The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a certification program created to promote sustainable forest management worldwide. Bypassing traditional state processes, the FSC is a system of private regulation that uses the market and consumer preferences to create incentives for forestland owners and companies to shift their practices towards sustainable production. This thesis investigates the impact of FSC certification on the wood products industry in the United States. A supply chain analysis is used to examine the level of involvement in and awareness of FSC certification by key market actors. It finds that FSC certification has not had a significant impact on markets, but the value of the FSC is not its market-based mechanism. Rather, its significance is its ability to increase dialogue on the importance of sustainability and improve forest management standards nationwide. Most notably, the FSC drives the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, a competing certification program, to improve its standards.