Jason Metnick, SFI Senior Director of Market Access and Label Use, provides an update on LEED benchmarks.

As you may have seen, the USGBC recently requested comments on a fourth round of draft benchmarks to evaluate forest certification programs in its LEED green building rating system. SFI has cautioned the USGBC that a process like the one currently proposed could result in never ending revisions, assessments and evaluations year after year with no clear results.  We believe it is time for USGBC’s leadership to end this process and give credit for wood use and forest certification standards.  SFI strongly supports green building, and we believe SFI and other credible certification programs are a clear fit for green building rating systems.  Wood from responsibly-managed forests, like those certified to the SFI Standard, is an excellent choice for any new construction or renovation.  Wood is renewable, it sequesters carbon and is powered by solar energy.  These factors, coupled with wood’s desirable aesthetic and structural characteristics, make it a great choice for green buildings.  We therefore suggest that the USGBC should:

USGBC leaders should listen to elected officials, government agencies, professional foresters, and others who are telling them to end the discrimination against North American forests and accept wood certified to all forest certification standards used in North America – SFI, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Canadian Standards Association (CSA), American Tree Farm System (ATFS) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

It’s not too late to show your support and urge the USGBC to sunset the forest certification benchmarks.  Please sign our petition, and check out our short green building video.  Also, please forward the petition and video to friends and family who care about the future of North American forests.  You can find more information about the comment period on the USGBC’s website, and you can check out our public statement regarding the fourth round of public comments on SFI’s website.

Nadine Block, who focuses on Government Outreach for SFI,  has an exciting update about more government support for opening LEED.

The four co-chairs of the Congressional Timber Caucus recently sent a powerful letter to the USGBC advocating for the organization to reverse its exclusive LEED policy. Representatives Kevin Brady (R-TX), Bart Stupak (D-MI), Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Mike Ross (D-AR) urged the USGBC to open LEED in order to stop the discrimination against North American wood products and recognize wood as a responsible, renewable choice for green building.

They stated, “If the status quo remains unchanged, and SFI and ATFS wood products are not recognized, we believe many LEED builders will turn away reputable third-party SFI and ATFS certified wood which is grown locally and instead turn to FSC certified wood, the large majority of which is grown in other countries. Wood projects should be treated equally with other building products, such as steel and concrete, which are not required to have third-party environmental certification in order to receive a credit.”

At SFI, we agree. I continue to ask you to demand change. Sign the petition and ask your family, friends and colleagues to do the same. Change in LEED is crucial for the future of green building and forest certification.

Coming off the heels of the USGBC Federal Summit, we’re as excited as ever to raise awareness of SFI and the program’s role in green building. We continue to garner support for changes to LEED, and government officials continue to back our stance. Last week, Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter wrote a letter to the USGBC discussing the benefits of opening LEED.

The governor states that under the LEED rating system, “bamboo from China and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified wood from Russia and Brazil would be certified, whereas only some of Idaho’s wood would be certified.”

We agree with his point—when the LEED rating tools exclude the majority of certified wood from counting towards the LEED wood certification credit, that’s a problem. Currently, the USGBC only recognizes FSC for the forest certification credit. We need to ensure wood from the U.S. and Canada certified to SFI, CSA, ATFS, and PEFC gets equal recognition with offshore wood certified to FSC. The USGBC is in a process to review this credit; however, it is a lengthy process, and while we spend years waiting it out, the majority of well-managed and certified wood from the U.S. and Canada is discriminated against in the USGBC’s LEED rating system.

Governor Otter’s letter also says “Under the draft benchmarks, much of the nearly 20 million acres of Idaho’s public and private forest land would not qualify for LEED credits. The draft ignores the fact that Idaho’s State and privately held timber lands are harvested under a Forest Practices Act provision requiring use of nationally recognized Best Management Practices (including mandatory protection of Streamside Maintenance Zones) and semi-annual interagency audits which are made public.”

SFI agrees with this statement and has suggested to the USGBC in past written comments that the USGBC needs to give wood a credit for being wood, a renewable resource. If wood has gone through the rigorous third party certification process that standards such as SFI, CSA, ATFS and FSC offer, then an extra LEED credit should be given.

You can read the governor’s letter in full on our website, where you can also see the other letters of support. If you haven’t already, sign the petition and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to do the same!

I am pleased to announce that we’ve just released the latest SFI progress report, which measures our program’s progress in meeting its goals. This year’s report is truly special because its theme is “Power of Partnerships.”

