Learn about FSC and LEED 2012
March 1, 2012
LEED 2012 Draft 3 Released
On March 1, the US Green Building Council released the third draft of the LEED 2012 standard, opening a comment period that runs until March 20th.
While the Forest Stewardship Council has not yet conducted a detailed review and analysis of the draft, we are pleased to note that FSC continues to be recognized as the only credible forest certification standard in LEED 2012.
We are also heartened to see that USGBC removed the problematic “bio-based” credits and Pilot Credit 43 (Certified Products), both of which only served to promote the status quo.
Overall we recognize and appreciate the substantial effort the staff and technical advisors at the USGBC invested in addressing weaknesses in earlier drafts. However, we continue to have serious concerns about the dilution of the Raw Materials Extraction Credit, and about Life Cycle Assessment and related disclosure tools as they are addressed in this latest version. At present, LCA-based disclosure tools do not possess the specificity and comprehensiveness to measure performance responsibly.
On a related note, FSC recently participated in an effort to identify consensus on the topics of "Performance and Disclosure in LEED 2012" with leading design firms, environmental groups and certification organizations. Please let us know if your organization is in agreement with this statement and would like to sign on. You can download the statement here. (PDF, 1mb)
In the days ahead, we will be reviewing the third draft very closely and offering detailed and constructive feedback to further strengthen the standard. We will circulate our analysis and encourage all FSC stakeholders to submit comments to USGBC.
At this point, we encourage you to review the third draft by visiting the LEED 2012 page on the USGBC website.
I close with a reminder: The certified wood credit in LEED has been one of the single most transformative policy levers in the history of conservation, promoting responsible management on millions of acres of forest across North America. It is critical to maintain this market driver in the years ahead.
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