Transforming the Market for Certified Wood Products 
Completed in 2005, the Center is a campus for field classes located adjacent to mountain areas and two lakes, and provides access to abundant wilderness. The Center features an administration building, lodges, classrooms, a library, staff housing, and amphitheater and a dock. Trails from the Center lead to outdoor learning shelters and into the back country of North Cascades National Park.
Award entries were judged, by an independent selection panel, on the use of wood, inclusion of FSC-certified wood products, efforts to incorporate certified forest products market transformation, overall wood design, and appropriate wood use. The Center is being recognized for its outstanding accomplishments in each of these areas. Russ Weiser of HKP architects stated that, “we wanted to construct the buildings for the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center with wood because of its natural beauty, and because it is a fitting material for the wooded location in the North Cascades National Park. We were striving for the utmost in sustainability for the Center buildings, so FSC-certified wood was a perfect material. Not only is it low in embodied energy and available locally, but also grown and harvested in an environmentally responsible way.”
Seattle City Light knew that they intended to apply for certification of this project through the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program of the U.S. Green Building Council. As part of the LEED program, the project could be eligible to earn the “certified wood credit” for ensuring that at least 50% of the total value of all wood building materials used in the project was FSC-certified. The design team decided, however, not to just meet the LEED required level of 50%, but to make sure that as many of the wood products were FSCcertified as possible.
The effort to locate certified wood resulted in the education of many suppliers, contractors and subcontractors as to what “FSC certification” means. The custom casework subcontractor even decided to seek FSC chain-of-custody certification just to meet the desired specifications for this project. In addition, the plywood used in the casework was specified to have no-added formaldehyde to meet additional LEED credits regarding indoor air quality. When the product was not readily available, the architecture firm worked with Columbia Forest Products to have them manufacture FSC-certified, no-added formaldehyde plywood for the first time—a product that is now available commercially through Columbia.
The design team was able to help transform the marketplace for FSC-certified building products, and educated a great many people, including themselves, along the way. This project serves as a strong example of how customers can contribute to shaping forest management and growing the impacts of FSC certification.
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Suppliers to the Project
Lumbermens
Environmental Home Center
Baywood Cabinets
Words of Praise
“I found the stories behind each project encouraging in how new markets were affected by the teams' goal to use FSCcertified wood. The beauty goes beyond the surface of the photographs of the buildings; the heart and soul of both the winning and honorable mention projects was using wood with consideration for both environmental and social impacts. It is immediately apparent that sustainable principles were integral to the design process.”
-Melissa Mizell
designer, Gensler
“The Designing & Building with FSC Award was created to recognize companies that help to transform building markets and promote conservation through their responsible consumption. We are delighted that such a unique project like the North Cascades Environmental Learning Center chose to ‘walk the talk’ of sustainability and feature FSC-certified products so prominently in the design of their building. They clearly find great value, and comfort, in knowing that their use of wood products helped to conserve the very environment that is the focus of their own educational mission."
-Roger C. Dower
president Forest Stewardship Council - US
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