In the last post, I had worked my way back to the example of Sierra Pine’s sustainable MDF line as an area of growth driven by demand for a clean, “green” product.

Another reason Sierra Pacific is such a great example is that their marketing and copy on their website clearly demonstrate the how to of placing a green product in the marketplace.

Since anyone could claim “green” credentials for a process or product without having to prove anything specific about their process or product, the main watchword among serious green designers and builders is “certification”, in other words, verification or proof that the practice or product in question really is “green”. There is one primary reference system for green building that has emerged over the last decade.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is a

third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. LEED provides building owners and operators with the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact on their buildings’ performance.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

from the U.S. Green Building Council website

Now back to Sierra Pine’s fine example: one of the reasons their “green” marketing message is so clear is because they show you which specifics of the LEED code their product addresses, the number of LEED “points” toward overal LEED certification potentially available to a project by using Sierra Pine products, and most importantly, real instruction on what the benefits of “green” design really are to a project, the consumer and the environment.

For example, if you click on the Environmental tab of the Sierra Pine web site and then choose “LEED Credit Support”, you’ll find this concise description of how their products fill certain specific needs of green designers and builders working within LEED guidelines:

SierraPine products support 6 credits in the categories of Materials and Resources and Environmental Quality.

Materials & Resources 4.1 & 4.2 – Recycled Content
Materials & Resources 5.1 & 5.2 – Regional Materials
Materials & Resources 7 – Certified Wood
Environmental Quality 4.4 – Use of No Urea Formaldehyde

While their page goes on to detail which of their products meet standards in these different categories, right away we can get a feel for some aspect of what “green” means under the LEED guidelines:

1. The use of recycled materials, in this case, wood industry waste and by-products.

2. Buying locally: SierraPine is locates in New York State and their products support these LEED credits on any project within a five hundred mile radius of their production facilities.

3. Using certified lumber: There is one primary third party certification agency for wood products,  The Forest Stewardship Council , whose “standards represent the world’s strongest system for guiding forest management toward sustainable outcomes.” In choosing lumber certified by FSC over non-certified materials, a company like Sierra Pine is actually doing some of the enforcement work of getting clean materials into the marketplace– they are in fact casting one of the strongest votes known to man– the allocation of money–for “green” materials.

4. Urea Formaldehyde is a highly carcinogenic material widely used in the wood composite industry, especially in traditional MDF manufacturing. The toxic compounds are released both in manufacturing processes and slowly emitted over time from finished products as materials decay.

Keeping these kinds of toxic chemicals, carcinogens and their emissions out of our hotel rooms, bedrooms, and offices (three places where lots of MDF is typically used-sorry, Ikea) is another key aspect of the LEED guidelines, and using LEED certified products like Sierra Pine MDF instead of traditional alternatives and/or non-certified alternatives is how “green” designers and builders make real differences, both in the marketplace and in the indoor environments we inhabit.