Once we are assured of the origin of the wood fiber through our chain of custody requirement, we can assess whether the source is acceptable. REI has categorized fiber sources modeling our definitions on the work of international industry groups working on sustainable forest issues, including the Forest Stewardship Council and the World Wildlife Fund's North America Forest & Trade Network plus input from stakeholders representing the paper industry, independent experts and advocacy groups.

To measure our progress in purchasing from acceptable sources, we have established a baseline, using estimated purchases from 2005. We are reporting our results for 2006 along with the yearly targets for the next three years.

• 2005 data is estimated for comparison only
• To measure our progress toward this goal we have set out yearly targets; however, continuous improvement and the 2009 goal are the priority over specific intermediate steps. Based on progress and annual results we may readjust performance targets.

Definitions:

Undesirable:Paper and wood fiber that is the product of illegal logging or obtained from controversial sources, such as harvesting and processing, in areas that contribute to human rights violations, areas where the timber trade is driving armed conflict, areas that are being actively converted from natural forests to plantations or non-forest uses or which use timber from genetically modified trees or sourced from high conservation value forests (HCVF) unless the source is certified under a credible certification program such as FSC.

Acceptable:Acceptable sources of fiber are those that are not undesirable sources, although they have not been formally certified.

Certified: Sources that have received certification by FSC are automatically considered to come from acceptable sources.