Greenwash Of The Week: Forest & Wood Products Australia.

Did you know that cutting down trees actually helps to stop climate change? Me neither. How about that when you chop down trees, the carbon dioxide they had absorbed through time gets trapped inside the product made from said wood? Nope, me neither. But the Forest & Wood Products Australia timber body says so, thus it must be true! They are on record as saying that the carbon dioxide stored in trees is “locked up when they are logged and converted into wood products, and that forestry is one of Australia’s most greenhouse-friendly industries.” They ran an ad campaign titled “Wood. Naturally Better” that said that their products are “more than attractive furniture. It’s a helping hand in climate change.” Yea, right.

From The Age:

Wilderness Society forest campaigner Luke Chamberlain said the advertisements were “clear green washing”, and failed to reflect that logging old-growth forest resulted in larger greenhouse gas emissions than plantation harvesting. “It’s like somebody bulldozing a house, making a fruit bowl and saying: ‘Isn’t this great, I’ve made a fruit bowl from the rubble’,” he said. “Eighty-five per cent of what comes out when native forests are logged ends up as woodchips, waste and sawdust and most of the carbon is lost during the forest burn and the creation of woodchips.”

Seems yet another timber company wants to be labeled as a greenwasher just like the Sustainable Forestry Initiative was. Some day, these people will learn that we aren’t going to let them get away with greenwashing us!

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