What the heck is the FSC??

When we hosted a booth at the Going Green Expo in Boston last month, we found out, much to our surprise, that many people, green-educated and not, have absolutely no idea what the FSC is!?! Well, today we hope to help fix that problem and tell you all about our friends at the FSC.

FSC stands for the Forest Stewardship Council which is a an international non-profit organization that works to protect our world’s forests by promoting responsible and sustainable use and management of the trees. You all know how bad forestry practices can not only harm our natural eco-systems but also the indigenous peoples and wildlife that traditionally make the forest their home (clear cutting is bad!!). The FSC is here to rid the world of these bad practices and guide us to manage forests in a healthy, sustainable way.

Clear cutting:

FSC Forest (where our tree products come from):

Any product bearing the FSC logo is a third party certification that the forest producers are managing their trees in a sustainable and environmentally-healthy way. The FSC accreditation is growing rapidly all over the world, so make sure you look out for it:

You may have already noticed the FSC mark on many paper and wood products. For the first time, probably ever, I’ve been psyched to get marketing mailings from Comcast, the USPS and catalogues from Crate and Barrel in my mailbox. Why? Because they all now use FSC-certified paper and proudly stamp this mark on their mailings! You may also notice the plethora of FSC-certified wood offered at The Home Depot.

So now you may ask, how do our cute and trendy vegan sneakers get an FSC logo stamped on the bottom of every sole when they’re not paper or wood??? The FSC loves our shoes because the rubber that the sole is made of comes from an FSC sustainable forest. Not only is this ‘real deal’ latex all natural with no added man-made chemicals like rubber found in other shoe brands, but the trees the rubber is tapped from are cared for so that they will stand, tall and healthy in the future. That is definitely something we are excited about and we hope you are too! Here’s to walking with a real sustainable sole!

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