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 Weyerhaeuser Letter In June 2006, a green building advocate and green business leader supplied the Healthy Building Network with a letter from Weyerhaeuser. We were asked to keep the letter confidential and reference only those aspects pertaining to LEED. In the interest of keeping that promise, here are the relevant excerpts of the letter from Weyerhaeuser referenced in the July 12 edition of the Healthy Building News. "These types of activities are just a few of the ways in which Weyerhaeuser is addressing the issues of green building and sustainability in a responsible manner that benefits both our shareholders and society in general. Unfortunately, we are not currently able to be advocates for the LEED standard developed by the US Green Building Council. We disagree with the Council's lack of a true consensus process, and its failure to tie LEED credits to quantifiable sustainability objectives or results of life-cycle analysis. We also disagree with the Council's reliance on a single forest certification system. LEED fails to recognize other widely accepted certification standards, including those with the strongest support in North America. LEED thus misses the opportunity to promote good management among the diverse forest landowners found in the U.S. and Canada. The most serious deficiency in the LEED standard is its promotion of steel and concrete over wood, despite wood's better environmental performance. According to a recent study using life cycle analysis,* a wood-framed home has 26% less global warming potential and uses 17% less energy than a steel-frame home in a cold climate. Compared to concrete, a wood-frame home has 31% less global warming potential and uses 16% less energy in a warm climate. A wood-frame home also produces less air and water pollution than the steel-frame home, and less air pollution and solid waste than the concrete-frame home. These issues have generally emerged since the Council adopted the original LEED standard, and a review is underway. We welcome this effort and hope it will produce a green building standard that reflects the best science, promotes the use of wood, and promotes good forest management. In that case we hope to be enthusiastic." |
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