations ranging from New York City to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. SFI reports that one team (with 100 participants) led by SFI program participant J.D. Irving Limited exceeded the record by planting 52,598 during the allotted time.
SFI, Inc., is an independent non-profit organization that aims to make the world a better place by promoting sustainable forest management through standards, research, conservation partnerships and community building. For more information, visit www.sfiprogram.org.