Why 'Green' Building Standards May Actually Threaten Sustainable Forestry

Photo Credit: Tony the Misfit

Editor's Note: This story is part of an investigative series exploring the growing controversy in environmental building standards and the certification of "green" wood. You can read the entire series here at the Tyee.

Canada has more eco-friendly forest than any other country. More than 155 million hectares of Canadian forestland are certified to varying environmental standards set by three distinct certification programs. That's a woodlot the size of Alberta and British Columbia combined.

But three out of every four certified trees in Canada are locked out of North America's booming green building market. That's because the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) influential LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program only accepts wood products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and only 23 per cent of Canada's "green" forest is FSC-certified.

LEED is about to unlock that market. The USGBC has drafted new rules that, if approved by a vote of its membership, will enable any forest certifier to access the LEED system -- provided the certifier fulfills certain requirements. As a result, the two leading forest certification systems are now locked in a life-or-death struggle over the specific wording of those highly technical requirements.

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), which grew out of a U.S. forest industry trade group, insists the proposed rules are not loose enough. SFI president Kathy Abusow said the USGBC is poised to continue to discriminate against timber grown by SFI and other forest certifiers. A group of forest product companies and landowners has accused the USGBC of participating in a "conspiracy to monopolize" the forest certification marketplace.

The rival Forest Stewardship Council (SFC), an international group with historic ties to the environmental movement, claims the proposed rules are too loose. Corey Brinkema, who heads the FSC's American branch, warned that the admission of less-stringent certification systems will flood the green wood market with "status quo" timber, and clearcut the demand for wood grown and harvested under more ecologically sensitive conditions. The environmental group ForestEthics has accused the SFI of misleading consumers and violating its charity status.

"We are defining what responsible forest management means in North America," Brinkema said. "I think many in the LEED community would be very surprised to discover that monoculture forestry could soon be regarded as 'green wood' by the USGBC."

USGBC rewrites 'forest certification benchmark'

FSC was the only standards-based independent forest certification program going when the U.S. Green Building Council began writing its LEED standards.

But in the past decade, the Forest Stewardship Council (which certifies 35.2 million hectares in Canada) has been overtaken by both the Canadian Standards Association forest certification system (with 64.4 million hectares) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (with 55.4 million hectares in Canada). Similarly, in the United States, the easier-to-obtain SFI certification now represents about double the acreage of the more stringent FSC program.

The USGBC began rewriting its green wood rules -- called the Forest Certification Benchmark -- almost five years ago. The benchmark is a long list of criteria against which all forest certification programs will be evaluated to determine which will be recognized by LEED.

"We want to set a performance-based benchmark, and let talented people deliver toward that benchmark," said Brendan Owens, vice-president for technical development at the USGBC. "We'd rather look at what they've done than how they've done it."