Nadine Block, who manages Government Outreach for SFI, shares announcement of world-wide support for USGBC to open its LEED standard.
The call for a change in the LEED standard is truly global. Twelve nations have urged USGBC to end LEED’s discrimination against wood and accept all credible forest certification standards.
In a July 22nd press release, the international non-profit Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), a leading umbrella organization that endorses national forest certification systems, stated: “Standards from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, the Slovak Republic, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, along with forest industry associations and companies from many of these countries, have joined North American elected and government officials, professional foresters and other leaders who have told USGBC that in order to increase the use of wood in buildings, all credible certification systems, including PEFC and FSC, need to be accepted.”
Approximately 543 million acres are certified to national standards endorsed by PEFC- including 377 million acres in North America alone- none of which are recognized by the USGBC’s LEED standard.
Several of these same countries, along with others, accounted for the more than 5,800 signatures on SFI’s online petition that was delivered to USGBC’s President and CEO, Rick Fedrizzi, Thursday, July 15th.
USGBC must do the right thing. It is not just North America. The whole world is watching.
