Robert A. (Bob) Luoto
Owner and Operator of Cross & Crown, Inc.

The U.S. Green Building Council is inviting comments on the draft language for its LEED rating system. SFI Inc. has invited views on the treatment of third-party forest certification, which must be “FSC or better” according to the latest USGBC credit language. In this post, Bob Luoto, Owner and Operator of Cross & Crown, Inc. and Chair of the SFI Board of Directors, talks about how the SFI program supports rural timber-dependent communities.

My name is Bob Luoto, and I am the third generation within my family to go into logging. I have been a professional logger for 38 years. My wife, Betsy, and I own Cross & Crown, Inc., our family logging business out of Carlton, Oregon. Our son, Kirk, is 30 years old, and is the fourth generation of Luoto men to enter into our business. His 4-year-old son, Landon, could choose to become the fifth generation to take over our family business – if our business can survive that long.

In rural, timber-dependent America, the economic decline began years before the rest of the country ever felt a thing. In my experience, we are usually among the last to recover. It is having a terrible impact on so many of our family, friends and neighbors, and on our own business.

As long as U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) limits its LEED-certified wood credit to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), it is turning its back on my community as well as other communities in North America. Our company and our employees, as well as other timber-based companies, have suffered and will continue to suffer if we send jobs out of the country by denying LEED certified wood credits for fiber from certifications to the Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI^®) Standard. By giving preferential treatment to FSC, which has 90 percent of its certified land outside the United States, USGBC discourages the use of timber and other forest by‑products harvested on three million acres of lands certified to the SFI Standard in Oregon alone. This obviously is harmful to rural communities and the families who live and work in them. It is telling my son, who has become a partner in our family business, that the industry has no future for him or his children.

What is most distressing to me is that there is no good reason for this decision not to equally and explicitly include all forest certifications including SFI.  I work on lands certified to SFI, and I am proud of what I see our people accomplishing on SFI-certified land every day. All of my employees are trained in Best Management Practices thanks to SFI requirements.  SFI certification makes our work much safer and keeps North American harvested timber ready for use in rural towns and large cities all across North America. It is for this reason that we must not forget that SFI recognizes approximately three quarters of the certified forests in North America and yet only 10% of the world’s forests are certified.

I have been actively involved with the American Loggers Council for 16 years. We were among many invited to be at the table to shape the SFI program back in the 1990s, and have been partners ever since. I currently chair the SFI Board of Directors, and can attest to the knowledge, the expertise, the care that this independently run board uses in all of its decision-making.

USGBC should show that it cares about rural communities like Carlton and small businesses like Cross & Crown, Inc. by recognizing SFI.  It should show that it is a leader by dropping any barrier that discourages builders from using certified wood products from North America. By doing this, it can help us keep our own business alive and well for our son and our grandchildren, and promote the responsible management of hundreds of millions of acres of forestland throughout North America.

Richard W. (Dick) Brinker

The U.S. Green Building Council is inviting comments on the draft language for its LEED rating system. SFI Inc. has invited views on the treatment of third-party forest certification, which must be “FSC or better” according to the latest USGBC credit language. In this post, Dr. Richard W. (Dick) Brinker, Dean Emeritus, School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, and a member of the social chamber of the SFI Board of Directors, looks at how SFI supports logger training.

One way to make sure forests are managed well is to make sure the people on the ground – loggers and landowners – are trained well. Training has been my passion for more than 25 years, and it has been a firm principle of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI^®) since the start.

I’ve conducted and coordinated extension education activities for professional loggers, foresters, and landowners since 1988. And as far as I’m concerned, the creation of SFI was a dream come true – it meant logging professionals, and forests, across the United States and Canada were able to benefit from our work. The Forest Resources Association estimates that since 1995 about 130,000 resource and logging professionals have been trained in responsible forestry through the SFI program or its recognition of other programs.

Training and Education is one of the 14 principles for responsible forestry in the SFI 2010-2014 Standard. Program participants must make sure their staff and contractors are properly trained, and they must be part of a local SFI Implementation Committee to improve training. If they source fiber from uncertified lands, they must encourage the landowner to use qualified professionals.

SFI is the only certification program in North America with these requirements. And it’s making a huge difference. States such as Texas, South Carolina and Tennessee point to it as one reason for consistent improvement in their best management practices to protect water quality.

And while training is important to me, I’ve been privileged to be involved with SFI in many ways. I’m a member of the independent SFI Board of Directors, and from 2002 to 2008 I was part of the SFI External Review Panel. Both of these roles are like having tenure at a university – we are chosen for our knowledge and expertise, and granted the independence and freedom we need to contribute and say what we think. That’s just one of the many strengths of the SFI program.

I’ve seen for myself how training can improve forest practices – and I know that when it comes to training for logging professionals, SFI is far ahead of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Therefore, it meets the “FSC or better” requirements set out in the draft language for the LEED rating system. If the U.S. Green Building Council wants LEED to achieve as much as possible for our forests, and utilize a truly sustainable resource, its credit structure will include SFI certification.

Dr. Brinker was Dean and Professor in of the School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, from 1998 until his retirement in 2011. During this time, it became one of the most highly regarded and productive natural resource programs in the southern region of the United States.

Who knows what U.S. Green Building Council hopes to achieve with its latest draft language on forest certification in LEED.  The new draft LEED requirement “FSC or better” feels more like a slogan than thoughtful language intended for a green building rating tool – probably because that’s exactly what it is.  Those were the words on buttons worn by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) supporters at the 2011 USGBC GreenBuild show.

