The world's first FSC-certified bamboo

After several years of education, due diligence and perseverance, in April of 2008 we announced we had secured certification according to the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) for our bamboo forest resource and manufacturing operations, enabling Smith & Fong to produce and market the world’s first range of FSC-certified bamboo plywood and flooring.

This is significant for two reasons. First, it's the very first non-wood-based FSC certification on the planet. Second, and perhaps most important, it provides validation for Smith & Fong's long commitment to sustainable forestry in bamboo.

The growth and harvest of bamboo and the manufacture of its derived products have employed millions of people for thousands of years. Smith & Fong's bamboo forests require no pesticides, fertilizers or irrigation, and an average of 20 percent of the bamboo forest is harvested in any given year, thereby leaving 80 percent of the forest standing at all times. When people from IMO (independent European FSC-certifier Institut für Marktökologie) visited our bamboo resource, they saw for themselves what a working model of sustainability a bamboo forest is.

Third-party validation enables architects, specifiers, fabricators and consumers to know that the products they're using come from a source that is managed to high social and environmental standards. And our certified Plyboo products qualify for the FSC Pure designation, as they are 100% FSC material from an FSC-certified forest and have been sold and/or processed by an FSC chain-of-custody certified company. This is not only a success for the forests and the farmers who grow our bamboo, it’s a victory for everyone who believes in an environmentally responsible future.

Smith & Fong’s chain of custody (COC) certificate is from the SmartWood program of the Rainforest Alliance: SW-COC-003124.

In 2008 PlybooPure FSC-certified bamboo flooring was selected as a "Top-10 Green Building Product" by BuildingGreen, publisher of Environmental Building News, the architecture and design industry's most respected source of information on sustainable building and design.