A JOURNAL OF

CONTEMPORARY

WOOD ENGINEERING

Volume 20, Number 1

Editorial ………………………………………...…………..…2

Green Building and Implications for Wood Markets

Jim L. Bowyer………………………………………………..3

Environmental Verification for Wood Products Used in Green Building

Rob Brooks and Dave Gromala……………………..……...8

Green Building Programs: The Importance of the Design Phase

Jed Hannemann…………………………..……………......12

The Green Building Initiative

Mark Rossolo……………….…………….…………...……16

Spring 2010

In This Issue: In This Issue: In This Issue: In This Issue: Green Buildings and Sustainability Green Buildings and Sustainability Green Buildings and Sustainability Green Buildings and Sustainability

8 WOOD DESIGN FOCUS

Environmental Verification for Wood Products

Used In Green Building:

Two New Evaluation Systems Simplify Product Specification

A Conversation with Rob Brooks and Dave Gromala

Abstract

With so many building products claiming green

attributes, sorting through which ones are legitimate and which ones are exaggerated can be challenging. Two wood products industry professionals, who were involved in the creation of new third-party evaluation

systems for building materials, discuss how design professionals can use these systems to get accurate, verifiable information linked to major green building

rating program requirements. The highlighted sys-tems are:

�� ICC Evaluation Service’s (ICC-ES®) Sustain-able Attributes Verification and Evaluation™ Program (SAVE™) Verification of Attributes Reports™ (Figure 1), and

�� National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Research Center’s Green Approved products certificates (Figure 2).

Participants

Rob Brooks, Green Buildings Program Director, iLevel by Weyerhaeuser, www.iLevel.com

Dave Gromala, Director of Sustainability Program Development, ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES®), www.icc-es.org; www.saveprogram.icc-es.org

Wood Design Focus: It seems that new green

building rating systems are launching regularly. What

is the purpose of the evaluation systems from ICC-ES

and the NAHB Research Center? Rob: In short, the ICC-ES SAVE and NAHB

Green Approved products systems provide a link be-tween codes, products, and green standards. The two systems are intended to give design and building pro-fessionals quick and easy information on products’ green building attributes. These tools provide inde-

pendent verification of manufacturers’ green claims and link listed products to specific point categories within green building rating programs. The intent is to save engineers, architects, and specifiers a lot of

time researching that information themselves. The tools also help streamline the process for earning a

green home or building rating. Dave: It all comes down to ease of use. In the

green market, there’s a big tendency for messages to be overly complicated. Our goal at ICC-ES is to make information on green products simple, yet accurate

and credible, with background details for those who want to drill further into the issue. We want to pro-

vide information that can be readily shared from the architect to the builder to the green building program rater—it’s a way for them to work from the same set

of data.

Wood Design Focus: How are these tools differ-

ent from existing systems? Don’t green building rating

systems such as LEED already cover this? Dave: These tools take the next step in tying to-

gether the green building process by specifically showing how a given product—say laminated strand lumber, wood I-joists, or solid sawn lumber—can

earn points within specific categories in the rating systems. That’s something the rating systems them-selves don’t do. In the case of the ICC-ES SAVE pro-gram, it’s the first of its kind to both verify the sus-tainability of building materials and determine how the products may qualify for green building points within multiple green building rating systems, includ-

ing LEED® for Homes, LEED for New Construction and

Major Renovation, the National Green Building Stan-

dard™, Green Globes®, and the 2008 California Green

Building Standards Code. Rob: Green building rating systems like LEED

typically provide a checklist of green building fea-tures that can be included to earn a rating. They don’t usually specify whether a given manufacturer’s products are eligible or not. It’s largely up to the ar-chitect or builder to make a case for how a given

product fits within the rating standards. With these new tools, they get third-party verification that the products are eligible to contribute points. Pre-

single document, not to mention the customer bene-fit of having this useful reference for future projects.

Wood Design Focus: With the building market

expected to remain tight through 2010, how can these

tools make a difference now? Dave: Green building is one of the few niches

that’s faring relatively well through the recession. Homeowners and commercial building owners are

still keenly focused on price, but they are increasingly willing to incorporate green elements into their building projects. The ICC-ES and NAHB Resource Center tools can help building professionals deliver green projects more cost effectively. Plus, by becom-

ing familiar with such tools now, they’ll be in a better position to build green when the overall market comes back. Even for those who don’t want to pursue a green rating for their buildings, the tools provide a wealth of information that can be used in developing a quality structure. And, information from these re-ports can be readily incorporated into marketing

messages regarding a building’s green features. Rob: A lot more people are demanding that

manufacturers prove how and why their products are green. The SAVE program and NAHB Green Ap-proved Products labels help us demonstrate that iLevel products, software and customer services are in line with the major green building rating systems.

I think in the coming year we’re going to see more push back on green claims, and these tools help building professionals know that they’re specifying appropriate products. Although 2009 was a lean year for all manufacturing firms, iLevel showed initiative

and leadership by assisting in the development and

Spring 2010 9

qualified environmental claims make the overall green building process much simpler by giving accu-

rate information to the party of interest.

Wood Design Focus: Beyond the design profes-sionals and builder, what are the benefits to other par-

ties involved in building projects?

