Recently, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the governing body for the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standard, made a significant announcement. To encourage more responsibly sourced building materials, USGBC will now allow wood products, from forests certified by the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) and other standards to earn a LEED credit through a new alternative path.
This is a win-win addition that will help advance the business of “green” building and promote environmental sustainability in the industry.
The importance of this new pilot program cannot be underestimated. Over the past decade, the forestry and forest products industries have pushed to have LEED recognize wood from all credible certification systems used in the United States. This includes ATFS, run by the forest conservation non-profit American Forest Foundation, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). They will now be included in addition to the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.
As long-time followers of LEED will note, this marks a significant change for USGBC. It showcases its desire to change the conversation from choosing winners and losers, and instead make it about encouraging more responsible sourced wood across the board.
Today, there are roughly 2.5 times more acres of ATFS- and SFI-certified land (82.5 million acres) than FSC-certified land (33.8 million acres) in the United States. Yet, LEED previously recognized only FSC. As a result, builders looking to earn credit in LEED for using wood had limited choices for sourcing U.S. wood products or had to choose other materials, such as steel or concrete, for use in construction.
This change will open up the market to significantly more American-grown certified timber products, giving builders more opportunities to use more environmentally friendly building materials.
For example, over the past few years, new developments have been made in mass timber products that can be used to build taller buildings out of wood. One example is an up-and-coming product called cross laminated timber (CLT).
Architects have nicknamed CLT “plywood on steroids.” It is made from small diameter trees that often have little other market value. CLT can be used in mid-rise and high-rise construction; some buildings as tall as 14 stories are now being built with it. When CLT is manufactured, it retains many of the environmental benefits of wood. This includes carbon capture and renewability, yet it is strong enough to replace concrete or steel. This product and others may now get a bump in demand, as builders now have more options for getting a LEED credit for using them.
And this new LEED path will also have a trickle-down effect that will help small family landowners conserve and protect our forested environment.
Contrary to popular thinking, family landowners own the largest portion of our forests in the U.S. Collectively, family landowners own more than one-third of forests in the country. This is more than either the federal government or corporations.
These 22 million families and individuals, whether they own 10 or 100 acres, steward our forests. Many provide local wood fiber, while also conserving clean water, air and wildlife habitat, and ensuring the health of our forests.
The income from selling wood fiber helps these family landowners support ongoing forest management. Family-owned forests and other forests already support more than one million jobs and $223 billion in sales. Most sell their products locally, thereby supporting their regional economies as well. Any new jobs created by these family landowners will be welcomed in depressed rural communities throughout the country.
In fact, according to the U.S. Forest Service, 47 percent of all timber removed from forests in the U.S. comes from family lands. In the southern United States, family landowners represent 51 percent.
Family landowners in ATFS, also known as Tree Farmers, represent the most exceptional of these individuals. They follow a rigorous set of standards for forest management, and have their land certified by a third-party auditor. A panel of experts in forestry, forest management and global sustainability developed these standards, which help ensure forest landowners are protecting and enhancing clean water, biodiversity, wildlife habitat and other resources while providing sustainable wood supplies.
Almost 80,000 family forest owners are certified in ATFS. Together they sustainably manage more than 21 million acres of forest. Given half of the commercial buildings in the United States are being built today to LEED or other sustainable building standards, increasing demand for certified wood, I expect the amount of acreage certified by ATFS to increase.
Moreover, LEED’s change will allow us to work together to ensure that builders who want to “build green” can more readily use one of the best building products available.