Petition Demands Change to the Green Building Rating System
More than three-quarters of North American certified forests are certified to standards not currently recognized by the USGBC, including the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), American Tree Farm System (ATFS), and Canadian Standards Association (CSA). At this time LEED only recognizes FSC certification, which accounts for less than one quarter of the North American certified lands. The majority of FSC’s certifications are outside of Canada and the USA. An unintended consequence of the USGBC’s current policy is that builders, architects and designers seeking the LEED forest certification credit cannot get credit for the vast majority of certified domestic sources of supply. “It is counterintuitive that green building discriminates against domestic sources of supply and we hope that the USGBC will come to realize that this doesn’t make strong environmental, economic or social sense,” Abusow said.