Has USGBC Missed The Point?

SFI Statement on USGBC’s Draft Forest Certification Benchmarks, September 30

The US Green Building Council’s recently released draft forest certification benchmarks are not the game changer for sustainability that many proponents had in mind.  The benchmarks miss the point; in fact they miss several points and therefore several opportunities for the growing green building marketplace to recognize wood products from third-party-certified, well-managed forests.

Points missed:

• Wood is a sound environmental choice.  Healthy, well-managed, certified forests are part of the solution for climate change, for communities, for our social, environmental and economic health and well-being…and yes, for USGBC green buildings.
• Only 10% of the world’s forests are certified. Opening the door to all credible forest certification programs means more choices for architects and more incentives to use wood instead of materials that are non-renewable and may leave a larger carbon footprint.
• Recognizing more certification programs promotes more forest certification. The USGBC has lost the opportunity to provide leadership in supporting responsible forest management on a global scale and is now falling behind other green building programs which support multiple forest certification programs.
• A bureaucratic maze for wood; a free ride for steel and concrete. Under the certified wood credit scenarios, a forest certification program needs to clear at least 60 hurdles (benchmarks) and supply 100% certified product in order to get one point for LEED. If they clear more hurdles the amount of certified product can decrease. Steel and concrete need to do none of this and get more points!

“With only 10 per cent of the world’s forests certified, the USGBC has missed the chance of a lifetime to forever end the certification debates and encourage more forest certification worldwide by focusing on sustainability, not on minute differences between certification programs,” said SFI President and CEO Kathy Abusow.  “Instead the new draft benchmarks currently out for review have little do with forest management and include criteria that the USGBC itself does not meet, and certainly criteria that steel, concrete and competing products don’t even have to attempt to meet.”

SFI Inc. encourages all certification programs and supporters of forest certification worldwide to comment on the draft benchmarks and to urge the USGBC, its board, its steering committee and its material and resources technical advisory group to recognize all credible forest certification programs including SFI, FSC, ATFS, CSA and PEFC.

Consider these facts:

*Only 10% of the world’s forests are certified to more than 50 different standards, each with regional differences – 90% of the world’s forests remain uncertified. The USGBC should be focussed on the uncertified fiber not on who is the best of the best.

*A double standard. The USGBC does not require other building products to have third-party environmental certification.  Yet wood third-party certified to internationally recognized standards like SFI have to clear a minimum of 60 points just to be considered for a single LEED point, while a bicycle rack and shower can also qualify for a single LEED point.

*The draft benchmarks are inherently biased against North American forests. Is an FSC 2×4 from Indonesia really better than a SFI 2×4 from Tennessee or British Columbia?  With only 18% of North America’s certified forests certified to FSC, this means that LEED-rated buildings may be giving preference to products from offshore, often shipped incredible distances, and yet wood from the USGBC’s backyard and certified to SFI might not qualify if the current benchmarks stick.

*Strong Regulations and Forest Certification. Independent reports show that North America is a world leader in responsible forest management, and has strong regulatory frameworks which in fact contribute to the overall strictness of the standard more than it does the type of standard.

*The trend is inclusivity. Solving this issue seems to be a mystery for USGBC but it really isn’t that complicated.  There are numerous precedents that demonstrate that the global trend in green building is to recognize wood and further recognize all third-party forest certification standards.  For example, Green Globes (US and Canada), BREEAM (United Kingdom), Built Green Canada, Built Green Colorado, CASBEE (Japan) and the ANSI National Green Building Standard (US) all recognize multiple forest certification standards including SFI.

*The UN says green building is a mixed blessing for forest certification. The UNECE/FAO’s Forest Products Annual Market Review reports that green building may be a mixed blessing for certification stating that, “green building initiatives standards giving exclusive recognition to particular forest-certification brands may help drive demand for these brands at the expense of wider appreciation of the environmental merits of wood.”  The UNECE/FAO is also concerned that the growth of certification worldwide appears to be slowing.

“The USGBC is falling behind other green building programs that use forest certification as a tool to source and build responsibly – unlike USGBC, they give builders, architects and others choice,” said Abusow.  “It’s not too late for the USGBC to seek a way forward that provides leadership on the issue of sustainability and uses forest certification as a driver to support responsible forestry and as an example for other building products to follow.”

For information on how you can make a difference during the USGBC comment period, contact Jason Metnick, at jason.metnick@sfiprogram.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 21, 2009

Contact: Ashley Webster, Nashville Habitat for Humanity
969-2373 cell, 599-2575

Sue McMillan, Director, Marketing, SFI Inc.
(250) 508.8323

SFI PARTNERS WITH TENNESSEE HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Sustainable Forestry Initiative^® (SFI^®) Implementation Committee in Tennessee has teamed up with Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity to build an affordable home with products from responsible sources.

