We are a  65 year old  FSC  Certified large lumber yard near Washington DC.  We have a project  certifying :   LEED v4 Homes and Multifamily Midrise . We have a large  requirement   of IPE  tropical  wood  - thousands   of board  feet - However ,  it is a very eclectic mix  of  items   and  some of the sizes   are  handful of  custom pieces  and our not avail  in   the FSC certified   , reused,  or recycled  format .      I have reach out  to  both FSC  and  GBCI  about    how to ensure compliance   when 100 %   of pieces - ARE SIMPLY  JUST NOT   AVAILABLE.   GBCI   opines   that  there is no alternative.     See below  the thread I have had  with the  GBCI  - ( I am grateful to them   for  their responsiveness    but I need advice  on how to proceed, if it is impossible to get  100 % - and the customer insist on the tropical wood.  ) 

I beg  the  forum's help and I   look forward to any helpful comments 

Hi Howard, 

Thank you for following up on this. As stated previously, the prerequisite requires that 100% of wood in the building meets credit requirements. Projects are encouraged to find reused or reclaimed wood when possible, but projects that use any amount of non-FSC certified tropical wood do not meet this prerequisite. Note that the FSC requirement only applies to tropical wood; wood that is grown anywhere outside the tropics does not need to be FSC certified.

There are no USGBC-approved equivalents to FSC certification at this time. 

I hope that helps, but if you have any further questions or concerns about this inquiry, please feel free to respond directly to this email. For any new inquiries, please contact us at homes@gbci.org.

Best Regards, 

Kristen Hartel

Green Building Specialist, LEED AP Homes, TRUE Advisor

Green Business Certification Inc.
2101 L Street NW, Suite 500 
Washington, DC 20037 

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Case 02106645

From: howardb@grasmicklumber.com

Sent: 9/25/2019

To:  homes@gbci.org

Subject: FW: Case 02106645 : Technical question about the Mutli Family Mid-rise [ ]

Please use caution. This message was sent from an external source.

[cid:image004.png@01D573CE.C9A0E640]Hello : I received an answer from my case and I needed an essential follow which sent today at 9:52 am.. Can someone please respond?

HEARTFELT THANKS

Howard Block
[Howard Block]
From: Howard Block
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2019 9:52 AM
To: Email - Homes GBCI <homes@gbci.org>
Subject: RE: Case 02106645 : Technical question about the Mutli Family Mid-rise [ ]
Importance: High

HI Kirsten: A heartfelt thank you for your reply . May I beg two follow-up questions, so I can educate all the architects who specify the IPE? . . 1) What I f all the material is just not avail anywhere in FSC , reused , reclaimed etc. Let’s say 5 pcs of timber cannot be procured . Are you advising the customer will have to them use a different entire species for these few pieces ? This is what is happening constantly and the industry need specific guidance .

2) What are the , “ USGBC-approved equivalents, ” mentioned in the prerequisite ?

Can you please let advise ?

Again I am so grateful for your assistance Kristen! ?

Howard

Howard Block [FSCsmall]
“Your Concierge Lumber Sales Expert”
Chief Marketing Officer
Louis J. Grasmick Lumber, Inc.
410-350-5100

From: Email - Homes GBCI <homes@gbci.org<mailto:homes@gbci.org>>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2019 9:12 AM
To: Howard Block <HowardB@grasmicklumber.com<mailto:HowardB@grasmicklumber.com>>
Subject: Case 02106645 : Technical question about the Mutli Family Mid-rise [ ]

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Hi Howard,

Thank you for contacting GBCI regarding certified tropical wood. In order for a LEED for Homes project to comply with the MR prerequisite for Certified Tropical Wood, all wood in the building must be nontropical, reused or reclaimed, or FSC certified. For the purposes of this prerequisite, a tree species is considered tropical if it is grown in a location that lies between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. This is noted in the prerequisite here: https://www.usgbc.org/node/2612898?return=/credits/mid-rise/v4.

Note that there is no exception to allow less than 100% of the wood to meet one of the above requirements. All projects must comply with this prerequisite in it's entirety to be eligible for LEED for Homes certification.

I hope that helps, but if you have any further questions or concerns about this inquiry, please feel free to respond directly to this email. For any new inquiries, please contact us at homes@gbci.org<mailto:homes@gbci.org>.

Best Regards,

Kristen Hartel
Green Building Specialist, LEED AP Homes, TRUE Advisor

Green Business Certification Inc.
2101 L Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20037

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Case 02106645

ORIGINAL INQUIRY:
This is a very every urgent request . Please see below the letter ( and attached- the documentation ) I sent to FSC ( we are a FSC vendor) who directed me to you for resolution .

I am grateful for your assistance, and again beg the indulgence to have this request expedited.