Dave: Building professionals have long been ac-customed to using product evaluation reports for

code-related issues, such as fire and structural. Now, green building is being added to the mix. The prod-uct verification reports bring a host of information about a product’s attributes into one place. This helps everyone who has a hand in designing or building a

project. Code officials and green project raters are also key beneficiaries. Providing them with access to prequalified environmental claims reduces the amount of compliance paperwork on their end. That in turn speeds the process for getting a rating, which is key for the architect and building owner. These tools also give consumers a way to evaluate which

products meet various sections of multiple green building standards. They can become much more closely involved in the green building process.

Rob: Manufacturers benefit from having pre-qualified environmental claims when answering envi-ronmental questions about their products. Requests for information about product compliance to a rating

system, for example, range from detailed information for a single product to a list of potential credits over an entire product line. The ICC-ES SAVE and NAHB Green Approved Product certificates allow the manu-facturer to answer a large range of questions with a

Figure 1. International Code Council Evaluation Service’s Sus-

tainable Attributes Verification

and Eva luat ion Program

(saveprogram.icc-es.org).

10 WOOD DESIGN FOCUS

expansion of these two programs, which helped us establish credible green claims without adding sig-

nificant cost to our products. We believe that our in-vestment will be replicated by other manufacturers so that customers can ultimately compare green claims between products based on a common refer-

ence by an independent, third party.

Wood Design Focus: What aspects of wood

building products does the ICC-ES program address?

How about the NAHB Green Approved Products certifi-

cates? Rob: Wood product information is captured in

ICC-ES Verification of Attributes Reports, which ad-dress engineered wood products, lumber, plywood, OSB, and sheathing. VARs can also list how special-ized tools such as design software and support ser-

vices to builders and dealers on pre-cut and panel-ized components fit into the major green building rating systems. The heart of the reports are a series of concise tables that list specific areas within each rating system and show whether a product is eligible for points or has attributes that are verified outright. For example, LEED for New Construction includes a

point category for low emitting materials. The VAR shows with bullet points which products have that attribute, and how many points are possible. An additional feature of the VAR reports is that

they provide a way to see how products fit into com-

plex areas of green building such as Life-Cycle As-sessment (LCA). For wood building products specifi-cally, ICC-ES has identified the Consortium for Re-search on Renewable Industrial Materials (CORRIM) report as a ‘verified’ attribute for residential wood-frame construction. This applies if the end-user agrees to the boundary conditions and life cycle data

established in the report. It’s an important connection between the common use of wood in residential con-

struction and the complex analysis typically done by LCA professionals.

The NAHB Research Center’s Green Approved product certificates have a format comparable to the ICC-ES SAVE reports, but are primarily intended to

show compliance to the ICC-700 National Green Building Standard for residential structures. For ex-

ample, if a user is specifying a Green Approved engi-neered wood product, the product certificate shows the specific ways those products can contribute to green building rating points and spells out how they

must be used. However, the most useful aspect of the Green Ap-

proved product certificates is that the product infor-mation is automatically uploaded into the software scoring tool so that builders have immediate access to this information when scoring a project based on

the ICC-700 standard. They can click on “Green Ap-proved Product” in any section of the software and learn which products have already been pre-approved. The benefit is that all parties involved in

construction have access to the same Green Approved product list. That list is primarily intended for resi-dential building, while the ICC-ES SAVE program is intended to address the broader spectrum of com-mercial and residential building.

Wood Design Focus: How rigorous is the prod-

uct rating process? What assurances do these tools pro-

vide of accuracy and independence? Dave: There’s a lot of depth to these reports. It’s

not just “send us the money and we’ll give you a re-port.” Manufacturers who want to pursue a rating for their products must submit detailed information to

ICC-ES on a host of product features. We evaluate products according to guidelines that address the entire production process, from raw material acquisi-tion to final manufacturing and packaging. For exam-

Figure 2. National

Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Re-search Center’s National

Green Building Certifica-

t i o n P r o g r a m(www.nahbgreen.org).

ple, one of our guidelines addresses whether materi-

als for major components of a building are manufac-tured with primary energy derived from renewable

sources such as biofuels. If the manufacturer is mak-ing a claim about renewable energy use in their prod-ucts, we require them to submit proof that at least 33 percent of the primary manufacturing process uses

renewable energy (to comply with ICC-700).

Wood Design Focus: Any final thoughts? Rob: There are two primary perspectives when it

comes to green. First, the architect or engineer is

looking for products that meet green criteria set forth in the green building rating programs. We make it

easy to do that by working with ICC-ES and the NAHB Research Center to evaluate our products. Second, a lot of valuable green features of build-

ings are not inherent in the products themselves, but in how they’re used in the overall building design.

Full-service manufacturers like iLevel provide infor-mation not only on their products, but also on how to use them as part of green building. We offer software that helps designers optimize the use of our framing materials, and we also work with building product

dealers on implementing ways to more efficiently cut

and pre-fabricate components.

This helps reduce construction wood waste and cycle time on

the jobsite. Dave: We are striving to

simplify this process to serve the needs of manufacturers,

design professionals, builders, and building officials. But we’re not there yet. ICC-ES is working aggressively with the

NAHB Research Center and others to coordinate reviews in an attempt to eliminate in-

terpretation conflicts and con-fusion. Because there are no

consensus-based standards for these interpretations yet, we are working hard to de-velop a common basis for “green” verified attribute

reports. The process for development of ICC-ES evaluation

guidelines, like our historical acceptance criteria process, is being refined based on public review and

comment. These guidelines will ultimately form the basis of a suite of consensus-based standards and evaluation procedures.

Spring 2010 11

Figure 3. Interna-tional Code Council National Green

Building Stan-dard—ICC-700.