SEATTLE, Washington, September 11, 2008 (ENS) – A coalition of conservation organizations filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Bush administration alleging that federal officials diverted $350 million from the public treasury to forestry foundations “dominated by the timber industry.”

The suit alleges that the administration violated federal appropriations law when, in September 2006, without any public process or congressional approval, the administration steered $350 million from Canadian lawsuit settlement funds to the foundations.

The plaintiff organizations – the Forest Stewardship Council-US, Conservation Northwest, and the Center for Biological Diversity – say they filed the lawsuit because they are committed to promoting sustainable forestry in the United States.

The Washington Forest Law Center, a public interest law firm based in Seattle, filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs in federal court in Seattle.

The defendants are the U.S. Trade Representative, the Department of Commerce and the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection.

“Once again the Bush administration has made up its own rules,” said Joe Scott, International Programs director of Washington-based Conservation Northwest.

“Here, the administration illegally gave away hundreds of millions of public dollars to organizations whose programs are not clearly established to advance the public interest,” said Scott.

An example of Georgia’s upland maritime
forest. (Photo courtesy U. of Georgia)

The groups are asking the court to declare that the Bush administration violated the law and asks the court to take reasonable and fair steps to ensure that the money is safeguarded until the administration follows the law.

One of the co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit, represents a forest certification system.

Corey Brinkema, president of the plaintiff Forest Stewardship Council-US, said the organization joined the lawsuit because, “FSC-US and our partners work tirelessly to develop and promote the highest standards for forest management, as well as provide the public the opportunity to reward responsible forestry through choosing FSC-labeled products. The administration’s action is a huge setback that, if left unchecked, could significantly lower the bar for what is represented as sustainable forestry.”

The suit alleges that money the Bush administration earmarked to the two timber industry-dominated organizations, the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Inc. and the American Forest Foundation, should instead have gone into the US Treasury.

“How this money is spent should have been up to Congress, not timber industry executives in a backroom deal with the administration,” said Bill Snape, senior attorney for the plaintiff Center for Biological Diversity.

Forested land in northern Idaho
(Photo by Terry Gray)

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities is a not-for-profit corporation established in September 2006, at the request of the governments of the United States and Canada in accordance with the terms of the Softwood Lumber Agreement between the two countries and endowed with $200 million. The Endowment is one of three entities designated to share in a one-time infusion of funds to support “meritorious initiatives” in the United States.

The American Forest Foundation is a nonprofit organization that works with family forest owners. It was chartered in 1981 “to encourage the long-term sustainability of America’s forests, restore wildlife habitat, and develop quality environmental education programs.”

The AFF Board of Trustees includes officials of the National Audubon Society, the Aldo Leopold Foundation, and the American Bird Conservancy as well as packaging company MeadWestvaco and timber company Weyerhaeuser, as well as keyboardist Chuck Leavell, known for his work with The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, and The Allman Brothers Band, among others.

The AFF adheres to the sustainability standards of the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification PEFC, based in Geneva, Switzerland, a rival of the plaintiff Forest Stewardship Council.

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Prepare to find some great articles that contain tips on living the green lifestyle. Discover how choosing your food carefully, decorating your home in style, or simply learning more about conservation can truly change the world. Read the short descriptions below and click the title to get more info.

LIFESTYLE:

Pros and Cons: Ethanol

Whether you are for or against the use of ethanol as a replacement fuel, this blog lists the pros and cons of prices, production, benefits, etc.

Dig Deeper to Cut Back on Water

There is a lot you can be doing as an individual to save water, aside from the ways you already knew. Find out what you can do to cut back on water usage, including:
- Going vegetarian
- Greywater recovery
- Incorporating green design into your house
- Choosing a living location that doesn’t use up natural resources

Less is the New More: Mainstream Media Edition

Consuming less is part of the green lifestyle. This includes the size of the home we live in. But just because you live in a small dwelling, doesn’t mean it can’t look fantastic!

DESIGN:

Designer Spotlight: Viesso Furniture

Affordable, modern and green, Viesso Furniture uses natural latex or feather/down filling instead of polyurethane for cushions and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). They also use bamboo, recycled steel springs, recycled stainless steel legs, and water-based stains and glues, helping to reduce inside air pollution.

Designer Spotlight: Team 7

Commenting on the sleek style and green efforts of Team 7, this blog will introduce you to furniture that provides aesthetic elegance, as well as green craftsmanship. Team 7 has earned the Austrian Ecological Quality Certification for their ecologically-friendly production practices.

Designer Spotlight: Molo Design

Using mostly paper and textiles as their medium, Molo Designs creates aesthetically pleasing and functional pieces of furniture to accentuate your home decor. The products themselves are 100% recyclable, and recycled materials are used to make the products.

