1/14/05

ACTION ALERT

TIMBER INDUSTRY PUSHES FOR FAKE SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA), the leading timber industry trade group, is asking the U.S. Green Building Council (GBC) to add the bogus Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) to its list of forest-product certifiers.

The SFI certifies timber companies that engage in such logging practices as clearcutting, logging of old growth and logging in endangered species habitat. The "cut a tree, plant a tree" ethos of SFI is not sustainable forestry, since it replaces living, complex forest ecosystems with monoculture tree plantations. The SFI also fails to track all of the wood it certifies, and allows wood that does not meet even its minimal standards to be marketed as SFI-certified.

The GBC encourages sustainable and earth-friendly construction practices among architects and builders, promoting the use of renewable energy sources and building materials and practices that don’t damage the environment.

The GBC is soliciting public comments on its Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) New Construction Rating System, a comprehensive listing of environmentally sound building practices. In the section headed "MR Credit 6: Renewable Materials," credit would be provided for using materials from "sustainable management systems," which do not have to be audited by a third party. In this draft the SFI is listed as one of the acceptable certifiers.

SFI certification is no guarantee that wood has been harvested sustainably, however. To reference the industry-dominated SFI in the LEED standards would give the respected GBC seal of approval to careless forestry practices and timber-industry self-certification.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Urge the Green Building Council not to list the Sustainable Forestry Initiative or the Canadian Standards Association or any other timber industry-dominated certification organization in its LEED New Construction Rating System.

Urge GBC to recognize only wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), or by other certifying organizations that require sustainable logging and ecosystem integrity.

The GBC’s LEED standards are intended to "drive market transformation." Such transformation will not be brought about by promoting "logging as usual" or allowing destructive harvesting practices to pass muster as "sustainable."

To comment on the LEED New Construction Rating System, go to:

http://www.usgbc.org/News/usgbcnews_details.asp?ID=1156

and follow the instructions and links you will find there. (You will have to register to make your comments, but registration is free.)

The LEED standards can be seen at:

http://www.usgbc.org/Docs/LEEDdocs/NCCC%20v2%202%20MASTER_public_1.pdf

Public comments on the proposed revised LEED standards must be made by 5 p.m. PST on Tuesday, Feb. 1.

(To find out more about the SFI and its parent organization AF&PA, go to
http://www.dontbuysfi.com)

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