USGBC: LEED Pilot ACP helps eliminate illegal wood from buildings

by Brianna Crandall — April 15, 2016 — The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced last week the quarterly addenda to the widely used Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating systems for the design, construction, maintenance, and operations of green buildings. The changes include a new pilot Alternative Compliance Path (ACP) credit that is designed to further advance environmentally responsible forest management and help rid buildings of illegal wood by promoting the use of wood that is verified to be legal.

The pilot ACP leverages LEED’s market power and builds on the robust infrastructure that has been built around responsible wood sourcing and chain of custody to test an approach to prerequisite requirements that could serve as a model for other building materials.

Scot Horst, chief product officer, USGBC, points out:

Today, it is possible to achieve the LEED wood credit and still have illegal wood in a LEED certified project. This is because LEED projects receive credit for a percentage of the wood on the project, rather than on all wood used. LEED is a global standard with a vision of market transformation. Addressing the illegal wood issue in LEED projects, especially in projects outside of the U.S., comes at a critical time both for the global issue of illegal logging and unfair forestry practices and also for LEED and its growing influence.

Wood products with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Program certification are now qualified for credit in both LEED 2009 and LEED v4 systems. The ACP also recognizes the American Tree Farm System (ATFS) and other programs endorsed by the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC).

Wood certifications recognized under the new ACP are already recognized by other green building rating systems including the ANSI / ICC-700 National Green Building Standard (NGBS)  and the Green Building Initiative’s (GBI) Green Globes rating system, according to the Window and Door Manufacturers Association (WDMA), which supported the ACP adoption.

Scot Horst, chief product officer, USGBC, points out:

Today, it is possible to achieve the LEED wood credit and still have illegal wood in a LEED certified project. This is because LEED projects receive credit for a percentage of the wood on the project, rather than on all wood used. LEED is a global standard with a vision of market transformation. Addressing the illegal wood issue in LEED projects, especially in projects outside of the U.S., comes at a critical time both for the global issue of illegal logging and unfair forestry practices and also for LEED and its growing influence.