USGBC Aims to Eliminate Irresponsibly Sourced Materials with New ACP

Washington, DC, April 6, 2016—The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) announced the quarterly addenda to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building rating system, which includes a new pilot Alternative Compliance Path (ACP) credit that is designed to further advance environmentally responsible forest management and help rid our buildings of illegal wood by promoting the use of wood that is verified to be legal.

The pilot ACP builds on the robust infrastructure that has been built around responsible wood sourcing and chain of custody to test an approach to prerequisite requirements, which could serve as a model for other building materials.

This new pilot ACP is applicable to both LEED 2009 and LEED v4 systems. While LEED has always rewarded leadership in materials specification, this new ACP seeks to leverage LEED’s unparalleled market power by focusing attention on the significant need for more comprehensive and effective legality verification of building products. The pilot ACP is designed to address a critical piece of the supply chain and reward project teams who proactively verify that the wood they are using is legal.

Over the last 15 years, the green building industry has invested a significant amount of resources related to responsible procurement of forest products, which have taken up the vast majority of the debate about raw materials sourcing.