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.

I’m so proud of the SFI community’s accomplishments and our shared commitment to responsible forest management, but it really hit home when I had a look at our December newsletter.

It demonstrates how we are growing on the ground – 195 million acres/79 million hectares certified to date – and how we are being increasingly recognized by leading agencies around the world.

Check it out. You’ll see that this fall alone, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education and the International Green Construction Code all recognized SFI and other credible certification standards. On top of this, PEFC International members re-endorsed our forest standard. You’ll find many other statements in our fact sheet SFI: What Others are Saying.

Even the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) is starting to look at things differently. LEED Pilot Credit 43 for non-structural materials currently gives equal credit to all forest certification standards including SFI. And in the LEED for Homes draft 2012 language, the USGBC has removed the FSC credit so SFI program participants have a level playing field. In a recent article, green building writer John Wagner asks if Pilot Credit 43 might open the door to LEED credits for SFI certification. And don’t forget to post a comment to let the USGBC know Pilot Credit 43 is on the right track!

Of course, this recognition would not be possible if it were not for the efforts of hundreds of SFI program participants across North America and the countless number of partners working with us and our SFI Implementation Committees to extend the reach of SFI certification so we can build knowledge and improve forest practices on certified and uncertified lands alike.

Everyone who supports forest certification and the SFI program should take a bow. It’s an honor to work with you, and such a pleasure to see the concrete results of our efforts.

I sometimes think the debate about LEED’s unfair treatment of certified wood is so wrapped up in politics it misses the most important point – wood from responsible sources is a great choice for green building.

So obviously I was delighted to see an article by John D. Wagner in the October issue of LBM Journal entitled LEED Acceptance of SFI Now Pending: Could SFI products finally achieve LEED credits?

Wagner’s column says the U.S. Green Building Council’s decision in June to list SFI and other forest certification standards equally in a section on ‘pre-authorized certifications and labels’ in LEED Pilot Credit 43 “has potentially opened the door for granting LEED credit to SFI-certified products for non-structural wood items, such as furniture, flooring, and windows.”

The item appeared shortly after the U.S. Department of Agriculture stated in a news release: “Sustainability of forest products can be verified using any credible third-party rating system, such as Sustainable Forestry Initiative, Forest Stewardship Council or American Tree Farm System certification.”

The USDA was announcing a new report that supports what a lot of us have been saying for a long time – using wood obtained through sustainable forestry practices in green building applications promotes a healthy environment and a strong economy.

Right now, only wood certified to the Forest Stewardship Council – which accounts for about one quarter of North America’s certified forests – is eligible for the LEED certified wood credit. Most FSC-certified forests are outside of North America, and 90 percent are outside of the United States. It was nice that the USDA explicitly recognized standards that are widely represented here, like SFI and Tree Farm.

USGBC really needs to start paying attention to the evidence being put forward by the USDA and so many others, and extend the inclusive approach in the pilot credit to all LEED 2012 rating tools. This would encourage more builders to use North American wood in green building projects – and make it a lot easier for them to find the products they need.

Wagner – an award-winning author and consultant on green building – knows what he is talking about because he has been following SFI for years, and was at our last two conferences. So it means a lot to me when he says: “. . . I would urge doubters to check out SFI. It really is a solid and balanced organization, run by very decent people with a clear sense of their sustainability mission.”

USGBC needs to know it is finally heading in the right direction with Pilot Credit 43 – there is no deadline to post comments through the LEED user forum. If you want more information, check out our update link on USGBC, LEED and SFI.

I was impressed with a recent article by Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief of Building Design & Construction called End the Battle of FSC vs. SFI Wood in LEED. It captures concisely the inconsistencies the recent draft of LEED 2012 has, as well as the continuous unfair treatment wood receives over other building materials such as cement and steel.

I would like all stakeholders to send their feedback on this second draft of LEED 2012 by September 14^th, plus I strongly encourage you to send positive feedback on USGBC’s LEED Pilot Credit 43. This pilot credit for non-structural certified wood products (furniture, flooring, windows) lists SFI, FSC and other forest certification standards equally in a section on ‘pre-approved certifications and labels’.  We would like to keep this positive pilot credit language top of mind.

Pilot Credits are used in USGBC to test drive an idea before making it an official credit in the LEED rating tool.  USGBC refers to pilot credits as “multi-stakeholder market tests” and relies heavily on user input.

We specifically want those commenting on this Pilot Credit 43 to ask that this language be extended into all LEED 2012 rating tools and that this language be extended to also include structural wood products (not just non-structural as is currently the case.) A few examples why we believe Pilot Credit 43 is positive include:

Again, we encourage you to work with builders and architects to post comments on the LEED User blog and keep this pivotal turning point by the USGBC top of mind.

Below is Robert’s article for you to read.

END THE BATTLE OF FSC VS. SFI WOOD IN LEED
Building Design & Construction

By Robert Cassidy, Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Enough already! For the past decade, the USGBC has given the Forest Stewardship Council a monopoly on wood from its forests being used in LEED projects. It’s time for the USGBC to open the door to other wood certification programs.

Consider this: Sixty percent of FSC-certified wood comes from outside the U.S. and Canada. Why does the USGBC encourage the importation of FSC wood from thousands of miles away, when at the same time it offers a credit for using locally produced materials—the so-called “500-mile rule”?

Wouldn’t it be more environmentally beneficial to use locally grown wood, shipped over much shorter distances? Between them, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) have 373 million acres of certified forests. SFI alone has about 80% of the certified woodlands in North America, while FSC has only 18%. Building Teams in the U.S. and Canada are being forced in many cases to go overseas instead of being able to use certified wood from their own backyards.

Here’s another inconsistency: Why doesn’t the USGBC require other building products to “prove” their environmental bona fides to the same extent that it does wood products? Why do steel and glass and ceiling tiles and hundreds of other building products get a pass, while wood has to go through 49 mandatory benchmarks to be considered for use under LEED? Are all these products and materials so environmentally pure?

Take cement, the key ingredient in the manufacture of concrete, without which not a whole lot of building would get done. But did you know that the cement industry produces about 5% of all carbon emissions globally, a fact I was first made aware of by Scot Horst, for years chair of the LEED Steering Committee and now the USGBC’s SVP of LEED?

I would bet that very few of the 130,000 or more LEED Accredited Professionals out there would hesitate to use cement-containing concrete in their LEED projects. But are they aware that, in doing so, they are contributing to global warming, with its deleterious impact on the environment and human health?

I don’t mean to single out the cement and concrete industry, which (at least outside of China and India) is working hard to reduce its emissions. But the question remains: Why isn’t the USGBC devoting the same rigorous attention to other building products that it has so diligently bestowed on wood products?

Green Globes, the U.K.’s BREEAM, Built Green Canada, Japan’s CASBEE, and the ANSI National Green Building Standard recognize SFI and other wood certification standards. Australia’s Green Building Council recently rescinded its FSC-only restriction.

Could it be that the anti-lumber industry lobby within USGBC simply cannot bear the fact that SFI, CSA, and other certifications are just as good as FSC’s?

Click here for the original article: http://www.bdcnetwork.com/end-battle-fsc-vs-sfi-wood-leed