Built Green Canada: Inclusive – and Expanding
From goodforforests.com blogger and Sustainable Forestry Initiative President & CEO, Kathy Abusow
http://www.goodforforests.com/archives/523
April 20, 2010
The fact non-profit Built Green Canada is expanding across Canada is wonderful news for anyone who views wood as a great environmental choice – the Built Green™ program is one of many green rating tools with an inclusive certification policy.
And when it updated its building product catalogue at the end of March, Built Green made it crystal clear it recognizes wood or wood-based products certified to all of the third-party certification programs used in Canada – the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, the Canadian Standards Association, the Forest Stewardship Council and the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification system.
That means builders across Canada seeking Built Green certification are not limited in wood choices like they are under the LEED program, which is currently reassessing whether to open up its certification credit. They will have access to more wood from responsible choices, which means a lot when only 10 per cent of the world’s forests are certified. Built Green Canada joins programs around the world such as the ANSI National Home Building Standard, ANSI/GBI 01-2010: Green Building Assessment Protocol for Commercial Buildings, and BREEAM in England that recognize all credible forest certification programs.
Built Green has already enrolled more than 13,500 homes in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia since 2004 – and it’s expanding across Canada because builders are asking for it. Built Green President David Bengert says that’s because the program delivers environmental performance with a lot less cost and complexity. If the response to our online petition asking LEED to open up its forest certification credit to all credible certification programs is any measure – Built Green’s inclusive certification policy will also make it attractive to builders. And that’s not only good for forest certification and Built Green, it’s also good for forests and communities across Canada.