Sustainable Furnishings Council to present in China

Jeff Hiller to speak at Shanghai event

Tom Russell -- Furniture Today, September 4, 2009

SHANGHAI, China — The Sustainable Furnishings Council will be making a debut presentation in Shanghai as part of a two-day conference on marketing legal and certified forest products.

The Sept. 8-9 conference, organized by the Rainforest Alliance, the Chinese Academy of Forestry and the World Wildlife Fund, is called "Legal & Certified Forests and Forest Products in Asia Pacific: Harmonizing Policy and Practice."

This is the second annual event of its kind organized by the Rainforest Alliance, a nonprofit that promotes sustainable forestry practices.

Last year's event was held in Beijing. This year it is being held in conjunction with the Furniture China trade show, which runs from Sept. 9-12 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center.

The conference largely aims to explore public policies and business practices designed to bring legal and certified wood products to the marketplace.

This year's event is expected to draw more than 350 attendees, not including organizers and speakers, said Jeff Cao, a Rainforest Alliance representative who helped organize the event.

"The agenda is designed to reflect what is actually happening in the global forest products industry - including furniture," Cao told Furniture/Today. "So we will have government people come to speak on policy frameworks as a mandatory approach to combat illegal logging and promote sustainable forestry. We also have invited industry people to share their perspectives on these new laws and policies and how they respond to these regulations."

SFC President Jeff Hiller will present as part of a panel discussion called "Factory to Store: Marketing Legal and Sustainable Timber." He will discuss the marketing of sustainable furniture in the U.S. and how the issue is approached by suppliers, manufacturers and retailers.

"We see it as an opportunity to provide our point of view to these incredibly important manufacturers over there," Hiller said. "We want to reach out and communicate with these people and bring our message out to them.... Since the U.S. is an important market for these manufacturers, we hope they are interested in these issues."

After the conference, Hiller will visit manufacturers at the trade show to discuss the SFC and what it is doing to educate the industry about sustainable furniture and how it is helping to promote the marketing and sales of such products in the U.S.