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.

Allison Welde manages SFI’s outreach to conservation groups and other SFI stakeholders and identifies areas of potential collaboration. She also manages the new SFI Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program.

Key components of the SFI program are support for research and landowner outreach, and these requirements in our standard have already led to countless benefits in forests and communities across North America.  To further our long-standing commitment to conservation and research through innovative partnerships, we created the Conservation and Community Partnerships Grant Program earlier this year.  This program is designed to foster relationships between organizations interested in improving forest management in the United States and Canada, and responsible procurement globally.

That is why today we are incredibly proud to announce that SFI is committing $675,000 to fund nine conservation projects in North America dedicated to—among other things—improving forest habitat and biodiversity, and reducing illegal logging globally.   Through the involvement of partners, these projects will leverage additional resources and are expected to achieve a total value of almost $2.7 million.  Now that’s the power of partnerships!

The projects announced today include partnerships with numerous SFI Program Participants and are led by:

SFI and its program participants have a history of supporting conservation work.  In fact, since 1995, SFI program participants have invested more than $1.1 billion in research to improve forest management. This newest program is just one more step SFI is taking to promote responsible forest management by working together.

To learn more about the grant recipients and specific projects click here to read our announcement. You can also learn more about the grant program and the funded projects on our website or contact Allison.Welde@sfiprogram.org or 202.596.3452.

You may have seen recent coverage in Canadian Wood Products and the LBM Journal that point to reasons as to why the US Green Building Council should open the LEED rating system. As the single largest forest certification standard in the world, SFI is committed to promoting responsible forest management in North America and responsible fiber sourcing worldwide. We think opening LEED is a crucial step in advancing responsible forestry and strengthening green building in the U.S. and Canada.

SFI Canadian Wood Products Editor Bill Tice states, “The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) is taking a leadership role and has been the most outspoken when it comes to raising awareness that the USGBC’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system needs to recognize all credible certification programs.” He also points out that we’re not alone, listing significant support from Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, National Association of State Foresters President Steven Koehn, Mother Nature Network Director of Environmental Affairs Chuck Leavell and Society of American Foresters President Michael Goergen, among others.

In the LBM Journal article titled “SFI vs. FSC”, John Wagner brings up another valid point in regards to inclusivity. “Does the freezing out of SFI (and other standards) foster greener, more sustainably harvested lumber and wood fiber? No, it doesn’t.” At SFI, we believe that in order to better promote and increase green building projects, as well as benefit the North American economy, LEED must open their standard to all credible forest certification standards.

I want to thank you for your continued efforts dedicated to advancing the USGBC’s policy to one that recognizes multiple forest certification standards including SFI. With changes to LEED being decided in coming weeks, we encourage you to voice support now more than ever. Circulate articles like those previously mentioned to those who support green building and the forestry community. Encourage friends and colleagues to sign the petition if they haven’t already. As we engage in the USGBC process, we want to ensure we do everything we can to make sure USGBC voters and the general public have accurate information about our program.