Rick Fedrizzi Dear USGBC Community,

Membership in USGBC is seen by most of our members as a privilege, a way to engage in some of the most important work going on in our industry. But there’s a responsibility that goes with that privilege – the responsibility to help shape the LEED green building certification system.

The most current issue with which we are engaged regards certified wood. Over the course of the past 18 months, we have been using USGBC’s clearly defined process to define “environmentally responsible forest management” in the context of our LEED green building rating systems. That is the intent of the USGBC Forest Certification Benchmark currently being proposed.

As we fully expected, we’ve successfully made some on both sides of this issue unhappy. This is evidenced by the tone of the countless letters we’ve received along with the 4,000 public comments made during three public comment periods. But what surprised me was how many of those individuals and organizations participating in this heated dialog are not members of USGBC. We have been blessed by thousands of organizational members and individual volunteers who passionately believe that we can transform our buildings and communities and that we can demand ever higher levels of performance and environmental responsibility from every sector of the building industry.

This is why our members develop and implement the broad scope of work that we undertake, including the ongoing evolution of LEED. And ultimately it is USGBC’s membership that will decide the outcome of this certified wood issue just like they approve the launch of any new rating system and every substantive change to the rating system.

If you want to effect REAL change to our built environment, you must be involved in our work from the inside. When the time comes it is your responsibility to vote. This is the only way we can develop and implement the innovative strategies and make the triple-bottom-line decisions that will move us forward in our effort to transform our built environment – from the aggregation of the raw materials through the full life cycle of our buildings.

As the conversation about certified wood continues, I encourage you to participate on this issue as well as all future discussions on other issues that, in their own way, will be every bit as important to the advancement of LEED. Getting every human on the planet into a green building within this generation is a big goal; we need to be sure those buildings are held to a responsibly high green bar and that we all take seriously our own responsibility to keep the bar high by being active voting members of USGBC.

Sincerely,
Rick Fedrizzi
President, CEO and Founding Chair
U.S. Green Building Council