USGBC is moving away from science when it comes to forest certification.  While the latest draft language has some new opportunities for life cycle assessment and environmental data which is of relevance to wood, there remains a disconnect in terms of promoting and recognizing wood from responsibly managed forests.  There is a real disconnect when USGBC claims to be a standard that supports market transformation and yet chooses language that can undermine and disadvantage markets for three quarters of the certified forest products from North America.  Healthy markets for products from responsible forests means more forests will be managed responsibly.  Undermining those markets, however, can have numerous consequences, be they intentional or unintentional.

USGBC’s unwavering support for FSC shows it understands the value of third-party forest certification. But it is painting itself into a corner through a credit structure that could enable builders to turn their backs on 75 percent of North America’s certified forests if they want to chase LEED credits for certified wood.  The potential for this to happen is evidenced by FSC’s own 2010 Business value and Growth market survey (page 6) which found: “Nearly half of respondents have sought out an alternative supplier in another country when FSC certified timber or products were not available in their own country.”  USGBC is reinforcing the myth that only one forest certification standard is worth supporting – ignoring the fact respected organizations say otherwise and ignoring the fact that 90 percent of the world’s forests aren’t even certified.

SFI remains committed to ensuring all forest products from responsible sources and certified forests gain equal access to credits in LEED rating tools.  While we agree that the 90% of FSC’s certified forests that are certified outside the US, i.e. outside USGBC’s home turf, should get access to LEED, not for a minute do we believe that these FSC products should get preferential access to LEED certified wood credits over products certified to standards in use in North America, such as SFI, ATFS and CSA – all of which SFI recognizes.

If through the language “FSC or better” USGBC’s aim is to allow credits for certification standards that are better for forests, for other forest values and for forest communities, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI^®) can certainly show we match – and often exceed – FSC requirements.   SFI will post a number of blogs between now and March 20 when the LEED public comment period ends to show how many unique attributes the SFI standard has that supports responsible forestry in communities across North America.  We will show how SFI goes beyond and above the uneven nature of FSC’s varied standards and how SFI focuses on things that matter here at home, such as research, logger training and landowner outreach. But let’s be clear, SFI is a standard that is grounded and founded in North America, that reflects social, economic and environmental priorities that are of relevance here at home – this is our strength and this should not be overlooked.

The decisions USGBC makes today about green building and certification will affect our forests and our communities well into the future. By refusing to be inclusive like other green building rating tools, it diminishes the value of certification and that diminishes the value of our forests.

More to come…

Architects and builders can learn more about the benefits of using certified wood in green building thanks to a Continuing Education Unit (CEU) sponsored by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI^®) program. It also demonstrates how government agencies support an inclusive approach to certification and how even LEED Pilot Credit 43 offers an opportunity for SFI-certified wood.

The unit – Certified Wood Branches Out: Forest Certification’s Evolving Role in Green Building Rating Systems – is featured in the January-February 2012  issue of GreenSource Magazine, which is published by McGraw Hill and goes to 45,000 green design and construction professionals.

It reinforces the fact that the green building community is recognizing the value of all forest certification programs equally. This past fall alone, we had Governor Paul LePage’s executive order in Maine, and heard from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education, and the International Green Construction Code – all recognizing SFI and other credible forest certification standards.

The CEU will be in the McGraw Hill Continuing Education Unit online library throughout 2012, and architects and builders can earn continuing education credits through the American Institute of Architects by reading the article and taking an online test.

Building materials have such a huge impact on the environment, and wood from responsibly managed forests is such a great choice in new construction or renovations. We encourage you to help get the CEU into the hands of builders, architects, designers, and specifiers so they can see that third-party forest certification standards like SFI offer a proof point that the forest has been managed for multiple values.

Read the full CEU here.

Download the full CEU as a PDF here:
CEU: Certified Wood Branches Out — Forest Certification’s Evolving Role in Green Building Rating Systems

Maine has always been a leader when it comes to third-party forest certification – and an executive order signed by Governor Paul LePage and a corresponding news release has just reinforced this position.

The Maine executive order says: “The design, construction, operation and maintenance of any new or expanded state building shall incorporate ‘Green Building’ standards that give certification credits equally to forest products grown, manufactured, and certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard, Forest Stewardship Council, American Tree Farm System, and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification systems.”

The reason is straightforward – Governor LePage believes that by supporting the full range of forest certification programs, Maine is advancing the state’s forest industry and helping its forest landowners compete in local, national and international markets. Seven million acres/2.8 million hectares of Maine forests are certified to the SFI 2010-2014 Standard.

SFI issued a news release that helps connect the dots by pointing out how the executive order supports rating tools such as ANSI/GBI 01-2010: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings (built on Green Globes U.S.) and the National Green Building Standard that give equal credit to products derived from all credible forest certification standards. In our opinion, rating tools like the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating tools that do not recognize forest certification standards equally would not meet the requirements of this executive order.

This could be a powerful incentive for the USGBC to level the playing field. Right now, the LEED rating tools only give credit for products certified to the Forest Stewardship Council. Three-quarters of certified lands in North America – a total of 370 million acres/150 million hectares – are certified to SFI, ATFS and CSA, and are not recognized.

And the timing could not be better. The 2012 version of the LEED rating tools is currently under development, and a wide range of organizations are recognizing all forest certification standards. Leaders from across North America – including 100 Members of Congress and Governors – have called on USGBC to open up the LEED rating tool, but Maine is the first jurisdiction to take significant action.

In June, the USGBC released Pilot Credit 43 which recognizes all forest certification standards and gives a credit to them equally. However, this credit is limited to non-structural materials like windows, doors, floors and furniture. Builders, architects and others who appreciate the value of recognizing multiple forest certification standards are encouraged to post comments about Pilot Credit 43 on the LEED user site, and recommend that USGBC open up this credit to structural materials as well.