{"id":18429,"date":"2010-07-15T15:01:31","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T15:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/162.217.168.59\/?p=18429"},"modified":"2023-03-22T17:07:40","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T21:07:40","slug":"pressuremountsusgbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forests.org\/fr\/pressuremountsusgbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Pressure Mounts on USGBC to Open LEED to SFI, Other Credible Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of Congress Weigh In as USGBC Receives Petition with Nearly 6,000 Signatures<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2013 In a letter steered by Congressmen Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) to\u00a0the U.S. Green Building Council, 79 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing 35\u00a0different states, have urged the organization to \u201caccept all credible forest certification systems for\u00a0qualification under the LEED rating system\u201d including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. On the heels of\u00a0the letter from this bipartisan group of Members of Congress, USGBC today received a petition\u00a0 with\u00a0nearly 6,000 signatories calling for LEED recognition of all \u201cwood and paper products certified to\u00a0independent, respected and credible standards including SFI, ATFS, CSA, FSC, and PEFC.\u201d In addition, six\u00a0members of Congress have sent their own letters urging an inclusive LEED policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the halls of Congress to other elected officials across North America to architects, builders, family\u00a0tree farmers and forestry and sustainability experts around the world, the support for a change in LEED\u00a0has grown exponentially,\u201d said Kathy Abusow, President and CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative\u00ae\u00a0(SFI Inc.). \u201cWood should be recognized for its environmental merits, and third-party certified forest\u00a0products should be given additional credit.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than three quarters of certified forests in North America are certified to standards not currently\u00a0recognized by USGBC. The letter from the House members states that maintaining the status quo will\u00a0mean builders seeking LEED certification \u201cwould be discouraged to use third-party certified SFI and ATFS\u00a0products\u201d grown in the U.S., while opening LEED to other forest certification programs \u201ccould stimulate\u00a0the market for American produced forest products and the communities and jobs that depend on both.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a letter to USGBC President Rick Fedrizzi that was delivered with the SFI petition, Abusow wrote that it\u00a0has \u201cstimulated a tremendous outpouring of support, tapping into a broad and diverse community\u201d and\u00a0that \u201cit\u2019s difficult to ignore the voices of almost 6,000 people from around the world who took the time to\u00a0respond.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Governors and Canadian Officials Support Opening LEED
\n<\/strong>\u00a0In addition to the petition signers and Members of Congress, 10 U.S. Governors \u2013 representing Arkansas,\u00a0Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Oregon, Virginia and Washington \u2013 have\u00a0written letters to the USGBC to voice their concerns over the current approach to wood product\u00a0certification. The Canadian Council of Forest Ministers as well as individual provincial ministers have also\u00a0written letters to the USGBC to show their support for all credible forest certification standards.<\/p>\n

Global Recognition of Multiple Credible Certification Standards<\/strong>
\nNumerous green building rating systems around the globe have recognized all credible forest certification\u00a0programs. This includes ANSI\/ICC 700-2008 National Green Building Standard, ANSI\/GBI Green Building\u00a0Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings, Built Green Canada, CASBEE in Japan, BREEAM in the\u00a0United Kingdom and the Australian Green Building Council\u2019s Green Star Program. In addition, green\u00a0building codes, including the draft International Green Construction Code (IgCC) and ASHRE 189.1, also\u00a0recognize multiple forest certification programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe road through the USGBC review process has not been short or uncomplicated, and in the end, we\u00a0hope the organization gets past this outdated process and the politics around the LEED forest certification\u00a0policy. For the sake of our forests, our communities, the tens of thousands of family foresters who make\u00a0their livelihoods from forestry, and the future of green building across North America and globally, it is\u00a0time for USGBC to do the right thing and recognize all credible forest certification standards, including\u00a0SFI, ATFS, PEFC, CSA and FSC,\u201d said Abusow. \u201cIt\u2019s what other green building programs and codes\u00a0globally already have applied. Multiple forest certification programs push each other to do better, and\u00a0they serve different needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

View the PEFC News Release here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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