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LEED 2012: Wood and the “Responsible Extraction of Raw Materials”

LEED 2012: Wood and the “Responsible Extraction of Raw Materials”

According to the 3rd draft of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 2012 rating tool, released on March 1 by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), forest products will only receive “responsible extraction of raw materials” credits toward LEED certification if they have chain of custody certification identified as “FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] or better." This language replaces 2nd draft language that required wood products to be labeled as "FSC Pure" (100 percent certified content).

This new language has several negative ramifications:

1. Ambiguity in the New Language

By replacing "FSC Pure," a clearly definable (albeit overly restrictive) standard with "FSC or better," the new language will undoubtedly give rise to controversy. Who will determine what is better than FSC? What criteria will be used to evaluate other certification standards to determine if they are "better"? The selection of criteria will undoubtedly be a source of disagreement, as all certification schemes have stricter requirements in some areas and less strict ones in others.  Because of the lack of precision in the language, "FSC or better" is destined to raise more issues than it resolves.

2. Exclusion of Forest Products Certified to Other Standards

According to a new report by the Southern Group of State Foresters (SGSF), “Forest Certification Programs: Status and Recommendations in the South,” just 4.5 percent of US forestland is certified to the FSC standard. The following chart summarizes the data compiled by the SGSF.

US Forest Certification by Scheme.SGSF

According to the SGSF, the percentage of certified acres that would qualify under the new LEED standard varies dramatically by region. In the Northeast (includes the Northeast, Appalachia and the Lake States), nearly 70 percent of certified forestland would qualify. In the West, that number shrinks to 15 percent. And in the South, where the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) and American Tree Farm System (ATFS) are the prevailing certification schemes, just 6 percent of certified forestland would meet the standard for responsible extraction of raw materials credits under LEED. Overall, just 35 percent of certified forests meet this standard.

What that means, of course, is that products originating on 65 percent of certified forests would not qualify for raw material extraction credits (30 percent of certified forestland in the Northeast, 85 percent in the West, and 94 percent in the South).

3. Providing Incentives to Use Other Less Environmentally Responsible Materials

One of the major criticisms of this revision of LEED 2012 is that it fails to do enough to encourage architects and builders to use more lumber certified under sustainable chain of custody programs. This is a fact that even the FSC acknowledges.

In fact, the program may have the opposite effect. Because the majority of FSC certified forests are outside of the United States, builders who wish to use forest products that are FSC certified will have an incentive to source these materials from outside the United States. A 2010 survey conducted by FSC found that nearly half of those surveyed, "sought out an alternative supplier in another country when FSC certified timber or products were not available in their own country." This is especially likely to happen in the US South, where forest products from just 2 million acres of the region's 214 million acres of forestland are eligible for responsible extraction credits.

In addition, difficulty in sourcing FSC certified wood products would also provide an incentive for architects and builders to use less controversial (and less environmentally sound) wood substitutes like steel, aluminum or concrete. According to Michael Goergen of the Society of American Foresters, "wood, as compared with concrete, steel or aluminum, requires significantly less energy in its production (from extraction through construction, including transportation) and can have significantly less environmental risk." When it comes from responsibly managed, certified forests, wood is among the most environmentally sound building materials.

Forest2Market believes LEED should accept and reward this fact. The 30-day comment period on the latest changes to the rating tool ended on March 27. To learn more about the LEED requirements, go to the USGBC website. Members of the USGBC will vote on changes to the rating tool during the month of June; if approved, they will take effect in November 2012.


Comments

Should I Certify My Timberland? | F2M Market Watch

05-15-2012

[...] Should I Certify My Timberland?  Posted on May 15, 2012 by Suz-Anne Kinney   While the South has the most certified forest acres of any region in the US (36 million), only 17 percent of our forests are certified. According to the Southern Group of State Foresters (SGSF), in their November 2011 report, “Forest Certification Programs: Status and Recommendations in the South, “the most common type of certification varies by region. In the Northeast, for instance, Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification is most prevalent; 60 percent of all forests there are certified to this standard. In the South, just 6 percent of forests are FSC certified. More prevalent in the South are Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) at 47 percent and American Tree Farm System (ATFS) at 37 percent. (See chart in this post on LEED standards.) [...]