As of October 2010, the European Union adopted the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR, Regulation 995/2010) to prevent sales of illegal timber and timber products within the EU's internal market. The regulation has three primary elements: 1) It prohibits the placing of illegally harvested timber and products derived from such timber on the EU market, whether they are of domestic or imported origin; 2) Timber accompanied by a FLEGT (Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade) or CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) license will be accepted as legal. In all other cases, operators must exercise “due diligence” when they introduce imported and domestic timber or timber products on the EU market; and 3) Traders (those after the operators in the supply chain) need to keep records of their suppliers (and customers, unless they are end consumers). In this way the operators can always be traced. The regulation also contains its own due diligence system (DDS) as a means of ensuring product trace-ability from legal sources is present for all wood except printed media and seats.
As European nations have their own national systems and do not use ASTM D7612-10 locally, would compliance with the national systems of countries within the EU be sufficient to fulfill the intent and requirements of this pilot credit?
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brendan owens
svpUSGBC
LEEDuser Expert
129 thumbs up
April 18, 2016 - 11:26 am
Hi Ward -
Since introducing this idea, we've received suggestions to consider several additional legality frameworks for inclusion in this ACP. We will need to evaluate these programs in the context of the ACP. From the minimal review I've done of the EU infrastructure around legal wood, I am optimistic that they will accomplish what we are hoping to accomplish with this pilot test. Do you have a project that is using the pilot ACP that we can contact to further explore this idea?
Ward Miller
Chief Environmental OfficerAlpenglow Advisory
64 thumbs up
April 20, 2016 - 1:09 am
Thanks for the response Brendan. As a pilot credit I understand further development is required. I do have a new CS project that may be interested in pursuing this pilot if it could be pursued as an ID credit and earned in addition to the FSC credit. Is this possible?
brendan owens
svpUSGBC
LEEDuser Expert
129 thumbs up
April 27, 2016 - 12:15 pm
hi ward - we had discussed this possibility during development. on the surface it seems an easy yes but there are a few wrinkles.
for purposes of this discussion - legal, responsible and certified are used per astm d7612 definitions (if that wasn't clear).
assuming the legality of the fsc wood (which i do) for a straight id point (not as an acp), you'd need to document that the remainder of the wood is verified legal as well and that at least 70% of it is responsibly sourced. the wrinkle happens with the requirements around additional certified content. since the fsc content is being used to earn the core credit, should the threshold be higher for the additional certified content to earn an id point? would be very interested in the thoughts of a project team trying to accomplish this.
Ward Miller
Chief Environmental OfficerAlpenglow Advisory
64 thumbs up
April 27, 2016 - 12:33 pm
Shouldn't the threshold for the remainder of the non-FSC certified new wood content maintain the pilot credit requirement worksheet's 97% (to avoid the problems related to the 100% threshold mentioned previously) legal to earn the ID credit? Unlike the EP threshold for the FSC wood, an ID point for demonstrating legal sourcing may stimulate more investors to go for the point, as its cost would not be as high (in our market FSC often still carries a healthy premium), so such an approach would both continue to stimulate FSC, while testing the front related to a legal sourcing prerequisite. Does your answer mean, we could apply for the pilot credit and request permission to demonstrate compliance as I've mentioned here?
Eric Johnson
271 thumbs up
December 6, 2016 - 7:34 am
BREEAM requires legal wood as a prerequsite and their credit language may be helpful for European projects and defining the requirements overall.
Legal and sustainable timber procurement
All
Written confirmation from the supplier/s that all timber is sourced in compliance with the above definition of the Legally harvested and Legally traded – or recognised certification schemes – FSC, PEFC – and their endorsed schemes (e.g. SFI, etc) OR
Chain of custody (CoC) evidence in accordance with CPET requirements OR
A specification or letter of intent from the design team confirming that all timber will be procured in accordance with the BREEAM requirements.
As above.
Note: Evidence for this criteria may include documentation from Independent legality verification schemes that verify legal compliance OR other documentary evidence that provides assurance that the source is legal (compliance).
Applicable legislation
Applicable legislation is the legislation in force in the country of harvest covering the following:
Rights to harvest timber within legally gazetted boundaries
Payments for harvest rights and timber including duties related to timber harvesting
Timber harvesting, including environmental and forest legislation including forest management and biodiversity conservation, where directly related to timber harvesting
Third parties’ legal rights concerning use and tenure that are affected by timber harvesting
Trade and customs, in so far as the forest sector is concerned.
Legal timber
Timber that was Legally harvested AND Legally traded.
Legally harvested
Timber that has been harvested in accordance with the Applicable legislation in the country of harvest.
Legally traded
Legally traded means timber or products derived from Legally harvested timber were:
Exported in compliance with exporting country laws governing the export of timber and timber products, including payment of any export taxes, duties, or levies.
Imported in compliance with importing country laws governing the import of timber and timber products, including payment of any import taxes, duties, or levies or not in contravention of exporting country laws governing the export of timber and timber products, including payment of any export taxes, duties, or levies.
Traded in compliance with legislation related to the convention on international trade in endangered species (CITES), where applicable.
http://www.breeam.com/BREEAMInt2013SchemeDocument/#09_materials/mat_03_r... wood
Jason Grant
PrincipalJason Grant Consulting
LEEDuser Expert
164 thumbs up
April 17, 2017 - 7:50 pm
Definitions of legal wood aside, for projects outside of N. America, how are you going to deal with the fact that the ACP requires that 70% of the wood meet the ASTM D7612 definition of "responsible sources" given that this category is limited to wood from the US or Canada? In effect, by referencing a flawed and biased standard developed by and for the N. American timber industry, USGBC is requiring projects in Europe and elsewhere that want to pursue this ACP to import most of the wood they use from us.
Ignacio Lizasoain
Sustainable Construction ConsultantIndra Sistemas SA
1 thumbs up
January 23, 2018 - 8:54 am
Has it been any news for this pilot credit? We are working with a NC v4 project that is willing to comply with legal wood requirements and the budget will be tendered soon. PEFC would be a suitable choice? Thanks in advance
Karyn Rodrigues
ArupJune 24, 2022 - 7:04 am
Hello! Any news on PFEC approval for projects in Europe?
KHIM BOK TAN
IEN CONSULTANTS1 thumbs up
June 26, 2022 - 9:50 pm
No idea about Europe but I've successfully submitted this Pilot credit with PEFC products for a project in Asia.