Green Building

Green Building Programs

The Green Building Programs covers all wood that is harvested using sustainable practices as outlined by the appropriate governing agencies.

The U.S. Green Building Council® is committed to a prosperous and sustainable future for our nation through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. With a community comprising 78 local affiliates, more than 20,000 member companies and organizations, and more than 140,000LEED® Professionals™, USGBC® is the driving force of an industry that is projected to contribute $554 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product from 2009-2013. USGBC leads an unlikely diverse constituency of builders and environmentalists, corporations and nonprofit organizations, elected officials, concerned citizens, teachers and students. USGBC is the developer of the LEED® green building certification program and the conveyor of the Greenbuild® International Conference & Expo."

LEED®, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is redefining the way we think about the places where we live, work and learn. As an internationally recognized mark of excellence, LEED provides building owners and operators with a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. 

With nearly 9 billion square feet of building space participating in the suite of rating systems and 1.6 million feet certifying per day around the world, LEED is transforming the way built environments are designed, constructed, and operated --- from individual buildings and homes, to entire neighborhoods and communities. Comprehensive and flexible, LEED works throughout a building's lifecycle.

LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a building, home or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at achieving high performance in key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection and indoor environmental quality.

Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2000, the LEED rating systems are developed through an open, consensus-based process led by LEED committees. The next update of the LEED rating system, coined LEED 2012, is the next step in the continuous improvement process and on-going development cycle of LEED.

The LEED rating systems that address green building design, construction and operations & maintenance include, LEED for Homes, LEED for New Construction, LEED for Core & Shell, LEED for Schools, LEED for Retail, LEED for Healthcare, LEED for Neighborhood Development, LEED for Commercial Interiors and LEED for Operations and Maintenance. Learn more.

LEED has six credit categories, which are named as follows:

• Sustainable Sites (SS)
• Water Efficiency (WE)
• Energy & Atmosphere (EA)
• Innovation in Design (ID)
• Innovation in Operations (IO)

EcoTimber offers products that can contribute toward satisfying certain MR and IEQ Credit Categories. (Please refer to our individual products to see which, if any, LEED Credit Categories they may contribute towards) The following two categories that are applicable for our products are: 

• Materials & Resources (MR)
  During both the construction and operations phases, buildings generate a lot of waste and use large quantities of materials and resources. The Materials & Resources category encourages the selection of sustainably grown, harvested, produced and transported products and materials. It promotes waste reduction as well as reuse and recycling, and it particularly rewards the reduction of waste at a product’s source.

   

• Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that Americans spend about 90% of their day indoors, where the air quality can be significantly worse than outside. The Indoor Environmental Quality category promotes strategies that improve indoor air as well as those that provide access to natural daylight and views and improve acoustics.