The LEED green building rating system does not favor wood products, which require low amounts of energy to produce, which are renewable and which sequester huge amounts of carbon

According to the US Green Building Council (USGBC) - the group responsible for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) oversight, 44,270 projects in the United States were registered or certified under voluntary LEED standards as of May this year. This number amounts to approximately 1.5 million square feet (c. 140,000 square meters) of newly certified LEED construction on a daily basis. At the same time, there were 1,297 LEED registered and certified projects in the Middle East and North Africa, with the UAE fourth in the top ten ranking for the number of LEED projects by country, with 808 in total. One of these, The Change Initiative in Dubai, has just been proclaimed as the highest scoring LEED for Commercial Interiors Platinum project in the world.

As the green movement has taken hold over the past decade, terms such as 'environmentally-friendly' and 'energy-efficient' have become increasingly familiar across all aspects of the consumer marketplace. Paving the way for green building, the LEED programme has developed into the industry standard for environmentally-friendly and energy-efficiency construction. Unfortunately, it is a safe bet to say that few of these projects earned LEED credit for incorporating wood.

Under its current guidelines, LEED only recognizes wood certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or a 'USGBC-approved equivalent.' Certified timber is worth one point on the 110-point LEED scale, and locally grown wood is also worth one point. The number of points required for LEED certification differs per building project, ranging from 40-49 points for certification and extending to upwards of 80-90 points for platinum status.

However, because the USGBC has not deemed any alternative to FSC to be an 'approved equivalent,' the current LEED system excludes timber and wood products certified by alternative standards, such as the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC). At the same time, LEED excludes timber and wood products, which derive from sources with a proven and documented record of sustainable forest management, yet which remain uncertified for various reasons, such as private ownership or prohibitive cost etc.

The truth is that the current version of LEED does not provide any incentives for the use of wood in construction, when wood has been often recognized as one of the most environmentally-beneficial building materials. Moreover, it discriminates against products that are manufactured more than 500 miles from where they are used; favors short rotation products over well-managed forests; and gives no recognition to truly renewable products, preferring products that are simply recycled.

In other words, LEED makes it hard for wood to be used in a project at all. For the timber industry, the price of the USGBC's success is a rating system with an inherent bias against wood products and, in turn, wood products in construction. The developers of LEED have chosen to penalize wood, despite repeated scientific studies, which clearly demonstrate it to be a superior environmental product. This is a disservice to 'green' builders, architects and the environment in general.

Wood products are a vital component of sound architectural design and facilitate ease of quality design and construction. Wood is among the most environmentally benign of all building materials, because, among other things, it is a renewable resource that sequesters huge amounts of carbon.

In a recent article, USA Today's Thomas Frank lays out a clear criticism of LEED, demonstrating that certification doesn't necessarily result in lower environmental impact. The timber industry should welcome increased market focus on environmental issues, but it has been very disheartening to see the marketplace overwhelmed with 'green washing' and dubious environmental claims, usually based on only one specific attribute such as 'rapid renewability' for bamboo, or 'recyclability' for steel or plastics.

The true environmental impacts of materials cannot be summed up by one single attribute, and it is time that consumers and policy makers had the ability to truly compare the environmental footprint of the different products and materials they source. Reliance on science is long overdue and if green building systems and 'green procurement' policies are to have any credibility, they must be based on science, and all materials producers must play by the same rules. We now need to encourage the next logical step, which is to show that Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of materials, as well as energy usage are the only ways to truly assess the environmental impact of a building. In short, we should question the validity of LEED altogether.

About the Author

Roderick Wiles is the AHEC Director for Africa, Middle East, India, Oceania and is currently based in Singapore, from where he is responsible for directing AHEC's promotional campaigns and market development programmes in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia (India) and Oceania (Australia/New Zealand). For the past fourteen years, Roderick has travelled and researched the hardwood markets of North America, Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, India and Australasia. He is a recognised authority on the trends and issues concerning the trade and consumption of wood products across these regions and beyond and an acknowledged expert on the uses and market applications of hardwood species and products. He has worked both directly for and as a consultant to AHEC since 1999.

LEED

 What is LEED?

LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design, is redefining the way we think about the places where we live, work and learn. As an internationally recognized mark of excellence, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. With nearly 10.1 billion square feet of building space participating in the suite of rating systems and 1.5 million feet certifying per day around the world, LEED is transforming the way built environments are designed, constructed, and operated.

 What types of projects can use LEED?

LEED is flexible enough to apply to all building types including commercial, residential and entire neighborhood communities, and works throughout the building lifecycle - design and construction, operations and maintenance, tenant fitout, and significant retrofit. LEED rating systems can address the following types and scopes of projects: new construction & major renovation; core & shell; schools; retail - new construction & major renovations / commercial interiors; healthcare; commercial interiors; existing buildings - operations & maintenance; homes; and neighborhood development.

 How does LEED work?

LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building, home or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health - Sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality. Each category in a LEED rating system consists of prerequisites and credits.

Prerequisites & Credits

Prerequisites are required elements, or green building strategies that must be included in any LEED certified project. Credits are optional elements, or strategies that projects can elect to pursue to gain points toward LEED certification. LEED prerequisites and credits work together to provide a common foundation of performance and a flexible set of tools and strategies to accommodate the circumstances of individual projects.

 Points & Levels of Certification

LEED rating systems generally have 100 base points plus six Innovation in Design points and four Regional Priority points, for a total of 110 points (LEED for Homes is based on a 125-point scale, plus 11 Innovation in Design points). Each credit is allocated points based on the environmental impacts and human benefits of the building-related impacts that it addresses. Projects achieve certification if they earn points according to the following levels:

- Certified: 40-49 points

- Silver: 50-59 points

- Gold: 60-79 points

- Platinum: 80+ points

 Updates to LEED

The hallmark of LEED and its ability to affect market transformation is its continuous improvement cycle that enables the rating system to increase in scope and stringency as market readiness increases and new technologies become widely available. LEED v4, the next version of the rating system, will focus on increasing LEED's technical rigor, expanding the market sectors able to use LEED, and striving for simplicity in terms of usability. LEED v4 optimizes the foundations in LEED 2009, and will continue to improve the clarity, usability, functionality and interconnectedness of the rating systems through future version development.

*Taken from the USGBC website. For more details, please log on to www.usgbc.org/articles/about-leed

© Timber Design & Technology 2013