Partnerships power the SFI program. They breathe life into our work, making it dynamic and exciting.

Together with our many partners, we share ideas and accomplish so much more in the forest, in communities, and in the marketplace. Our partners include community organizations and companies of all sizes, government agencies, conservation groups, Aboriginal people, customers and family forest owners.

We have a diverse range of partners because we respect and value all contributions, and believe everyone can benefit through involvement in the SFI program. After all, everyone has a responsibility to our forests and to our communities. This report touches on just a few of the accomplishments resulting from these amazing partnerships.

2010 is a perfect time to be celebrating the power of partnerships. We began the year by introducing our new SFI 2010-2014 Standard, concluding an 18-month open, consultative and inclusive review. The process invited input from more than 2,000 people, and was overseen by the independent External Review Panel. This collaboration did a lot to strengthen existing partnerships, and build new ones.

We also entered 2010 as the largest single forest certification standard in the world. This growth reflects the confidence and respect our program has earned. It places us in a leadership position to bring together people from different backgrounds and viewpoints to achieve our common goal — to strengthen forest practices.

You don’t have to look any further than the 950 people who make up our 37 SFI Implementation Committees. These committees are a unique and important part of our program. Close to half of the members are involved not because their organization is an SFI program participant, but because they understand the relevance and value of what we do. They know that they can, and are, making a difference. They include loggers, teachers, biologists and public officials. They are working to meet the needs of communities across the United States and Canada, arranging training sessions and workshops for loggers and family forest owners to expand the reach of responsible forest management.

Another fantastic partnership – one that means a lot to me – is our relationship with Habitat for Humanity. Local participants and SFI Implementation Committees have contributed time and resources to help build Habitat homes in Maine, Manitoba, Minnesota, Ontario and Tennessee – using SFI wood from local communities to build better communities. The SFI partnership includes the first Habitat home certified to the ANSI National Green Building Standard in the United States, the first certified to the Built Green Canada Program in Canada, and the first in a First Nation community in Canada. But what’s best is that these projects bring together volunteers to provide decent homes using local resources for hard-working families– people like Timothy Gistover who lives with his son in a Habitat home in Nashville built with the help of the SFI program and its partners.

We have just embarked on a new partnership initiative that will bring us closer to the conservation community. Through an ongoing Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program, we have announced support for projects that will, among other things, improve forest habitat and wildlife biodiversity, strengthen knowledge and data, and reduce the risk of illegal products in the global supply chain. Our criteria called for projects that bring together partners and resources so we were not surprised to find that our initial commitment of $675,000 – $307,500 so far in 2010 alone – will leverage a total value of $2.7 million from all of those involved.

What is so heartening about everything we are doing right now – and what motivates SFI staff and all of our partners to work even harder – is the realization that more and more people are voicing their support for third-party certification and the SFI program.

The power of partnerships gives meaning to the work that we do, and motivates us to take on the challenges ahead and to seize the opportunities of the future. From everyone involved in the SFI program and everyone who benefits from this work, sincere thanks to all of our partners – we look forward to continuing to work with you.

Read the full report here
Read our news release here

Nadine Block, who focuses on Government Outreach for SFI,  headed to the USGBC Federal Summit. The Summit was held at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center May 18-19. Check out her coverage of the event below.

The USGBC Federal Summit in Washington DC last week was a great opportunity to promote SFI forest certification and certified wood products in green building and to display the groundswell of support that has been built to end LEED’s FSC-only stance.  We have gathered 5,700 petition signatures (ipetitions.com/petition/leed), a multitude of letters, articles and opinion pieces, and many other signs of support (sfiprogram.org/leed/). These have come from a whole host of voices including builders, elected officials, scientists, professional foresters, green building organizations, family forest landowners, conservation groups, architects and many more.

Participating in the Summit built on this momentum.  I hosted a “Knowledge Bar” which provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the SFI name and label to the 700+ participants at the Summit. It also provided a great venue to engage participants one-on-one in a dialogue about the role of forest certification in green building rating systems. I talked with participants about the credibility, strength, and scope of the SFI program. Many were impressed with what the SFI program does and appreciated our concern that the LEED rating system is not inclusive of all third-party forest certification systems.

More and more people are learning about SFI and why LEED should be open to all credible forest certification standards.  Our efforts are building a strong force.  The USGBC Federal Summit not only showed this, but it also added to what we’ve built. Let’s keep the ball rolling.