Managing the Environmental Risk of Poplar: Sustainable Practices and Certification
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
View the recording at: https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p48rz39dpti/
Responsibly managed poplar plantations have a number of options available to them to manage their environmental risks, including Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies, efficient chemical usage, and adherence to environmental certification programs, to name just a few. While traditional forestry operations may utilize well established forest certification programs such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), such programs may be unable to accommodate non-traditional practices, such as short rotation coppicing techniques.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (www.rsb.org) is a bioproducts and bioenergy certification program modeled after the FSC program, established for agricultural and non-traditional forestry biomass markets. RSB is an international certification, and includes environmental and social criteria which must be met in order for the operations to pass an independently conducted verification audit. Last year GreenWood Resources became the first RSB certification of short rotation poplar, through a joint FSC/RSB audit conducted by SCS Global Services. During this webinar, we discussed the different environmental risk mitigation strategies employed by GreenWood Resources, and discuss the RSB certification program — what it entails and how it operates in practice.
Presented by Andrew Rodstrom of GreenWood Resources and Aurea Nardelli from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials.
