US Congressman Glenn Thompson sent a bipartisan letter to US Green Building Council (USGBC) urging changes to the treatment of forest products under the Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 2012 rating system. Source: North Central PA
LEED is used to certify that materials and operations are energy efficient and environmentally friendly. Plans are to release a revised rating system, LEED 2012, in November of 2012.
The letter urged the USGBC to “accept all credible forest management certification systems for qualification under the LEED rating system,” in order to incentivize the “utilization of domestically produced forest products.”
LEED’s current rating system recognizes wood only if it is certified to the Forest Stewardship Council’s forest standard. However, three quarters of the US certified forests operate on different standards, primarily the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) or the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), which are not recognized by LEED.
As a result, LEED’s rating requirement has the adverse effect of dissuading builders from using US wood products that are ineligible for LEED certification, despite their substantial environmental and economic benefits.
A study by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in September 2011 outlined scientific findings that support the environmental and economic benefits of using wood in green building construction.
It states: “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.”
If the USGBC changed their standard, it would qualify more than 4.5 million acres of wood from SFI and the ATFS in Pennsylvania alone for LEED certification. Nationally, the number of acres certified to SFI and ATFS is almost 87 million acres.
