Forestry institute calls for LEED recognition for Canadian wood

The Canadian Institute of Forestry – Institut forestier du Canada (CIF/IFC) is calling upon the United States Green Building Council to expand its recognition of certified wood from sustainably managed Canadian sources in its green building systems.

Currently, the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program only provides credit for forest products from area operations certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). This is just one of several such systems used to determine sustainable forest management in Canada, such as the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).

The CIF/IFC also suggests the LEED system place greater weight on the general use of wood by considering a "life cycle approach" to the design of buildings and the materials used in their construction.

"It is here that wood makes many positive contributions that as yet are not recognized in their rating system," says Anne LeBrun Ruff, president of the CIF/IFC, in a release.

"Wood is renewable and from sustainable sources, has acoustical properties, is warm and appealing, helps fight climate change by storing carbon, and less energy is needed to produce wood products when compared to other building materials."