“This partnership with the SFI forest certification program and its local participants will help Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity achieve its goal of building homes that are affordable and represent a great environmental choice,” Chris McCarthy, president and CEO, Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity, said today. “The generous donation of resources and volunteer assistance is especially appreciated during these tough economic times.”

“Our committee members are always looking for ways to work proactively and collaboratively with community and other natural resource organizations in Tennessee,” said Kevin Hoyt, chair of the Tennessee SFI Implementation Committee. “This project shows how deeply we care about the communities that we live in, about the forests that cover half our state, and about the positive impact the forest industry has on our state’s economy.”

The SFI-sponsored house in Timberwood, Habitat’s third affordable housing community in the Nashville area, will be built to the National Green Building Standard (ANSI/ICC 700-2008) green building rating system. On Monday Sept. 21, SFI program participants will be involved in a sponsored Build Day at the site.

SFI Inc. is a registered non-profit organization responsible for one of the largest third-party forest certification programs in the world. SFI Implementation Committees, which promote the SFI program as a means to broaden the practice of responsible forestry, involve private landowners, independent loggers, professional foresters, public officials, university scientists and conservationists.

In addition to Tennessee, SFI Implementation Committees in Minnesota and Maine have partnered with local Habitat for Humanity affiliates, and SFI program participants are donating resources and providing volunteers to build Habitat homes for Aboriginal families – including the first Habitat home in a First Nations community at Alderville, Ontario, and one involving the Manitoba Métis Federation.

“Responsible forest management and community involvement go hand in hand, and our 37 state, provincial and regional SFI Implementation Committees prove this every day through their work with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity,” said Kathy Abusow, president and CEO of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.

Hoyt, who is senior natural resource analyst for Huber Engineered Woods LLC, which is donating ZIP wall and roof panels for the Nashville project, says the project is important to Huber staff. “Our company has been an important part of the state’s economy since 1996, and this lets us show our friends and neighbors that we strive to meet the requirements of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program in our wood procurement operations.”

Other organizations providing resources or volunteers for the project include the Tennessee Tree Farm Committee, the Tennessee Forestry Association, the Kentucky-Tennessee Society of American Foresters, the Tennessee Nature Conservancy, The Tennessee Environmental Council, and the Tennessee Division of Forestry. The Tennessee SFI Implementation Committee received $5,000 from SFI Inc. for this project through a grant program administered by the Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors using assets from the non-profit National Resources Council of America.

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About Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity

Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit, ecumenical Christian organization committed to providing families with the life-changing opportunity to purchase and own decent, affordable homes. The agency, which consistently ranks in the top one percent of all Habitat affiliates, built 60 homes in 2008 – 42 locally and 18 abroad. To date, it has served more than 1,400 family members, including 900 children. Since 2007, all Nashville Area Habitat homes have been ENERGY STAR compliant, earning the agency the ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year award in 2008 and 2009 from the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In 2009, the agency won national recognition with the 2009 HOPE Leadership Award. For more information, call (615) 254-HOME (4663) or visit www.habitatnashville.org.

About SFI Inc.

SFI Inc. is a 501c(3) non-profit charitable organization, and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing and improving the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program (www.sfiprogram.org), that is internationally recognized and among the largest in the world. It is one of the fastest-growing forest certification programs with 175 million acres (70 million hectares) of SFI-certified forests across North America. The SFI Standard also includes unique fiber sourcing requirements that promote responsible forest management on all suppliers’ lands and a chain-of-custody certification, which can communicate to buyers how much certified fiber is in a specific product. The SFI forest standard is endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification, a global umbrella organization that has strict requirements for endorsement. SFI Inc. is governed by a three-chamber board of directors representing environmental, social and economic sectors equally.

Download the PDF release

Read Kathy Abusow’s latest blog post on goodforforests.com about Brian Dumaine, Global Editor of Fortune Magazine, who will be the keynote speaker at our annual conference in Nashville.  Read the post and watch the podcast interview!

From Kathy Abusow’s – Goodforforests.com blog on Sept. 17, 2009
A recent UN report – 2008-2009 UNECE/FAO Forest Products Annual Market Review – says there’s potential for significant demand for certified products due to increased interest in avoiding illegal sources, new forest values such as carbon sequestration, and green building initiatives.

It also says that giving “exclusive recognition to particular forest-certification brands may help drive demand for these brands at the expense of wider appreciation of the environmental merits of wood.”

