• Eliminate market confusion about what are LCA and sustainable products
  
• Meet the huge market demand for ISO compliant LCAs and Certified Sustainable Products
• Accelerate progress on stopping irreversible dangerous climate change in the 5-10 yr. Window

Approved MINUTES
SMART© BUILDING PRODUCT COMMITTEE CALL
DECEMBER 15, 2006

Participants
Ralph Bicknese, Hellmuth+Bicknese, Committee Vice Chairman 
Lou Newett, Knoll, Committee Vice Chairman
Danyel Tiefenbacher, Bosch, representing Michael Bohn, Bosch, Committee Vice Chairman
Eric Corey Freed, Organic Architect, Committee Vice Chairman
Tim Cole, Forbo Flooring, SMART Flooring Committee Vice Chairman
Ginny Dyson, DMJM Rottet, SMART Textile Committee Vice Chair
Keith Winn, Catalyst Partners, SMART Textile Committee Vice Chairman
Sigi Koko, Down to Earth, SMART Flooring Committee Chair (proxy held by Mike Italiano)
Rik Master, USG
Anne Johnson, JE Ecostudio
Leanne Tobias, Malachite LLC
Dan Winters, Evolution Partners
Sherrie Gruder University of Wisconsin Extension
Ben Taube, GreenGuard (proxy held by Ralph Bicknese)
Eric Marsh Philips  (proxy held by Ralph Bicknese)
Doug Pierce, Perkins+Will  (proxy held by Lou Newett)
Manuel de Miranda, Miranda Associates (proxy held by Lou Newett)
Dean Kubani, City of Santa Monica (proxy held by Ginny Dyson)
Steve Castellanos, Quad Nopf/AIA (proxy held by Ginny Dyson)
Deborah Dunning, IDCE (proxy held by Keith Winn)

Cassie Philips, Weyerhaeuser
Bill Dreyden, AF&PA observer

Mike Italiano, MTS

Approval of November 28 Minutes.  After a roll call of participants, the first order of business was approval of the November 28 Committee call minutes.  The draft minutes were distributed to all Committee Members several times before the call and were summarized as follows:

The Committee covered three groups of negatives:   wood certification form letters, chemical industry form letters, and Georgia Pacific.  All of these negatives voters were notified of the reasons the Committee considered their negatives nonpersuasive and invited to defend their negative votes before the Committee at its November 28 Meeting.   None of the voters wished to defend their negative votes before the Committee.

For the wood certification form letters, there was compelling evidence transmitted to the Committee from World Wildlife Fund indicating that FSC is the superior standard including environmentally, and is well recognized as having driven all sustainable certified wood improvement for the past 15 years.  Also, the wood industry comments that due process procedures were not followed were incorrect because ANSI Essential Requirements were followed and notice was provided through suitable media which was done both for the Standard Organizational Meeting hosted by the City of Chicago and Perkins+Will and the SMART National Public Meeting.  Further, about 20,000 emails were sent to interested parties for the public meeting.  A motion was made, seconded, and approved unanimously that the wood industry negatives were nonpersuasive.

For the chemical industry negatives, the reasons given for their negatives were completely false and the false nature of their negatives were described in the responses to their negatives and invitation to the November 28 meeting as transmitted to them.  A motion was made, seconded, and approved unanimously that the chemical industry negatives were nonpersuasive.

For the Georgia Pacific negative, Georgia Pacific said that the due process was not followed, and the Standard's formaldehyde requirements are not transparent.  Georgia Pacific was notified that proper dues process was provided and the Standard's formaldehyde requirements are very specific and are the State of California requirements.  A motion was made, seconded and approved unanimously that the Georgia Pacific negative was nonpersuasive.

Lou Newett made a motion, Ralph Bicknese seconded and the minutes were approved unanimously.  Sherrie Gruder abstained since she was not a participant in the Committee call. 

Background on EMERGENCY Nature of SMART Standard Due to Need to Stop Dangerous & Irreversible Climate Change.  Background on the Standard's history was provided including the launch by the City of Chicago and Perkins+Will in November 2005 at the Organizational meeting.  The Standard is identical to the SMART 2.0 Flooring Standard and due to its substantial climate change pollution reductions over the global supply chain, it was incorporated into the American Institute of Architects and US and European Mayors 2015 Imperative to reduce 60% of global pollution/carbon in the next 5-10 yrs. to stop dangerous and irreversible climate change and avoid a global economic collapse.

These facts about this Window of opportunity to stop dangerous and irreversible climate change were established by NASA, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the UK & its Stern Review:  http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/newsroom_and_speeches/press/2006/press_stern_06.cfm.  The NASA  paper is at the Standard Ballot web site under Standards Process.  American Institute of Architects (AIA), US & European Mayors, MTS & US Green Building Council have adopted this position.  Despite the fact that insurers providing evidence to the UK's Stern Review said damages will exceed global GDP ($30 trillion) (http://www.smh.com.au/news/scorchedearth/window-of-15-years-to-fight-climate-change/2006/10/27/1161749315596.html), a key Democratic Senator taking climate change responsibility in January has already stated the US will not reduce enough pollution to stop dangerous and irreversible climate change in the next 10 years:    http://www.environmental-finance.com/onlinews/2311sen.htm. 
     
To Stop Dangerous & Irreversible Climate Change  we must reduce 60% of carbon/pollution in the US in the next 5-10 years:

• Certify 100M sustainable products
• Certify 100M carbon neutral buildings
• Make 170M clean vehicles
• Build 1600 200 MW green power plants
• Increase by 44%, passenger trains and mass transit

Ralph Bicknese with Hellmuth+Bicknese said he strongly supports the EMERGENCY need, nature and rationale of the Standard and Committee Members agreed.

