By K.J. Quinn
The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recently announced it is entertaining public comments for proposed changes in how the LEED Green Building Rating System awards points for the use of certified wood. The new credit language would consider wood products certified by entities other than the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

The first 30-day Public Comment Period ended Sept. 7 with the focus of the proposed credit language changes on transparency, setting forth a clear set of metrics that forest certification systems must meet to be recognized within LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). According to USGBC, the new wording would make non-FSC certification systems eligible to earn points under LEED if it was deemed compliant with measurable benchmarks that include governance, technical/standards substance, accreditation and auditing; and chain of custody and labeling.

“The impact of the USGBC possibly opening up its rules to other certifications will highly contribute to more LEED projects that will use wood as a building material in all aspects of construction,” said Luc Robitaille, vice president of marketing, Mirage Hardwood Floors. “While FSC is an important wood certification process, more and more wood certifications are now being developed. And as long as they can also meet the stringent standards USGBC imposes, it is only good practice to accept them as well within the LEED program.”

One of the biggest complaints industry factions have about LEED is it does not award points for wood certified by other groups that tend to be much more supported by the timber industry. While some groups contend their standards are at least as good—if not better—than FSC’s in many areas, the proposed benchmarks reflect USGBC’s preference for certification systems that follow the spirit, if not the letter, of FSC’s rules.

“The proposed evolution of the certified wood credit in LEED will help focus the forest certification conversation on outcomes and performance,” Brendan Owens, USGBC’s vice president of LEED technical development, said in a statement.

USGBC said it studied this issue for two years with input from a widely diverse set of stakeholders, and support of internationally recognized experts from the Yale Program on Forest Policy and Governance and Life Cycle Assessment experts at Sylvatica. “It was clear from our extensive research that the increasing internationalization of the wood supply chain, the changing ownership structure of American forests, and the increasing diversity of wood certification programs globally demanded a more holistic, transparent approach,” Owens stated.

FSC is said to offer the only certification system with established chain-of-custody certification to ensure products used were derived from certified forests, experts concur. It tracks the flow of certified wood through the supply chain and across borders through each successive stage—including processing, transformation and manufacturing— all the way to the final product. However, some companies sell both certified and non-certified wood floors, or products that have been certified according to different, less stringent environmental standards.

Further compounding matters is the scarcity of FSC-certified wood, a quantity that does not even fill 3% of U.S. hardwood flooring demand, according to Ed Korczak, executive director, National Wood Flooring Association. “Most floors in the U.S. are not FSC certified,” he observed. “So when [a LEED project] requires FSC-certified oak flooring, in most cases it is not possible because there is not enough out there.”

At issue is finding ways to get more forests FSC certified. NWFA estimates approximately 80% of hardwood standing lumber in the U.S. comes from forests of less than 100 acres and are privately owned. “Privately owned forests are probably harvested once per generation, so there is no sustainable management plan,” Korczak speculated. “We are working with the Forest Family Alliance, a division of FSC, to put programs together to make it more attractive for ‘small family forests’ to become certified.”

Many architects and builders specify FSC-certified wood in their projects to demonstrate their sensitivity to environmental issues, according to published reports. LEED and other types of green building programs nationwide encourage specification of FSC- certified wood and allow building owners to earn recognition for doing so.