Treeboard's Hardwood Is Certified Sustainable — AHVS

At Treeboard, we take trees and sustainability seriously. Did you know that, in addition to paying to plant thousands of trees in the eastern U.S., we get all of our wood from certified sustainable lumber mills? The three locations where we get our hard maple, white oak and black cherry all carry the cerification Appalachian Hardwood Verified Sustainable (AHVS), which means the forests are fully replaced or expanded. Under that certification, trees come from a 344-county area of Appalachia and lumber mills are owned by firms in good standing with the hardwood association. The reforestation is overseen by the U.S. Forest Service.

The tree species we use have the least concern about become endangered. Compare that to teak, often used in cutting boards and rated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

All of our cutting boards are made from lumber from just three mills. Unlike other manufacturers and craftsmen, we don't use distributors or middlemen with unknown wood sources. We also don't use exotic or imported species that are frequently linked to illegal logging or political and social abuse.

The lumber we use for bowls and other items is either certified sustainable (CAHS) or reclaimed from arborists who cut trees at the request of homeowners and businesses.

We are currently working to make sure that as much of our lumber as possible also bears the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label, the international gold standard for sustainable and responsible logging. Most of our lumber in the workshop is FSC certified.

But we don't leave our sustainability to the mills that supply Treeboard.

We have an ongoing commitment to Green Forests Work, a non-profit organization led by Dr. Christopher Barton that reclaims mined land and restores native woodlands in Appalachia. So far this year we donated enough to plant more than 600 trees.