WASHINGTON – The U.S. Green Building Council opens the First 30-day Public Comment Period for proposed changes in how the LEED Green Building Rating System awards points for the use of certified wood. The focus of the proposed LEED credit language changes is on transparency, establishing a clear set of metrics that any forest certification system must meet in order to be recognized within LEED. Currently, only wood products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council are eligible for LEED points.
Under the newly proposed credit language, wood certification systems would be evaluated for eligibility to earn points towards LEED certification against a measurable benchmark that includes:
• Governance
• Technical/Standards Substance
• Accreditation and Auditing
• Chain of Custody and Labeling
USGBC has been studying this issue for two years with input from a widely diverse set of stakeholders, and with the support of internationally recognized experts from the Yale Program on Forest Policy and Governance and Life Cycle Assessment experts at Sylvatica. T
his research, which served as a foundation for USGBC’s proposed wood credit language changes, is available to the public at http://www.yale.edu/forestcertification/USGBCFinal.htm.
The public comment period will be open for 30 days from Friday, August 8, until 5 PM PST Sunday, September 7, 2008.
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