For Immediate Release
June 24, 2010

Washington, DC—The U.S. Green Building Council, (USGBC) one of the largest certifiers of green buildings in the U.S., recently released its 4th version of "forest certification benchmarks" to determine what wood products are eligible for its "certified wood" credit which is the ticket for entry into its certified green buildings.

"The new benchmarks are nothing new," stated Tom Martin, President & CEO of the American Forest Foundation (AFF) and parent organization of the American Tree Farm System® (ATFS). "Against all science and after almost 10 years of discussion with the forest community, USGBC continues to discourage the use of wood products in green buildings, and perpetuates their preference against wood products from family-owned forests certified by ATFS."

"The idea to have a green standard is laudable, even vital for the future of our planet. But the standard needs to be based on science and actual conservation practices on the ground. These benchmarks don't achieve that." Martin added.

"Even though USGBC claims they are developing benchmarks to open up their green building standards to more certified wood products, all you need to do is look at the benchmarks to see that they continue to skew their standards toward one wood certification system only," said Martin.
Wood products from sustainably managed family-owned forests, like those certified by ATFS, are an environmentally-friendly building material that is renewable and stores carbon, while using less energy and producing less pollution in manufacturing than other products such as steel and concrete. Wood products manufacturing in the U.S. also supports more than one million family-wage American jobs in rural communities across the country. 

"USGBC is setting benchmarks that only one wood certification system can meet and this one system gets more than 60 percent of its wood supply from overseas. As a result, the potential to support American jobs and rural communities right here at home is ignored," said Martin. "This is troubling because the U.S. wood products industry is facing severe cutbacks and Americans are losing their jobs," he added.

 "The majority of wood products in America come from family forests like ours," said Wanda Barrs, who with her husband Earl, owns the Gully Branch Tree Farm in Bleckley County, Georgia, certified by ATFS. "Our sustainable harvesting methods produce more than 5,000 products that improve the daily lives of Americans everywhere," Barrs said.

 "The ATFS certification system was designed for people like us. The USGBC forest certification benchmarks are geared toward certification systems that are only workable for large forest owners and it's virtually impossible for us to comply. As an ATFS Certified Tree Farm, we are using the highest and best scientific forest management practices," said Earl Barrs.

 "Limiting recognition to only one program is completely illogical. Instead of using locally grown, certified wood from our Tree Farm, someone building in our area will likely get wood from somewhere else – another state or overseas. This happens all over the country and restricts the markets for hundreds of thousands of acres of sustainable forests right here in America," said Barrs.

"Healthy markets mean healthy forests, and yet USGBC is limiting markets for family forest owners like us. When markets were the healthiest so were America's forests, because landowners had the capacity and the resources to reinvest in their forests. The irony of this is by limiting recognition to one program, USGBC is actually making it harder to maintain healthy forests," said Barrs.

Nine governors and other state government officials have also expressed concern with USGBC's benchmarks. Reps. Kurt Schrader ( D-OR- 5) and Bob Goodlatte (R- VA-6) in a Dear Colleague wrote that "American-made wood products grown in our nation's family forests are an important environmentally-friendly building material for the growing green building market." They are asking their colleagues to join them in requesting that USGBC recognize wood products from all credible American forest certification systems.

U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Colin Peterson (D-MN-7), Rep. Travis Childers (R-MS-1), members of the Congressional Timber Caucus, and several others, have written letters directly to USGBC requesting the organization open the doors to other legitimate certification programs.

"As long as USGBC fails to give credit for using wood products from two of the largest certification systems in the U.S. (ATFS and SFI), 80 million areas of forestland and millions of family forest owners will be shut out of a vital market for their sustainably-managed timber," concluded Martin.
The American Forest Foundation (AFF) is a nonprofit conservation organization that works to stem the loss of America's woodlands by helping family forest landowners manage their land for clean water, wildlife habitat, recreation, and wood products.

The American Forest Foundation (AFF) is a nonprofit conservation organization that works to stem the loss of America’s woodlands by helping family forest landowners manage their land for clean water, wildlife habitat, recreation, and wood products.

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