SFI and Green Building
“Green” Building Systems That Endorse SFI
Independent, environmentally sound building standards have the potential to encourage the design and construction of buildings that use natural resources more efficiently and wisely. Examples include the “Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design” (LEED) standards of the US Green Building Council (USGBC).
However, far less credible “green” building systems also exist. They include the U.S. version of “Green Globes” and guidelines created by the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB). Both systems misrepresent business-as-usual industrial logging as being environmentally sustainable.
Green Globes endorses and rewards the use of wood products from forests certified by virtually any forest certification system, including the American Forest & Paper Association’s SFI, the forest certification system of the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), and the American Tree Farm system. These systems allow and certify the destruction of endangered forests and other ecologically unsustainable forestry practices.
Green Globes also lacks independence. Green Globes is managed by the Green Building Initiative (GBI). The GBI is funded and managed by interests like the North American Green Building Coalition, which lobbies against the USGBC LEED system, and is directed by trade groups like the American Forest & Paper Association, American Plastics Council, and the Vinyl Institute.
The NAHB’s “Model Green Home Building Guidelines” were also bankrolled largely by the AF&PA. The NAHB also has an anti-environmental agenda, and has filed lawsuits to eliminate protections for threatened and endangered species, and bankrolled campaigns to weaken the Endangered Species Act.
Factsheets and More Information
“Green Globes’ Lack of Environmental Credibility.” Factsheet.
—ForestEthics, January, 2006.
“Governors May Push to Alter U.S. Law: Endangered Species Act is Targeted.” Article documenting the NAHB’s role in financing campaigns to weaken the ESA.
—San Diego Union-Tribune, 12/3/2004.
“Court Rulings may Refute FWS Stance that Critical Habitat is Useless.” Article documenting the NAHB’s role in challenging endangered species’ protections. —Greenwire, 8/20/2004.