Read more at goodforforests.com

The Sustainable Forestry Initiative:  Globally Recognized as Credible and Effective

SFI Shares Common Goals with All Credible Forest Certification Standards

Washington, D.C.  –   From governments to conservation groups to foresters, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative has been globally recognized as a credible and effective forest management certification program.  “The rapid growth of our program shows that more customers and consumers recognize the value of third-party forest certification, and it means we are making a difference on the ground,” said SFI President and CEO Kathy Abusow.  “We are dedicated to finding ways to work together with all credible forest certification standards toward our common goal of expanding certification.  That is especially important when you consider that 90 percent of the world’s forests are not certified at all.”

In light of that common goal, ForestEthics’ recent statements and activities “are an affront to the tremendous efforts by foresters, businesses, governments, consumers, SFI and other standards groups,to preserve and protect our forests for future generations,” said Abusow.  “We should all be focusing our resources and efforts on supporting responsible forest management and fighting deforestation and illegal logging, not wasting energy on bickering among ourselves.”

Abusow pointed out that SFI “has been a fully independent non-profit organization since 2007 and our forest certification standard is developed through a transparent public process.”   She added that SFI’s “labels and claims conform to government, consumer and audit requirements in the United States and globally.”

Here are some other facts about SFI:

• The group’s three-chamber Board of Directors represents environmental, social and economic interests equally.   Board members include representatives of environmental, conservation, professional and academic groups, independent professional loggers, small family forest owners, public officials, labor and the forest products industry.  No one sector can control SFI – Board actions must be approved by a minimum of 80% of those present.

• Last year, the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers issued a statement that read in part: “Canada is proud to have more certified forests than any other country. Governments in Canada continue to provide technical and policy support to the ongoing development of certification in Canada. The forest management standards of the CSA, FSC, and SFI all meet the above criteria. Customers can be assured that these forest certification standards are complementary to and demonstrate each Government’s sustainable forest management regime.”

• SFI-certified products are recognized by many leading green building rating programs in Canada, the U.S. and overseas.   In North America, this includes the Green Globes™ building assessment and rating system, the American National Standards Institute’s National Green Building Standard (administered by the National Association of Home Builders) and the Built Green Society of Canada.  SFI-certified products are also recognized under government procurement policies in Japan and the UK.

• The US Government Services Agency (GSA) recognizes SFI as well as FSC in their Solicitation for Offers requirement SFO Section 7.4 Wood Products (revised August, 2008).  It states: “For all new installations of wood products, the Lessor is encouraged to use independently certified forest products. For information on certification and certified wood products, refer to the Forest Certification Resource Center, the Forest Stewardship Council United States, or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.”

• The Conservation Fund, Conservation International and the American Bird Conservancy are just a few of the more than 1000 organizations involved in the SFI program.

• Several U.S. states, including Washington and Maine have weighed in with support of inclusive green building standards.

• TerraChoice Environmental Marketing recently recognized the SFI label as a credible eco-label in its Greenwashing Report 2009, saying that our program meets three key criteria – third party certified, publicly available standard and transparent standard development process. SFI (along with FSC) are among 14 labels that the group recognizes as “legitimate.”

• Tom Hinton, president and CEO of the 82,000-member American Consumer Council said last year, “We support the good work of SFI and applaud the positive and progressive things SFI is doing.., When it comes to environmentally friendly claims, consumers want to see the proof and not just the sizzle.”

The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which represents  56 member states and involves more than 70 international professional organizations and other non-governmental organizations  and The UNECE Timber Committee and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) European Forestry Commission released a report titled Forest Products Annual Market Review http://timber.unece.org/index.php?id=208 which found that:

• “In terms of numbers, the most significant [forest certification program] is the SFI Program in North America.”
• The rate of increase in global certified forest area slowed dramatically since 2006 (growing by only 1.3% to reach 325.2 million hectares in 2009). By May 2009, about eight percent of the world’s forests were certified (54% in Europe and 38% in North America.
• Green building initiatives are a mixed blessing for forest certification. “Green building initiatives standards giving exclusive recognition to particular forest-certification brands may help drive demand for these brands at the expense of wider appreciation of the environmental merits of wood.”

“SFI has seen tremendous growth and acceptance in the marketplace,” said Abusow.  “I am proud that we have over 240 program participants and work closely with not just conservation groups, but also organizations like Habitat for Humanity.  We have carefully expended our resources on educating businesses and consumers about the importance of sustainable forest management and producing and purchasing products sourced responsibly. ”

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The September edition of SFI Monthly is has just been released.  Download the PDF newsletter to read all the latest news from the SFI community.  Click here to read back issues of the newsletter.

Click here to read a great story about SFI and Kathy Abusow from Canadian Forest Industries Magazine.

A Screaming Success
by Bill Tice

Canadian Forest Industries Magazine
August 2009

The head of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) recently shared her thoughts with us on certification in general, and in more detail, her organization’s track record, and future goals and objectives….more