In April 2016, the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Alternative Compliance Path (ACP) that greatly expands and encourages the recognition and use of legal, responsibly sourced, and certified forest products all along the green building supply chain, thereby contributing to LEED credits. MRpc102 Legal Wood is the new ACP for forest products to achieve points in the Materials and Resources credit. Pilot credits allow LEED projects to achieve existing credits using approaches that are not part of the existing rating tool. An ACP pilot is used to test and refine new approaches to LEED credits. If adopted, it becomes part of the LEED rating system.
The new pilot ACP applies to all LEED v4 and LEED 2009 systems where forest certification is referenced. This includes Building Design and Construction (BD+C), Interior Design and Construction (ID+C), Existing Building: Operations and Maintenance (O+M), and Homes (H) v4.
In the past, only forest products certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) were recognized in LEED. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits. The FSC Principles and Criteria provide a foundation for all forest management standards globally, including the FSC US National Standard (v1.0) that guides forest management certification in the U.S.
Now, under the new ACP pilot, architects and builders can use wood products certified to standards promulgated by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), and other forest management standards that are sanctioned by the international Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), in addition to those of FSC. The change will encourage environmentally responsible forest management and the use of forest products in innovative, sustainable buildings supported by LEED.
Why a New ACP?
Wood products have always been a cornerstone of green building, with the life-cycle cost and environmental impact that are low compared to other common building materials. Wood is renewable and has a light carbon footprint in terms of manufacturing, transport and end-of-life recycling, re-use, or disposal.
The environmental value of wood includes:
- Trees renew the air supply by producing oxygen and improve air quality by absorbing ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide.
- Forests improve water quality by acting as natural filtration and storage systems.
- Forests provide habitat for both rare and common species,
- Forests create recreational opportunities, and provide aesthetic values that improve quality of life for millions of people.
- Forest health and vitality can be threatened by climate change, invasive pests and pathogens, the severity of wildfires, illegal logging, and global deforestation.
The new ACP is an attempt to more widely recognize and establish credit for these benefits. With it, LEED has taken an important step in strengthening the framework for decision making about wood products by widening the scope of accepted certification schemes through the ACP pilot.
The new LEED ACP offers greater access to responsibly sourced forest products and reinforces the value of certified forests, responsible sourcing, and chain-of-custody (CoC) for forest products.
What is the New ACP?
Builders and architects can now use the new ACP pilot credit to count wood products certified to the SFI, ATFS, CSA or PEFC standards, as well as those of FSC, to achieve a point in the “certified wood” ACP under LEED 2009 and achieve a point in the “sourcing of raw materials” ACP under LEED v4. The ACP requires verification of the legality of forest products used in LEED buildings and awards credit for the use of forest products certified to recognized programs.
The major direct route now opened for architects is through standards developed by certified third-party sources identified in ASTM D7612-10 (2015), Standard Practice for Categorizing Wood and Wood-Based Products According to Their Fiber Sources, which defines a framework for identifying and distinguishing among legal, non-controversial, responsible, and certified sources. The recognized third-party sources are:
- Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)
- American Tree Farm System (ATFS)
- Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
- Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
Note that ATFS and CSA are forest management standards and do not have their own label or chain-of-custody program.
In order to count toward a LEED point, the user must verify the following, as defined by ASTM D7612-10 (2015):
- 100 percent of the forest products are from legal (non-controversial) sources; and
- 70 percent of the products are from responsible sources.
- Once these two thresholds are met, the certified sources delivered through chain-of-custody certification can be used to obtain a LEED credit point.
As an example, among these recognized standards are those of SFI. SFI Program Participants are responsible for more than one quarter of the global supply of certified forests.
The three basic SFI standards, which meet the requirements set out in the new LEED ACP pilot, require independent audits by competent and accredited certification bodies. These standards are:
- SFI 2015–2019 Forest Management Standard, for managing forestlands, promotes sustainable forestry practices, including measures to maintain sustainable harvest levels and employ reforestation methods that protect water quality, biodiversity, wildlife habitat, species at risk, and forests with exceptional conservation value.
- SFI 2015-2019 Fiber Sourcing Standard, for responsibly procuring fiber, sets mandatory practice requirements for the responsible procurement of all fiber sourced directly from the forest, whether the forest is certified or not.
- SFI 2015-2019 Chain of Custody Standard, for tracking forest fiber content, is an accounting system that tracks forest fiber content (certified forest content, certified sourcing, and recycled content) through production and manufacturing to the end product.
How to Count Certified Products for a LEED Point
USGBC released LEED v4 in the summer of 2013, and it will eventually replace LEED 2009. However, builders, architects, and/or building operators can still submit projects under LEED 2009 if they register their projects by October 31, 2016. If the projects are registered on or before this date, the builders, architects, and/or building operators have until June 30, 2021 to complete their projects under LEED 2009. It’s important to note that LEED v4 and LEED 2009 use different accounting methods.
To help with determining if a product meets the new ACP, USGBC has published a credit calculator that shows what forest certification standards count toward the various categories as defined by ASTM D7612-10 (2015).
How to Identify Qualifying Products for the LEED ACP
It is important for builders, architects, building owners, and/or building operators to easily locate and source certified products. There are essentially three ways to document whether or not the wood or paper comes from SFI, CSA, and/or ATFS forest management.
- An on-product label: Most programs have on-product labels to help architects, builders, and operators identify exactly what they are buying. SFI, for example, has an SFI Certified Sourcing label and an SFI Chain-of-Custody label. A Certified Sourcing label means that the product meets the “legal” and “responsible” categories, while a Chain of Custody label, the product meets the “legal,” “responsible,” and “certified” categories.
- Database listing: Most third-party programs maintain a list of all certificate holders. The only way a company will show up in this database is if that company is certified. If the certificate is revoked or suspended, the company will not appear in the database.
- Certificate from supplier: The final way an architect, builder, or operator can verify “legal,” “responsible,” or “certified” sources as defined by the ACP is through the sale of a product. Each certified company is typically issued a certificate by the certification body that conducted the audit.
For example, SFI maintains and publishes a list of all companies that have received SFI certifications, including which certification, where to look for the label (e.g., on tags, stamps, wraps, inserts, etc.), and what types of products are certified (e.g., lumber, plywood, oriented strand board [OSB], specialty engineered products, paper products, etc.)
Putting Forests First
As these important steps are taken to protect the forests that are a renewable source of a key sustainable building material, a multitude of other benefits will follow. The forests have significant economic value to the industries and communities that rely on them and the millions of people who work there.