Forest Certification Stakeholder Forum

Tuesday afternoon the Materials & Resources Technical Advisory Group (MR-TAG) for LEED hosted a public session for stakeholder input into the ongoing process of reevaluating LEED's certified wood and biobased products credits (see EBN Vol 15, No. 6). The MR-TAG, which I chair, had commissioned a team from Yale University's School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Sylvatica to provide background research and tools to support the decision-making process. The Yale team posted its reports for expert review in mid-September, and stakeholders were invited to this forum to sound off about those documents before the MR-TAG uses them to form its recommendations. Ben Cashore, Director of the Yale Program on Forest Policy and Governance, set a nice tone for the event by inviting participants to "surprise us" by saying something that wasn't entirely predictable based on their established, entrenched positions. That didn't happen. Instead, representatives of each of the four forest certification programs active in North America each stated their position more or less eloquently. Most of what was said had already been submitted in writing, but we all have different learning styles, and I have to admit that hearing the arguments in person gave me a different perspective on a few points. After a break, the format went to open mike, and anyone could get up and talk. A diverse string of speakers, each got up to make the case for his or her desired outcome from the process. Among them were people from businesses large and small that have a lot at stake. Surprisingly, even though there were over 100 people in the room, only about a dozen signed up to speak, so the forum wound up a little early. Now my job is to coordinate the MR-TAG's work, supported by the Yale team and USGBC staff, to decide what changes to the LEED credit language—if any—to recommend. If all goes well, and if changes are deemed appropriate, proposed language should go out for public comment in by early Spring of 2008.