GREEN PRODUCTS:

Fold ‘N Go with Folding Bicycles

To get to where we want to be (in the environmental and physical sense), bikes offer an eco-friendly form of transportation. Since typical bikes are often bulky and hard to deal with once indoors, this blog offers different models of the folding bike.

Dig in a Little Deeper: 100 Mile Diet

People are doing the 100 Mile Diet, which calls for people to only retrieve food from the 100 mile radius around their home. This blog provides tips to maintain this diet, and gives suggestions of where to go while on the 100 Mile Diet.

Walking the Recycling Walk: Where to Get this Stuff

Recycling is more than you think. This blog explains the everyday uses of recycled material, and how you can get in on it by purchasing:
- Clothing
- Bags
- Interior design

Thanks for joining us on the GREEN BLOG and if there are topics that you want to see covered in future blog posts, please take this opportunity to post a comment on this blog post.

Made from eco-sensible plantation-grown teak, Henry Hall Designs’ Pure Collection [www.henryhalldesigns.com] have classic good looks that will keep your backyard looking fine, while resting easy that your furniture hasn’t contributed to biodiversity loss in Indonesia; you don’t need unpleasant thoughts like that mucking up your summer of relaxation, right? The “Pure Sofa”, pictured below, is complemented by a variety of tables, which also work with some of their individual chairs, like the “Pure Stacking” chair, further on down.

Teak is a great outdoor wood, since its density leads to great durability that stands up to weather and moisture well; since it’s plantation-grown — that is, planted with the purpose of harvesting for wood, rather than slashed-n-burned from a virgin forest — you know that your beautiful furniture hasn’t unnecessarily harmed our fragile planet. Henry Hall has earned a Forest Stewardship Council certification (more about that here [www.sundancechannel.com]) for their Pure Collection; this distinction is especially significant, given the ramifications of unsustainable [www.treehugger.com] and even some reclaimed [www.treehugger.com] teak. More often than not, teak is not a green choice; the Pure Collection is a notable exception. Learn more about Henry Hall Designs [www.henryhalldesigns.com] at their website.

60 year-old wallpaper company Graham & Brown [www.grahambrown.com] is turning over a new, green leaf with their chic, modern new collection. Thanks to a collaboration with design students from Central St. Martins University in London, the new collection is colorful, fun and (perhaps most importantly) green.

The company asked 22 students to submit some designs; five finalists were chosen and displayed at the recent 100% Design [www.100percentdesign.co.uk] exhibition in London, and they’ll be taken through to production. We love the colors, patterns and combinations of the two, but most of all, we love the green.

The final wallpaper uses materials sourced from sustainable forests in Finland and keeps packaging to a minimum by removing the need for any tape or plastic. All of the paper they use has also earned the Forest Stewardship Council certification, meaning that it was grown and harvested in a sustainable way. The company even recycles heat given off by furnaces, reduces drainage to prevent local flooding problems, and uses vegetable oil within tractor hydraulics so as not to contaminate forest floors. If you find yourself lusting after chic green wallpaper like this, remember, that wallpaper glue you buy at the store can be nasty stuff. It’s easy to just make your own non-toxic wallpaper paste [www.treehugger.com] at home. Check out more from Graham & Brown at their website [www.grahambrown.com].

The furniture and interiors TreeHugger often encounters that offer sleek, modern designs combined with green materials and production also often comes with a big price tag. This can be discouraging for those of us who want to live green and look good, too; for some, it also perpetuates the stereotype that green stuff is astronomically expensive, which is not always the case. Custom furniture company Viesso [www.viesso.com] seems to have found a good balance: all of their products, including chairs, sofas, tables, beds, benches, accessories and more, are customizable, and each different option (upholstery, cushions, frame, etc.) has several green choices, allowing customers to be as green as they want to.

They’ve got all the right materials options to make any discerning TreeHugger happy: fabric and textiles from Maharam [www.maharam.com] and Knoll [www.knoll.com], natural latex or feather/down filling instead of polyurethane for cushions and wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). They also feature bamboo, recycled steel springs and recycled stainless steel legs, finished off with water-based stains and glues, to help keep indoor air pollution down. The “Rondi” chair, pictured above, is one of our favorite designs.

While it’s true that these green options do come at a bit of a premium, this TreeHugger was able to put together a great looking 96″ sofa for about $2300, which is a reasonable deal for a big piece of custom furniture, green or otherwise. Viesso is thinking about going 100% green [www.viesso.com], but, in the meantime, we’re glad to see that they offer the option for those of us who care. Each piece, customizable right on their website (which is an ingenious system, we think), usually takes about three weeks to ship after your custom design is submitted; those in need of instant gratification can cruise their selection of floor models [www.viesso.com].

