Canadian environmental groups have levelled another greenwashing complaint — this time at the largest certification scheme for sustainable forestry in North America.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) certifies 115 million hectares of forest within Canada’s borders for companies.

In a complaint filed to Competition Bureau Canada, environmental groups allege the SFI’s claims of sustainability are “false and misleading” because it has “no rules requiring that logging meet prescribed sustainability criteria nor any on-the-ground assessment to confirm sustainability.”

“The misrepresentations made by the SFI have contributed and continue to contribute to unsustainable logging globally and in Canada on an immense scale,” according to the complaint filed Dec. 1 by Ecojustice.

The environmental law charity filed the complaint on behalf of eight environmental organizations including Greenpeace Canada, Wildlands League, David Suzuki Foundation and Ecology Action Centre. The bureau has yet to decide whether to open an inquiry.

“We welcome any scrutiny into our program and are positioned well to address any issues,” SFI’s senior vice-president of customer affairs, Jason Metnick, said in an email to Canada’s National Observer.

“At the heart of this inquiry is whether SFI’s standards require outcomes-based impact to make sustainability statements. The answer is absolutely yes,” Metnick’s statement reads.

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