The Outlook
May 2008

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W e l c o m e

This month we focus on green building.  We look at both the opportunities it offers as well as the need for periodic assessments of environmental performance. Our first report reviews recent updates and proposed changes to the most prominent green building programs in the United States.

In our second report, we ask the question, could one build a home - from foundation to roof and inside and out - with materials and products that are all Made in Minnesota? In the book The Omnivore's Dilemma, the author Michael Pollan writes that the “typical item of food on an American's plate travels some fifteen hundred miles to get there.” How many miles are represented in the typical two-by-four, roofing shingle, or kitchen sink? Our report breaks down a home building project to see what we can learn.

I also invite you to make a donation to support this newsletter and our work.  Dovetail Partners is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, your contribution is tax-deductible -- you can make a donation online today!

- Jeff   

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I n   T h i s   I s s u e:

R e p o r t s:

Green Building Programs in the United States:

A Review of Recent Changes Related to Designation of Environmentally Preferable Materials

Green Building Materials: Made in Minnesota

N e w s:

FSC Identifies Next Steps in Family Forest Certification

International Meeting Participants Define the Opportunities

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D o v e t a i l   R e p o r t s

All reports are available online.

Green Building Programs in the United States:

A Review of Recent Changes Related to Designation of Environmentally Preferable Materials

Jim Bowyer & Alison Lindburg

This article reviews recent updates and proposed changes to the most prominent green building programs in the United States. Included in this review are the USGBC's LEED-NC and LEED-H programs, NAHB's National Green Building Standard, and GBI's Green Globes program. The report focuses on each programs strengths and weaknesses that impact the identification of environmentally preferable construction materials, including how each addresses indoor air quality (in relation to materials), life cycle assessment, recycled-content and salvaged materials, certified products, locally-sourced materials, biobased materials, and material consumption reduction.

Our conclusion is that critical issues related to designation of environmentally preferable construction materials remain unaddressed in most green building programs.   Furthermore, variability in the standards is causing confusion, and proliferation of scientifically unsubstantiated prescriptive standards is occurring as new programs are developed and existing programs are revised.   Despite the strong adoption rate for green building programs, there is much room for improvement and work needs to be done to reach the goal of ensuring that programs truly result in improved environmental performance.   To this end, expanded adoption of life cycle assessment for identification of environmentally preferable materials is essential.

http://www.dovetailinc.org/reports/pdf/DovetailGrnBld0508sj.pdf

Green Building Materials: Made in Minnesota

Alison Lindburg
 

There are now more than 40 green building standards in the United States. Some green building programs operate at a national scale while others are regional or state specific. Within nearly every green building program, there is at least one common theme – a preference for local materials.

There is widespread recognition that the use of local materials helps to reduce negative environmental impacts by minimizing the transportation of raw materials and finished products. The use of local resources can also support the regional economy and avoid externalizing environmental impacts to other parts of the world. In most instances, using local is the most environmentally, socially and economically responsible choice.

This report explores the opportunities for achieving modern day green building goals by focusing on the opportunity to use local materials and locally manufactured products.   Using the resources of Minnesota as an example, this report outlines what it might take to build homes without looking much further than one state's borders.

http://www.dovetailinc.org/reports/pdf/DovetailMNMade0508dx.pdf

To access Dovetail's Publications, click here.

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N e w s

More Dovetail News is available online.

FSC Identifies Next Steps for Family Forest Certification

International Meeting Participants Define the Opportunities

Minneapolis, MN (27 May 2008) -More than 60 family forest advocates from around the world gathered for three days in Lisbon, Portugal from May 7-10th to identify opportunities for improving family forest access to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

The US delegates at the meeting included non-profits, businesses and representatives of the FSC-US National Initiative. The outcomes of the meeting form the strategy for increasing certified acreage of family forests across the globe.

“By some measures, the FSC is the world's fastest growing forest certification program, but the certification of family forests has been slow,” says Kathryn Fernholz, Executive Director of Minneapolis-based Dovetail Partners, and a meeting participant.

In the United States, about 650,000 acres of family forestland are currently FSC-certified. Plans are under way to triple this number before the end of the year.

For the complete article:

http://www.dovetailinc.org/AllianceNews0508.html

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