Designer Christopher Douglas, the visionary behind Material Furniture [www.materialfurniture.com], is a smart guy. Tired of frequent packing, moving, and unpacking, he ingeniously devised a line of furniture that suited his nomadic lifestyle and quick-changing circumstances and appropriately named it Knock-Down, Drag-Out. Why? Because you can do just that.

Designed to construct and de-construct in mere seconds (really! As little as 15 seconds, in fact), and pack flat, it’s an invention of necessity whose functionality follows close behind. In addition to the table pictured above, there’s a bed, coffee table, bench, chair, end table, and some junior versions as well…enough to fill a room or two, for sure. But that’s just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

Like all of Material Furniture’s imaginative furniture, the AutoPilot Desk is built with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified woods, sourced locally, with easy assembly/disassembly instructions for maximum modular usability. This modern, unique desk comes with either a maple or walnut finish and can be splashed with one of four colors: ice blue, citron, tangerine and white. Using it might just inspire you to get more work done…

Perhaps the most artful of the pieces, we also like the Flipper Screen, whose nine circular openings are hinged and lockable, allowing for a nice shelf/screen flexibility — lock a few of ‘em open for a creative shelf, or close ‘em up when you need a room divider or screen. Available in both walnut and birch veneer, it follows Material Furniture’s commitment to local, sustainable, modular furniture with a modern twist; all of this adds up to one TreeHugging company. Learn more about them from their website [www.materialfurniture.com]; the furniture is available from Vivavi [www.vivavi.com], Design Public [www.designpublic.com] and re:modern [www.re-modern.com].

Here in the US, there’s, family fun and maybe a little backyard barbeque. For regular readers of this blog, it will come as no surprise that there are a plethora of ways to heat up the grill and have a good time while keeping the environmental impact to a minimum.

So we’l start with the fuel for the fire. In the US, 63% of backyard BBQ’s are fired with briquettes; the vast majority of these are manufactured by cooking waste timber, sawdust and whatever else happens to be around in near-airless conditions for a week, then mixing cornstarch to bind it and lighter fluid to help it start easily, pressing it into molds and then back into the oven to bake some more. The result: 105 times more carbon monoxide than burning propane and lots of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs), according to this article [www.guardian.co.uk]. On the flip side is propane; though a “clean burning” gas, it’s still a fossil fuel and a net contributor to atmospheric CO2 levels. Hmm. “Real” charcoal — the stuff not made in the method described above — is said to be “carbon neutral” [www.sundancechannel.com] but much is shipped from abroad, so the Guardian suggests locally made charcoal culled from thinnings and fallen trees, made traditionally in the “Olde English” art of “coppicing,” or harvesting fuel from trees without destroying them. The good folks at Make: Magazine [www.makezine.com] even have some recipes to create your own. If that’s too much work, check out Cowboy Charcoal [www.cowboycharcoal.com] or Wicked Good Charcoal[url], which comes from Forest Stewardship Council-certified woods. We’ve also caught wind that [url=http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/charcoal_the_next_green_alternative.php]charcoal is the next big thing in the fight against global warming [www.wickedgoodcharcoal.com], but that’s another post. To eschew the lighter fluid and go for something a bit greener, give the folks at 251 degrees [www.251.ch] a look; the bundles of 100% wood wool (also FSC-certified), with no chemicals added, are guaranteed to light up a barbeque or anywhere else you desire fire.

When it comes to what to put on the barbeque, many of the TreeHugger rules of food apply. Sourcing sustainably [www.sundancechannel.com] is at the top of the list, including antibiotic and hormone-free, Certified Humanely Raised & Handled meats and local produce [www.sundancechannel.com] (and if you can get local meat, all the better!). Add a cool summer drink or two [www.treehugger.com] (or three [www.sundancechannel.com]) and you’ll have it made in the shade.

Being a good TreeHugger involves a lot of different things, encompassing what you do in your home, what you wear, what you eat, and more. As part of our ongoing “Best of TreeHugger” posts, we’ll be taking a look at ways you can go green at work, whether that involves a cubicle, home office, something in between or something different altogether. One of the most iconic work objects is the desk; here are some of our favorite pieces that can help you sit down and get some work done.

Designer John Wiggers makes some very interesting, exotic furniture from unusual woods and highly-figured inlays. Long a proponent of healthy forests, Wiggers has been involved with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) on many levels, including Treasurer and Chair on the Board at FSC Canada. This commitment to responsibility, combined with his spiritual connection to his work, has led to his varied, holistic approach and his furniture’s unique aesthetic. Take the Kidney Shaped Desk [www.treehugger.com], for example. The intricate details, curvilinear shape and exacting dimensions of the desk are carefully proportioned to be consistent with the holistic design principles of Feng Shui, and, while it may not be a perfect fit for a cramped cubicle, we can’t think of may places we’d rather to sit while pondering how to be a better TreeHugger.