Vote on BC Government Apparent Negative.  The BC Government withdrew its negative vote in return for MTS initiating a process for mutual recognition of the competing certified wood standards.  Apparently, the BC government rescinded its withdrawal.  Repeated attempts to discuss its vote with the BC government were unsuccessful and the government specifically declined to defend its negative before the Committee.  The BC Government was informed that the Committee was prepared to rule its negative nonpersuasive.  The negative was the wood industry form letter and identical to the wood certification negatives the Committee ruled nonpersuasive on November 28..

Keith Winn made the following motion seconded by Rik Master:

We move that the BC Government apparent negative is nonpersuasive based on the reasons identical negatives were held nonpersuasive at the last Committee meeting:  (1) there was proper notice and due process,  (2) FSC has caused the most environmental improvement in certified wood and the evidence indicates it is environmentally superior, and (3) BC was invited to participate in a process for mutual recognition of the competing standards.

The Motion was unanimously approved.

Vote on American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) Negative.  Several calls and written communications between MTS and AF&PA have occurred to try to resolve AF&PA's negative vote.  MTS and AF&PA had extensive communications regarding the Standard and MTS' Trade Association Policy that has been in effect for five years and is part of MTS' Operating Procedures approved by ANSI.  AF&PA's negative vote has been responded to in writing by MTS and several followup emails have been exchanged on areas of disagreement.  However, no resolution of this negative was reached.

Lou Newett made a motion seconded by Ralph Bicknese that AF&PA's negative vote is nonpersuasive based on the reasons articulated:  (1) there was proper notice and due process,  (2) FSC has caused the most environmental improvement in certified wood and the evidence indicates it is environmentally superior, (3) AF&PA has been invited to participate in a process for mutual recognition of the competing standards, (4) there is a rational basis for approval of this EMERGENCY Standard including to stop dangerous climate change in the next 5-10 yrs. before it's irreversible and causes global economic collapse.   Attempts to resolve this negative with AF&PA have been unsuccessful and AF&PA decided not to defend its negative before the Committee.

During discussion on the Motion regarding the EMERGENCY nature of this Standard due to the imminent crisis from climate change, Sherrie Gruder said that if we don't reduce 60% of global carbon in the next 5-10 years, there will be more than global economic collapse.  There will also be global environmental and social collapse.

Also during the discussion, it was agreed that Leanne Tobias and Mike Italiano will contact AF&PA to see if it wishes to participate in a mutual recognition process of the competing certified wood standards.  Ralph Bicknese called the question and the Motion was approved unanimously.

Vote on Weyerhaeuser Negative.  It was noted that several calls and written communications between MTS leaders and Weyerhaeuser have occurred to try to resolve Weyerhaeuser's negative vote but have not been successful.  Weyerhaeuser's negative vote has been responded to in writing by MTS and several followup emails have been exchanged between MTS and Weyerhaeuser on areas of disagreement.  It was pointed out that additional background documents on the leadership environmental benefits of FSC have been added to the Standard web site at Standards Process, Background Documents, including the FERN comparative analysis of the competing standards.

Cassie Phillips, VP, Weyerhaeuser introduced herself and described Weyerhaeuser and her role.  She said she agrees with MTS objectives on sustainable products, is a strong believer in voluntary standards, and that the Standard's promotion of forest certification is a good thing.

Cassie said that standards should not unfairly discriminate against products and MTS said it believes that SMART does not.  Cassie said her negative vote was because she believes the Standard provides for wood certification but not for other biobased products, and the Standard's support for FSC limits the availability of wood supply. 

In response, MTS pointed out that the Standard requires a legally binding certification by the manufacturer of biobased content, and provides credit for organic certification.  Ralph Bicknese pointed out that there are a number of specified Standards in SMART and LEED so there is precedent in SMART's approach, and California's adoption of California Gold which is almost identical to SMART including support for FSC.   Ralph added that recognizing the best environmental leadership standards and incorporating them is a rational approach.  Tim Cole said that he is Vice Chairman of the SMART Flooring Standard and that MTS continues to build on other Standards and amend SMART Standards;  the Flooring Standard is the 2.0 version.  Leanne Tobias said that GSA encourages building to an FSC Standard through its use of the LEED Silver Standard.  MTS said that GSA provided justification to Congress on that decision, and that over 70 governments have followed suit.
 
Cassie described the origin of competing wood standards.  She said FSC has challenges in widespread certification due to several reasons including small landowners and this led to PEFC in Finland.  She said in the US, private landowner interest led to development of SFI.  American Treefarm and CSA Standards developed.  FSC has grown due to popularity of government and NGO use.  Cassie pointed out that there has been and continues to be fierce competition among these standards.  Cassie said the customer base like Home Depot, Lowes, and Staples support multiple systems.  Weyerhaeuser uses FSC for tropical wood certification.  She said she believes the demand for mutual recognition has waned, but Committee Members disagreed.

MTS said that in addition to FSC's environmental superiority, there are also economic policy issues that support recognition of FSC as shown by MTS' Sustainable Forestry Paper on the SMART Ballot web site in the Standards Process section under Background Documents:  http://mts.sustainableproducts.com/SMART_Building_Product_Standard/Standards%20Process.  FSC has driven the environmental improvement of the competing standards and is undercapitalized and could collapse economically which would then likely lead to backsliding on environmental improvement.  MTS also stated that the competing wood standards:

• Cause market confusion
• Hurt the competitive advantage of wood and its favorable life cycle assessment
• Hurt progress on illegal logging and global deforestation which are severe problems for climate change and regional forest systems
• Adversely impact productivity
• Are disfavored by ANSI and government based on their policies avoiding competing standards