Community
According to Grist, Maine Governor Paul LePage has banned the use of LEED standards in new construction of Maine state government buildings.
For a while, Maine was building new state-owned buildings to LEED standards. But Maine has lots and lots of trees, and the timber industry there wasn’t producing wood that met the LEED-approved Forest Stewardship Council standards.
Turns our, Forest Stewardship Council isn’t the only logging practice standards creating organization. The Governor would like to see building materials meet the the standards set by the Sustainable Forestry Initiative – an organization with ties to the logging industry.
The question is whether is is a simple disagreement between certifying agencies on what the best practices for logging should be, or whether it is an example of business creating front groups that develop competing standards to confuse the issue when doing the right thing isn’t the same as doing the profitable thing. Who is being inflexible? The US Green Building Council who refuses to allow competing material certifications, or the Governor of Maine who seems to be bowing to pressure from the logging interests in his state?