Those in the market for something a little less intricate and a little more modern need look no further than the Autopilot Workstation [www.treehugger.com] by Material Furniture. Like all of owner/designer Christopher Douglas’ imaginative collection, the unique desk is built with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified woods, locally-sourced materials, and comes with easy assembly/disassembly instructions for maximum modular usability. The workstation comes with either a maple or walnut finish and can be splashed with one of four colors: ice blue (pictured above), citron, tangerine and white. Material Furniture’s thoughtful work extends even to the packaging, which uses as little material as possible by shipping each piece flat. Using it might just inspire you to get more work done.

If your concept of the perfect desk includes a separate drawer and file cabinet, look no further than the Liege Desk [www.treehugger.com]. Conceived with the concept that we should be as comfortable at work as we are when asleep, the desk pairs sleek, understated design with a small footprint for easy integration into your home/office setup. Sustainable wood veneers are supported by stainless steel sleigh legs with storage that can be arranged on the left or right side. The stainless steel is finish-free, and the wood varnish is non-toxic and low in volatile organic compounds, making this desk not just pretty, but a smart, responsible complement to for home or office.

Legaré Furniture [www.treehugger.com] thinks that they’ve crafted the next evolution in home and small office furniture, and they just might be right. They’ve created a line of home and office furniture that’s reversible, modular, requires no tools to assemble, and uses FSC-certified Baltic Birch hardwoods. In addition to using environmentally-responsible wood, their collection can be assembled and re-assembled without using hardware, tools or adhesives; in it’s broken-down state, it occupies minimal space for ease of moving and shipping. Legaré has taken care to design efficiently, as well; according to Howard Klion, their main marketing man, “Originally designed to utilize 99% of the raw materials, there is virtually no waste in the production of Legare’s asymmetric desk or media systems.” Responsibility meets efficiency; in our book, that’s a great combination. Stay tuned for more about greening your office, later this week.

From the very beginning, TreeHugger has been interested in finding ways to live a greener lifestyle without having to sleep in a cave or wear burlap sacks; we want living green to look good. The good news is that there are countless ways to do so, and you’ll see lots of them on this blog before long; first we wanted to introduce a few of the terms you’re likely to see more of when it comes to interiors. Things like furniture, upholstery, wallcoverings and flooring may seem simple enough — a chair is a frame with a couple of pads, right? — but there’s a lot that goes in to the things we furnish and decorate our homes with that we think it’s important to know.

When it comes to wood used in furniture and flooring, there are a couple things that TreeHugger looks for. Perhaps the greenest option is reclaimed or salvaged wood; it often comes from old buildings that have been taken down, so it’s already been cut down, milled and processed once and no trees need to fall. For virgin wood, we like to look for wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council [www.fsc.org], who painstakingly insure that the trees are harvested in a way that, in short, assures that there will continue to be a forest (along with everything that typically lives in the forest) where they’re cutting from. Bamboo, which we already mentioned at length [www.sundancechannel.com], is another good option, along with other quickly renewable materials like rattan and sea grass.

How wood is finished and put together is also an important consideration. Glues and polyurethanes are often used, and they’re bad news for indoor air quality. You see, just about everything in your home off-gases whatever is inside of it; think of it as a way for your furniture, flooring & walls to “breathe.” When there are toxic chemicals in there (as with lots of glues and wood finishes), they come out to, contributing to poor indoor air quality and increasing your risk for health problems. In fact, the air quality inside is often 10 – 100 times worse than outside, and is compounded in the winter (when the windows are shut most of the time) and when your home is well-insulated (which is a good thing for energy-efficiencies’ sake). Formaldehyde and flame retardants in upholstery and cushions are also a big contributor to toxic off-gassing, as are the volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in paint. The good news is that non-toxic, water-based alternatives are available for all of these, so there’s no reason to poison your home with these nasties. Remember, just about everything off-gases, so it’s important to consider what you bring in to your home because you’ll be breathing it for years to come. Greenguard [www.greenguard.org] is a certification which ensures furniture is low toxicity, and can help you find furniture that won’t contribute to negative indoor air quality.

Lastly, something we like to see in furniture and interior construction is the efficient use of materials. Building furniture with bent plywood is a great example, because it uses only about 1/8th (that’s about 12%) of the wood that other techniques typically use. This is also where materials like medium-density fiberboard (MDF) come in handy, because they’re made from the sawdust that results from milling and working with other wood — just be sure it’s not made with polyurethane or toxic glues. The story is the same with plywood: it can be extremely green, when it carries a sustainable certification and doesn’t use toxic binders, but can be pretty nasty otherwise. The number one rule: do your homework, and look for the big three (certification, no toxic substances and material efficiency). Stay tuned for some fabulous examples and tips for getting greener in your home.