The Debate for Certification

Since March of 2004 the National Association of Home Builders has been working towards having their own NAHB National Green Building Program for certification. Different groups have debated, why should the NAHB devise their own program and not just use the well known U.S. Green Building Council LEED program. To some the LEEDs program is to stringent and expensive. One of the big factors that have builders frustrated is the fact that LEEDs only will allow Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) lumber. This limits the recourses available in many areas because not all lumber yards carry or are certified to supply FSC.

The certification process with FSC is getting more expensive. An article posted December 8, 2008, written by Craig Web, in the ProSales Magazine states “The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the key wood certification standard-setter in green construction, is doubling its accreditation administration fees for chain of custody (COC) certification as well as retaliating against certifying bodies that suggest other standard-setters’ rules are as good as FSC’s.”

How is this productive in getting more suppliers and builders embracing the whole “Green Building” concept. The FSC does not want to see Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) lumber get included in the LEEDs program. FSC dislikes this SFI option because it sees its standard as being better than the others. The Green Building Council plans to decide whether SFI can be included this spring.

By allowing more options and availability to the builders would help promote the use of certified lumber products into everyday projects.

This week I had a comment on this blog that I want to address. This comment came from Mark. “While there’s a lot of agreement that green building is a good idea, there’s not so much info on how to actually do it. Especially interesting to have perspective from the builder’s side. Perhaps you can provide insight for builders and clients on how to make that relationship work more profitably.”

Making products more available and having healthy competition between suppliers gets the cost of certified lumber more inline. Today many lumbers yards charge a high premium for certified lumber because of the added expense and the hassle to control the certification process. But by doubling the  accreditation administration fees is not helping answer Mark’s question. The builder needs to maintain a profit and in many surveys many end home owners are not willing to pay more than a 5% increase for a certified green home. So how can a builder provide a green home and still be able to get buyers if the home has a high premium?

The industry needs to allow more options to get leveled pricing and added support.

Allowing only one main entity to certify and dictate what can be a certified  green home limits the grow with in Green Building.